SCHEDULE P
NATUROPATHY AND HOMEOPATHY ACT, 2006
The Schedule enacts a new health profession Act with respect to the regulation of naturopathy and homeopathy and makes complementary amendments to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 and a number of other Acts. The College is established as the College of Naturopaths and Homeopaths of Ontario and the new professions the College will govern are naturopathy and homeopathy. The Health Professions Procedural Code, which is Schedule 2 to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, is deemed to be part of the new Act.
The scope of practice of naturopathy is the assessment of disorders and dysfunctions and treatment using naturopathic techniques to promote, maintain or restore health. The scope of practice of homeopathy is the assessment of body system disorders and treatment using homeopathic techniques to promote, maintain or restore health.
In the course of engaging in the practice of naturopathy, a member is authorized to perform certain controlled acts, subject to any terms, limitations or conditions on the member’s certificate of registration.
A member may perform the authorized acts only in accordance with the regulations; any member who does not comply with this requirement shall be found to have committed an act of professional misconduct.
The College Council will be composed of at least eight and no more than 10 persons who are members of the College and elected in accordance with the by-laws, and at least seven and no more than nine persons appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The Council shall have a President and two Vice-Presidents, one of whom must be a naturopath and the other a homeopath, elected annually by Council from among Council members.
The Schedule restricts the use of the titles “naturopath”, “drug-less therapist” and “homeopath” to members of the College. No person other than a member may hold themselves out as qualified to practise as a naturopath or homeopath or in a specialty of those professions. Anyone who contravenes these restrictions is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a maximum fine of $25,000 for a first offence and a maximum of $50,000 for a second or subsequent offence.
The Registrar must notify each member of the College if the Minister refers a suggested statutory or regulatory amendment under the new Act to the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council. The College Council, with Ministerial review and approval of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, may make regulations:
- (a) prescribing standards of practice involving the circumstances in which naturopaths and homeopaths must make referrals to members of other regulated health professions;
- (b) prescribing and governing the therapies involving the practice of naturopathy and homeopathy and prohibiting other therapies;
- (c) governing the performance of certain procedures, the purposes or the circumstances under which they may be performed, and prohibiting the performance of certain procedures;
- (d) prescribing the substances that may be administered and setting out the purposes or the circumstances under which they may be administered;
- (e) prescribing naturopathic examinations and setting out the purposes or the circumstances under which they may be performed and prohibiting the performance of other examinations.
Transitional provisions in the Schedule provide for the appointment of a transitional Registrar and a transitional Council by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The transitional Council and Registrar may do anything that is necessary or advisable for the implementation of the Schedule and anything that it could do once the Act is in force, including accepting and processing applications for registration.
During the transition period, the Minister may review the transitional Council’s activities, require it to make, amend or revoke a regulation and do anything that is necessary or advisable to carry out the intent of the Schedule and the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991.
After the transition period, the transitional Council shall be the College Council, if it is constituted in accordance with the Act or, if it is not, it shall be deemed to be the Council until a new Council is constituted under the Act.
The short title of the new health profession Act is the Naturopathy and Homeopathy Act, 2006.
The Schedule contains a number of complementary amendments, including the following. It amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) to add the new health profession Act and the professions of naturopathy and homeopathy to Schedule 1 under the RHPA. The Table to the RHPA is amended such that a reference in an Act or regulation that describes a “person registered under the Drugless Practitioners Act” shall be deemed to be a reference to a “member of the College of Naturopaths and Homeopaths who practises naturopathy”. The Schedule also amends the “doctor” title provisions of the RHPA in section 33, providing that a member of the new College who practises naturopathy is allowed to use the title “doctor” but only where the phrase, “doctor of naturopathy” follows immediately after his or her name. The Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act is amended to clarify that “diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment” refers only to medical diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment.
The Schedule repeals the Drugless Practitioners Act and revokes the regulations under that Act. It also amends the Health Care Consent Act, 1996 to provide that a member of the College is a health care practitioner.