The College is pleased to announce the results of recent elections for Council in Districts 1, 4, 7 and 8 for 2010.

The three year term for these Council members started at the Council meeting held on June 17 & 18, 2010.

Once again, the College is pleased to announce that the 2009 Annual Report is available online. The annual report is one of our most important channels for providing information to you about how the College functions and meets its mandate. The annual report is available in HTML or PDF format at www.cmrto.org. Any member who prefers to have his or her own copy can receive one by mail on request.

Just give us a call at either 416-975-4353 or 1-800-563-5847.

Effective July 1, 2010 the Ontario government will be implementing the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). HST combines the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Provincial Sales Tax (PST) into a single sales tax of 13%.

The implementation of the HST will affect College fees. To date, fees are subject only to GST which is currently 5%. All payments from July 1 onwards will be subject to the HST.

Members whose renewal date falls before July 1, 2010 will pay the GST only (5%) on their registration fees if they pay on or before their renewal date (which is their birthday). However, members whose renewal of registration date falls on or after July 1, 2010 will have their registration fees subject to the HST (even if the payment is made before July 1). A chart showing the amount of HST on College fees is set out below. Please note that members cannot avoid paying the HST by paying their renewal fee early.

Although not yet in force, a new requirement set out in the Health Professions Procedural Code of the RHPA (Code) will shortly oblige MRTs to carry professional liability insurance. In summary, section 13.1 of the Code says that "No member of a College in Ontario shall engage in the practice of the health profession unless he or she is personally insured against professional liability under a professional liability insurance policy or belongs to a specified association that provides the member with personal protection against professional liability."

At its meeting in June, Council approved a proposed by-law regarding professional liability insurance for circulation to CMRTO members and stakeholders. Prior to approving the proposed by-law for circulation, Council carefully considered the professional liability coverage available to MRTs in Ontario through membership in such organizations as the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists, Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Technologists and unions. Council also considered the professional liability insurance that is required by other health profession regulatory colleges in Ontario.

This spring Linda Gough, College Registrar, led 14 workshops at various locations across the province to help MRTs understand and prepare for the upcoming changes to the College’s scope of practice and controlled acts. A live webinar was also conducted as part of the workshop held at Cambrian College in Sudbury for which more than 100 MRTs were signed up. The College is very pleased that almost 600 members attended the workshops in person or by webinar. For those members who were unable to attend a workshop, a video of the webinar is available on the College website at www.cmrto.org.

This year, the College is running a pilot program that provides members, peers, co-workers and patients the opportunity to complete the QA multi-source feedback questionnaires online.

An independent research agency has developed the online program and will be facilitating the project, completing the data analysis and generating reports on members. This agency will not receive information from the College which allows it to identify individuals. Each member who is being assessed is assigned a unique identifying number. The questionnaires completed by peers, co-workers and patients do not request that the individual identify themselves.

This July, all College members received a letter outlining proposed changes to the fee structure supporting the College. The proposed fee by-law, if approved, will increase the annual fee members pay to the College from $360.00 to $470.00, effective on January 1, 2011.

The College Council is responsible for ensuring the College has sufficient funds to fulfill its statutory obligations to protect the public of Ontario through the self-regulation of the profession. At the same time, Council recognizes it must ensure that the College carefully manages how those funds are used. After a thorough review of the College’s financial statements, financial projections, and an assessment of the College’s present and future obligations and challenges, Council has approved for circulation to members a proposed by-law that will increase member fees for the first time in seven years.

Below are answers to questions you may have about the proposed fee increase.

Why is a fee increase necessary at this time?

The College needs sufficient financial resources to support both ongoing operating costs as well as new programs for the future. The College must also have adequate reserves so that it can be ready to comply with any unanticipated requirements set by government and its agencies. In the past four years, for example, this government has passed four pieces of legislation which have had, and will continue to have, a large financial impact on the operations of the College (the Health System Improvements Act, the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, and the Regulated Health Professions Statute Law Amendment Act).

