Bylaws
Bylaws provide a framework for the governance and operations of a regulatory health college.
The College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC is legally required to have bylaws in place on June 28, 2024, as described in Section 25.05(1) of the Health Professions Act.
Following a public notice period that ended on June 14, 2024, the first Board of the College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC approved a final set of bylaws on June 24, 2024. All bylaw feedback submissions were reviewed and given full consideration.
These bylaws are now filed with the Ministry of Health and come into force on June 28, 2024. The final bylaws are based on the bylaws of the College of Chiropractors of BC, College of Massage Therapists of BC, College of Naturopathic Physicians of BC, and College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of BC.
The bylaws do not change professional requirements. They do not include changes to regulated health professionals’ scope of practice, registration, fees, practice standards, nor quality assurance requirements.
Bylaws: what changed and what stayed the same
The bylaws are based on the bylaws of the existing four regulatory colleges that amalgamated on June 28, 2024 to form the College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC.
The bylaws do not change professional requirements. They do not include changes to regulated health professionals’ scope of practice, registration, fees, practice standards, nor quality assurance requirements.
Key changes in the bylaws relate to Board composition. For the College of Complementary Health Professionals of BC, the maximum Board size is 12 members: six public members and six registrant members. Other bylaw changes that relate to governance of the new college are outlined in a Governance Framework document.
Highlights of other bylaw changes
- Inquiry: setting out standard College procedures in bylaws, such as pre-hearing conferences, duty to cooperate, and criteria for separating or combining complaints
- Health Profession Corporations (HPCs):
- establishing annual renewal dates for HPC permits
- requiring an HPC-designated representative to communicate with the College and comply with HPC administrative requirements
- mandatory disclosure of some publicly available information about an HPC, on request
- transfer of responsibility for HPC revocation hearings from the College’s Board to the Discipline Committee
- College records
- including additional information in the public register
- disclosure/publication of unauthorized practice.
- The bylaws also reflect a move toward regulatory modernization and, in some cases, are anticipating requirements in the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA), expected to be in force sometime in 2025.