Summary#
Bill 19 would create the Occupational Therapists Act, 2025, replacing and repealing New Brunswick’s Occupational Therapy Act of 1988. It would continue the New Brunswick Association of Occupational Therapists as a body corporate—not create a new independent regulator—and give it detailed powers to govern the profession. Its stated goal is to protect the public, uphold the profession’s integrity and maintain confidence in the Association.
- The Association’s Council would administer the Act and govern the profession. The Association must set and enforce standards for qualifications, practice and ethics.
- The bill would set rules for registration and licences, including required liability coverage, continuing-competence programs and limits on where or how a registrant may practise.
- It would establish complaint investigations and disciplinary hearings. Possible outcomes include conditions on practice, suspension or revocation of a licence, fines and costs.
- Investigators could inspect a registrant’s business premises and examine relevant material. A court warrant could authorize a search, including entry by force and seizure of relevant items.
- The bill would protect the occupational therapist title and practice for registered people, with exceptions including supervised students and other professions acting within their authorized practice.
- Existing registrants would continue under the new Act if it comes into force. The bill is at first reading and is not law; passage is uncertain. The supplied material contains no amendment text, so no changes from the first-reading version can be identified.
What it means for you#
- Occupational therapists: If the bill becomes law, registrants would have to follow the Act, regulations, by-laws, ethics rules and standards of practice. They would have to keep practice-hour records, maintain required liability coverage, complete required competence programs and report certain concerns about other health professionals.
- Applicants and employers: Applicants would have to meet registration and licensing criteria. Employers must not knowingly allow an unregistered person to practise occupational therapy.
- Clients and the public: You could complain to the Registrar about a registrant’s conduct, competence or capacity. The bill would require public online information about registrants, licence conditions and certain sanctions. Professional Conduct Committee hearings would generally be public, with exceptions.
- Professional corporations: A corporation could practise occupational therapy only if registered and licensed, and if it meets conditions including that a majority of voting shares and related voting rights belong to Association registrants.
- Current law: The bill repeals the prior Act, but its text was not supplied. I could not verify which rules, powers or protections would be new compared with current law.
Money#
No cost estimate is provided in the available material.
- Registrants would have to pay annual fees. The Association could also set fees, assessments and fines through its rules.
- The Council could hire staff, pay committee expenses and spend Association funds. The bill gives no staffing plan or cost estimate.
- The Association would pay expenses for certain assessments or examinations, but could seek those costs from a registrant in some cases.
What is unclear#
- What the new rules and standards would require in practice; many details are left to regulations and by-laws.
- How much fees, fines, liability coverage and other costs would be, and whether the Association expects any added funding or staffing.
- How complaints would be handled in all cases, including the detail of informal resolution and how decisions would be reviewed or appealed.
- How the bill’s broad terms, including “conduct unbecoming the profession,” would be applied.
- When the Act would start. No commencement date appears in the supplied text.
Case for#
- The bill appears intended to protect clients by setting practice standards and requiring licences, competence programs and liability coverage.
- A formal complaint and hearing process could give the regulator tools to investigate unsafe practice and impose conditions or remove a licence when warranted.
- Public information about licences, conditions and sanctions could help people check a therapist’s status.
- The Association would have to report sexual-abuse complaints and take steps to prevent sexual misconduct and abuse.
Case against#
- The bill gives the Association and its Council wide regulatory powers, while leaving many practical rules and requirements to regulations and by-laws.
- It allows investigations to include workplace inspections and searches under a warrant, but the supplied text does not explain how often these powers might be used.
- Fees, costs and some fines are not set out in the bill, so the financial impact on registrants is unknown.
- The bill sets out complaint and appeal routes, but the available text leaves some process details to later rules.