Ontario launches public consultation on expanding health professional roles

The Government of Ontario recently announced plans to expand the scope of practice for various regulated health professionals, including pharmacists, optometrists, and psychologists. This announcement follows recent efforts by the Government of Canada to reduce regulatory burdens across the health sector.

Expanding the scope of regulated health professionals

Consultation is currently underway to potentially expand the scope of practice for several regulated health professionals in Ontario. This follows the province’s previous changes to the scope of practice for certain regulated health professionals in 2023, where pharmacists were granted the authority to prescribe for and assess certain ailments. The current consultation is focused on the following proposed changes:

• Optometrists. Optometrists would be granted the authority to perform minor surgical procedures under local anesthesia and use therapy to manage cataracts and glaucoma, among other changes to their scope of practice.  
• Psychologists. Psychologists with specialized training and education in psychopharmacology would be granted the authority to prescribe certain medications and order and interpret select diagnostic tests. 
• Dental hygienists, denturists, speech-language pathologists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and chiropodists. Several regulated health professionals would be granted the authority to order and perform certain diagnostic tests.

Stakeholders and members of the public can provide comments on this proposed change of scope of practice until November 3, 2025. Questions include what the impact of the change in scope of practice will have on different populations, how the changes may improve access, convenience, or address efficiency within the healthcare system, and the anticipated costs or savings of the changes, among others. 

The proposed changes would also continue to expand the scope of practice for pharmacists, allowing them to assess and prescribe for an additional 14 ailments, including shingles and sore throats. Pharmacists would also be granted authority to administer additional publicly funded vaccines and administer point of care tests. Stakeholders and members of the public can provide comments on these proposed changes until November 24, 2025.  

Reducing regulatory burdens

Ontario’s consultation follows a larger trend of decreasing regulatory burdens in the health sector. In particular, the Government of Canada recently launched a comprehensive Red Tape Review across sectors aimed at eliminating outdated and overly complicated regulations. 

As a part of this review, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada have introduced 42 initiatives to reduce regulatory burdens. The initiatives centre around five themes: (1) increasing international alignment and reducing trade barriers; (2) improving stakeholder experience and service delivery; (3) risk-based regulating; (4) streamlining regulations, simplifying rules and enhancing flexibility; and (5) enabling new products and technologies. 

The themes indicate a shift towards streamlining and modernizing processes within the current health regulatory environment. The initiatives introduce changes to pre-market requirements, approval processes, labelling requirements, compositional standards, and more for a wide range of products. They will also facilitate faster access to innovative products and technologies in Canada.

The aim of the initiatives is to ultimately create a regulatory landscape that balances robust protection of public health and safety with economic competitiveness and innovation. Twelve initiatives are completed or near completion, with the rest to be completed over the next two years and beyond. 

Next steps

We will continue to provide updates on the results of the consultation process, as well as further initiatives implemented by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.