Changes to Registration and Certification Examination Fees

The College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO) understands that Massage Therapists (MTs) work hard to provide quality care, and to support themselves and their families. As you may know, CMTO has been making a number of enhancements to strengthen our ability to protect the public, guide the profession and implement recent changes to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. At the same time, the Massage Therapy profession is also growing in size with close to 14,000 MTs registered in Ontario.

In order to address this growth, continue to meet our strengthened mandate to protect the public interest, and provide professional guidance and development support to MTs, CMTO has no option but to increase registration fees when registration renewal opens this coming fall for 2019. Certification Examination fees will also increase beginning in 2019.

Increase to Registration Fees:

In order to address these pressing factors, and prior to considering this year’s fees, Council:

  • Reviewed CMTO’s financial statements and projections in detail; and
  • Retained the services of an audit firm to provide financial modelling over the next 10-year period.

This exercise found:

  • CMTO has not raised fees much beyond inflation in almost a decade (since 2009), while the size of our registrant base has increased by more than 40 percent – from approximately 9,900 to nearly 14,000 registrants.
  • As the number of registrants has increased, so have the number and complexity of investigations and discipline hearings. The volume of investigations has increased by 30 percent in the past eight years.
  • Meeting CMTO’s legislative requirements and public expectations requires new resources, including a redesigned Quality Assurance Program (QAP) to reflect best practices within the healthcare environment. In addition to the QAP, CMTO is increasing support for professionalism and development of MTs, enhancing transparency, and investing in technology and engagement activities. These new initiatives will assist in protecting the public, benefit MTs and enhance professionalism, but will also require more resources.
  • Despite the sector’s growth and our new responsibilities, CMTO has not increased our number of staff in more than five years.
    Accordingly, this year, CMTO’s Council expects to adjust registration fees to $785 (General Certificate) and $200 (Inactive Certificate). We understand that this is a large increase to fees and CMTO’s Council does not take this decision lightly.

 

In order to facilitate this fee increase, CMTO’s Council will be amending By-Law No.7, and is (by way of this email), circulating that by-law for a 60-day period prior to enacting it. You are welcome to provide comments during the circulation period. A short video on the fee increase is available here. With the intention of making any future fee increases as predictable as possible, the proposed by-law also requires Council to review fees each year and only permits future increases up to the rate of inflation if deemed necessary.

With these additional resources, CMTO can continue to provide transparent and current information about MTs to the public, ensure that MTs are held accountable for the care they provide, and provide guidance to MTs on safe, ethical and quality care. Meeting these expectations is the key driver of CMTO’s fee increase.

In order to provide more time for registrants to pay the increased renewal fee, CMTO will be providing an additional two months to renew your fees for 2019. Council has included proposed wording in the by-law to open renewal from September 15, 2018 (which is when renewal normally opens), through to December 31, 2018 (an extension of two months to renew and pay fees) for this year.

 

Increase to Certification Examination Fees:

At its meeting on May 15, 2018, CMTO’s Council approved an update to By-Law No. 7 (after circulating the proposed amendments and receiving responses) that will increase Certification Examination fees in 2019 to $575.00 for the Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) examination, and $805.00 for the Objectively Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) examination. This is a 15 percent increase for each examination. The by-law also gives Council the option to increase Certification Examination fees in 2020 and 2021, if needed. Please find additional information here.

Should you have questions or comments about the Registration or Examination fees, please contact feedback@cmto.com.

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