From the June 2026 ACTA newsletter:

"Dear Counselling Therapy Professionals,

ACTA is pleased to announce Board-approved registration improvements and temporary Summer 2026 registration incentives designed to reduce barriers to registration and support the counselling therapy profession's readiness for regulation.

Whether you are a recent graduate, an experienced practitioner who has not yet registered, or a former member considering a return to ACTA, there has never been a better time to register..."

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Update from FACT-NL:

"...we have received ministerial direction to add counselling therapists to the Schedule to the Health Professions Act. We will now proceed to advance this for further consideration and approval. As you know, s. 3(2) of the Health Professions Act provides that “the Lieutenant-Governor in Council may, by order and upon recommendation of the minister, add a health profession to the Schedule to this Act designating it as a profession to which this Act applies”. This direction from the Minister will serve as a formal recommendation as we advance to the next stage of the process.

If we receive approval to add the profession to the Schedule, this will serve as notice to the public of an intention to regulate the profession. This will help facilitate any further consultations as may be required. It would also mean that we would be able to proceed with actually drafting regulations in collaboration with the Office of the Legislative Counsel.

This means that we've received ministerial approval, which is an important initiating step. From here, we should expect three phases:

1. Legal procedure: Following ministerial approval (done ✅ ), the Lt. Gov in council issues a regulation to add RCTs to the NLHPC Act.
2. Regulation development: regulations for entry to college or basic entry to practice standards, regulations for scope of practice, CE requirements (for candidates specifically and beyond), complaints and disciplinary procedures and any other relevant pieces. Submitted for Min. approval.
3. Proclamation: Added date for the college rules to come into effect.
4. Implementation and Onboarding: This will include an initial 1yr for current practitioners (grandparenting), etc. Announcement of date deadline after which the act of counselling therapy cannot be practiced without title.

..."

The now forming College of Health and Care Professionals of BC and its registrar, Dianne Millette, provided valuable updates about the ongoing work towards regulation of psychotherapy in British Columbia earlier this month. Here is some information, some of which will be relevant to us and some is just about the general process:

Dates

• 1 April 2026 (firm) - HPOA goes live and comes into play. This is most applicable to people who are already regulated and licensed.
• 1 June 2026 (hopeful) - The College aims to have all of the regulated professions integrated into one software system online for management.
• September/Fall 2026 (hopeful) - The College looks forward to having a new website.
• 22 June 2027 (hopeful) - The College is looking to opening applications for psychotherapists, including those who will be accepted through a legacy route, in advance of a November launch. 
• 29 November 2027 (firm) - The College has firmly restated this date as the official Psychotherapy onboarding, with the profession online and those who applied in June now confirmed within the system.

Details

In harmonizing details between professions, the College is seeking to affirm firm public safety by a strong standard. Some of the standards they are pursuing, which is already in alignment with our ethics and best practices under CACFT, are as follows:

• 16 year records retention (or age of majority +16 years for minor clients). This aligns with the current medical standard in BC.
• Sexual relationships with clients, past and present, are forbidden regardless of time passed. This aligns with our standards at CACFT.

Ongoing Direction

The College is continuing to work through the process for all of structuring and integration they have ahead. There is a heavy lean towards the precedent set by CRPO. Meanwhile, our members would do well to get to know the College's website and its resources: https://chcpbc.org/. In particular, the website has recordings of previous webinars related to the HPOA: https://chcpbc.org/legislation/hpoa/webinars/

From FACT-MB:

"On Friday, September 12, 2025, we received notification from Neil Duboff, Chair of the Health Professions Advisory Council (HPAC), that HPAC has completed their review of our application for regulation (submitted in May 2021). HPAC has now submitted its report with recommendations to the Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care. That report is now ‘under active consideration' by the Minister’s Office."