Over the past two years, the College has balanced these demands on its financial resources by deferring some important strategic initiatives and by negotiating a 10-year lease including costs of leasehold improvements to move to more cost-effective office space. But these efforts are not enough to ensure the College can fulfill all its obligations in the future.

How can I be sure that the College uses my fees wisely and only spends College money on necessary things?

Council, elected by you as members and including public members appointed by the Ontario government, oversees the College’s finances, which includes revenues and expenditures and investment of reserve funds. The Finance and Property Committee and Council review the College’s operating budgets and costs of proposals for strategic initiatives that it approves as Council. As well, each year the College’s financial statements are audited to ensure they conform to Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. (The auditors’ report is published each year in the CMRTO annual report.) The College has a long history of effective management and use of the funds provided to it through members’ fees.

Why can’t you decrease the amount the College spends each year?

Most College programs and services are required by legislation and these obligations remain constant or even grow depending on the Ontario government’s expectations of all regulated health professions. These services include registering members, establishing standards of practice, maintaining a quality assurance program, and investigating complaints about members. In addition to providing programs required by legislation, the College has also enhanced a number of key services at members’ request such as providing on-line registration renewal and a credit card payment option for fees, all of which bring with them new operational costs.

The College is vigilant about trying to find ways to work efficiently. For example, it encourages members to renew their annual registration online, use the College website and receive Insights online rather than by mail in order to contain printing and distribution expenses. It looks for the most economical way to print and mail documents while still sending out the required information and making it helpful for members.

Why were fees not raised in smaller increments over the past seven years?

The College has worked hard to avoid increasing fees for as long as possible, by managing its resources efficiently and holding the line on new initiatives until absolutely necessary. As well, an increase in fees comes with its own significant costs; for example, to reprint renewal forms and program the computer system for fee adjustments, to circulate the by-law change and to communicate the change to members.

This is only the second fee increase in the last 17 years. The last increase was six years ago (and will be seven if the new fee schedule takes effect on January 1, 2011) and at that time it was believed that this increase would cover operating costs and the cost of new activity for the next 5-7 years, which it has done.

Why do some Colleges have lower registration fees?

Most health regulatory colleges of similar size as your College actually have higher registration fees.

Larger colleges such as the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) have lower registration fees because of large membership (CNO has 150,000 compared to our membership of 6,500). Although the CNO may have to address more complaints and have to mail publications to more members, the basic costs of administering a regulatory health college can be spread over a much larger base. Your College has to support and maintain the same number of statutory committees, and run similar programs and services as larger regulatory health colleges.

Why do I have to pay fees to so many professional organizations?

To practise as a medical radiation technologist in Ontario you are only required by legislation to remit an annual fee to the College. However, some employers require membership in the professional association as a condition of employment.

Professional associations do provide important services for members, including professional liability coverage. In fact, College members will be required to carry professional liability insurance (PLI) when certain amendments to the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA) come into force (please see the article regarding PLI elsewhere in Insights).

The Ontario government values the contribution made by allied health professionals to the health care system. The Allied Health Professional Development Fund (AHPDF) is a HealthForceOntario (HFO) initiative designed to ensure the people of Ontario have access to the right number and mix of health care professionals, now and in the future.

CMRTO members are eligible to access this fund which provides financial support for professional development courses and programs. Also, to further support professional development, the fund has invested in a subscription to an electronic health library. Access to this resource by eligible professionals will encourage review of the most recent health care literature on evidencebased practice.

Please go to http://www.ahpdf.ca/ to find out more about this opportunity in support of your learning activities.

The following are the people whose certificates of registration were suspended between March 1, 2010 and May 31, 2010 for failure to pay their fees in accordance with section 24 of the Health Professions Procedural Code.

A person whose certificate of registration has been suspended is not a member of the College unless and until the suspension is removed.