Legislation

Alberta

On December 3, 2010, the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) passed bylaw 24(6), allowing physician assistants (PAs) to operate under the responsibility of a regulated member. Accordingly, the CPSA created a new voluntary and non-regulated membership category for PA.

More information, including registration criteria for the CPSA and their responsibility regarding PAs, can be found on their website.

Additionally, a list of restricted activities can be found in schedule 7.1 (see page 43) of Alberta’s Government Organization Act.

Manitoba

On July 14, 1999, the government of Manitoba passed the clinical assistant (CA) registration amendment under the Medical Act. This allowed for the licensing of registered clinical assistants. This was later amended in 2009 to permit practice under the title of Physician Assistant.

Regulation 183/99, also known as “Clinical Assistants and Physician Assistants Regulation”, was registered under the Manitoba Medical Act by the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba (CPSM) on December 23, 1999. This regulation allows for the registration of physician assistants on the Physician Assistant Register.

More information can be found on the CPSM website.
 

Ontario

In May 2006, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced its decision to begin including physician assistants in the provincial health care system as a way of addressing the shortage of doctors. This coincided with the launch of HealthForceOntario, which now heads the strategy for health human resources. A demonstration project was launched in 2006 as a way of evaluating the impact of PAs on the Ontario health care system. The project is being led by the Ministry in collaboration with the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). Despite these advances, physician assistants in Ontario remain unregulated.

More information can be found in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO)’s policy on Delegation of Controlled Acts and on the Ontario Physician Assistant Scope of Practice Statement and Ontario Physician Assistant Competency Profile.
 

New Brunswick

In 2009, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick (CPSNB) amended the New Brunswick Medical Act in order to include physician assistants in their health care model. Section 32.1 of the Act now allows PAs to be licensed, provided they register with the CPSNB. In addition, Regulation 14 was created in January 2010 in order to dictate the terms of practice for PAs in the province.

British Columbia

The province of British Columbia does not currently have any legislation accommodating physician assistants in their health care system.

However, in 2005, the British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA) has demonstrated support for the profession by first producing a policy paper entitled “Working together: Enhancing multidisciplinary primary care in BC”, backing the use of PAs. In November 2009, it was followed by a policy statement that also supported the profession.