Registration Fee Increase
The Board approved the proposed 2% increase to Registration fees for the upcoming 2025/2026 annual renewal period. In 2024, following public consultation, the Board approved the proposed amendments to Part 18 of the College bylaws with the intention of making any future fee increases as predictable as possible. The bylaw requires the Board to review fees each year and only permits future increases up to 2% each year. The registration renewal fee for the 2025/2026 registration year will be $773.17 (including HST).
Understand how the College uses fees.
Discipline Tribunal
The Board approved the College joining the Health Professions Discipline Tribunal for a term ending in December 2025. Discipline hearings are open to the public. The discipline process is one of the most important and visible ways in which the College protects the public. Including an experienced adjudicator, through the tribunal, brings further expertise to complex legal issues and increases public confidence in the discipline process.
Learn more about the public protection role of the College.
Quality Assurance Competency Assessment Process
The Board approved the tools and processes of the Quality Assurance (QA) Competency Assessment. The competency assessment advances the College’s mission to “protect the public through effective regulation and instills confidence and trust by ensuring that occupational therapists are competent, ethical, and accountable.
Read about the QA Competency Assessment.
College of OTs of Nova Scotia License and Services Agreement
The Board approved COTO to enter into an agreement for the purpose of supplying Peer Assessment Services and License for use of COTO Competency Assessment tools to the College of Occupational Therapists of Nova Scotia (COTNS) on a cost recovery basis. The College intends to share information and tools that promote consistency and equitable regulatory processes across the country. It is in the public interest to further advance quality practice and the delivery of safe, effective occupational therapy services. The agreement advances COTO toward our strategic objective of national regulatory excellence through partnership.
View COTO’s Strategic Priorities.
Emergency Class of Registration Policy
The Board approved the Emergency Class of Registration policy, which supports the Board when deciding to activate or resolve access to the College’s Emergency Certificate of Registration.
View the Emergency Class of Registration Policy.
Currency Requirements for Applicants
The Board approved the Currency Requirements for Applicants policy.
Previously, our re-entry program utilized elements of unpaid voluntary placement, a change was made to our re-entry program to align with changes enacted by the provincial government. The policy ensures registrants and employers are complying with the Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 which amended the Employment Standards Act, 2000, by prohibiting unpaid voluntary placements.
The Currency Requirements for Applicants policy will be added to the website in the coming weeks.
Collection of Sociodemographic Data
The Board approved the collection and use of sociodemographic data related to Indigenous and Racialized Group Identity. The College intends to collect sociodemographic data to better understand the diversity of its registrants.
There is no other entity that currently collects this information for occupational therapists in Ontario, so to be able to address any inequities, the College first needs to understand the current baseline data. It is in the public interest to address such inequities. The College plans to use the data set established by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) for collecting racialized group identity data.
A Q&A about data collection and the Sociodemographic Data Collection and Use policy and a Q&A about data collection will be available on the website in the coming weeks.