CMTBC is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to provide multi-year funding to the Canadian Massage Therapy Council for Accreditation (CMTCA), commencing on January 1, 2020. In return, CMTCA will take over the function of ensuring that massage therapy education programs in British Columbia are accredited, i.e. that they meet program standards that have been approved by CMTBC’s Board.

With the signing of this agreement, CMTBC joins its counterpart massage therapy regulators in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland/Labrador in accepting and funding CMTCA for massage therapy education program accreditation, a move intended to increase the interjurisdictional consistency of massage therapy education and practice.

In order to reach this agreement, a number of complex factors had to be considered, including the fact that BC has had education program accreditation in place since the founding of CMTBC in 1994. This meant that it was necessary to work out transitional arrangements that were not required in other provinces. This has now been done in the new funding agreement.

CMTCA has also agreed to review its financial reporting to increase transparency, and in particular, to do as much as it can to provide an indication of its operating costs broken down by province.

The new funding agreement has a duration of three years, which should be ample time for CMTCA to continue to establish itself and begin to transition programs from CMTBC to CMTCA accreditation. CMTBC has committed to working together with CMTCA to ensure a smooth and seamless transition.