Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA)

The Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA) regulates health professions in B.C. The HPOA replaced the Health Professions Act (HPA) on April 1, 2026. 

On this page

• About the HPOA
• Guiding principles
• HPOA regulations
• Shared scope of practice and restricted activities
• Exclusive titles
• Q&As

About the HPOA

The HPOA strengthens health profession regulation by increasing accountability, transparency and cultural safety measures that affect the way health care services are provided in B.C.  

The HPOA aligns with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) per the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The legislation was also informed by recommendations of the In Plain Sight Report to address Indigenous-specific racism in the health care system. 

The HPOA increases public safety and protection by:

• Establishing the Health Professions and Occupations Regulatory Oversight Office (Oversight Office) which independently oversees the regulatory colleges
• Committing to cultural safety and humility, including requiring regulatory colleges to offer Indigenous support workers for Indigenous peoples going through the discipline process
• Enabling the regulation of health occupations, with a more flexible regulatory model for occupations that present a risk of harm to the public*
• Creating an independent disciplinary hearing process 
• Requiring regulatory colleges to maintain a public registry that publishes all disciplinary actions against regulated health professionals
• Appointing regulatory college board members based on merit and competency

*Currently, there are no designated health occupations under the HPOA. All professions that were designated under the HPA continue to be designated as professions under the HPOA.

The HPOA addresses discrimination and Indigenous-specific racism in the health care system by:

• Creating a new legal duty to report discrimination
• Enabling trauma-informed and restorative options for alternative dispute resolution in the complaints and discipline process in instances where harm has been caused 
• Requiring regulatory colleges to provide the option of support workers, nominated by Indigenous governing bodies, to enable a culturally safer experience for those who have experienced harm and wish to submit a complaint
• Requiring regulatory colleges to make bylaws respecting anti-discrimination measures
• Enabling mechanisms to oversee regulatory college performance with cultural safety and other anti-discrimination measures
• Establishing a guiding principle to ensure the HPOA is administered in a way that protects from discrimination, supports distinctions-based approaches to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and supports greater alignment with the UNDRIP

Guiding principles

The HPOA establishes guiding principles to guide the administration of the HPOA.

The guiding principles include:

• Protecting the public from harm and discrimination
• Promoting anti-discrimination
• Supporting and promoting awareness of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, distinctions-based approaches to anti-racism and alignment with the UNDRIP
• Acting in a manner that is procedurally fair and respectful of privacy
• Promoting a holistic health care system that encourages collaboration between regulators and various health care practitioners
• Identifying barriers to out-of-province practitioners seeking licensure in B.C.
• Acting transparently and providing opportunities for meaningful engagement 
• Prioritizing the public interest 

HPOA regulations

The HPOA regulations outline further details on the duties and powers included in the HPOA.

Learn more about the regulations under the HPOA:

• Designation regulations (6)
• Regulated Health Practitioners Regulation
• Health Professions and Occupations Regulation

Designation regulations

Each regulated health profession has a designation regulation that outlines what services and activities that the profession may provide. The designation regulations are grouped by regulatory colleges. 

The designation regulations provide information about:

• The name of the regulatory college that oversees the professions
• Which professions are regulated by the regulatory college
• Scope of practice statements of each profession
• Restricted activities of each profession (if any) including any limits and conditions or certified practice
• Exclusive titles that only regulated health professions may use
• Which professions are required to have health profession corporation permit requirements (if any)

The designation regulations, along with the HPOA, provide the basis for regulatory colleges to develop standards, limits and conditions for the professions they regulate.

To understand which restricted activities a health profession is authorized to provide, it is recommended that the designation regulations be read alongside the Regulated Health Practitioners Regulation (PDF, 615KB).

Regulated Health Practitioners Regulation

The Regulated Health Practitioners Regulation (PDF, 615KB) applies to all regulatory colleges and regulated health professions. It defines all of B.C.’s restricted activities and provides information on orders, authorizations, exemptions and other information important for interpreting the designation regulations.

Please contact the appropriate regulatory college for additional information on interpreting scope of practice and restricted activities for a particular profession.

Health Professions and Occupations Regulation

The Health Professions and Occupations Regulation (PDF, 6.3MB) provides additional governance, oversight and administration direction for regulatory colleges, the Oversight Office and the Health Professions Review Board.

Shared scope of practice and restricted activities

B.C. has a shared scope of practice and restricted activities model for regulated health professions under the HPOA. This regulatory model is designed to enable inter-professional practice and team-based care, and to balance public safety and consumer choice.

The regulatory model is characterized by 2 essential elements, which are specified in the designation regulations under the HPOA:

• Scope of practice statements and 
• Restricted activities

Scope of practice statements set out broadly what each regulated health profession may do. These statements are not exhaustive lists of every service the profession may provide, nor do they exclude other regulated professions or unregulated persons from providing services that fall within a particular profession’s scope of practice. Some aspects of the scope of practice of a regulated health profession may overlap or be shared with those of other regulated health professions.

Restricted activities are a narrowly defined list of invasive, higher risk activities that can only be performed by authorized practitioners. Restricted activities can only be performed by:

• Licensees of a regulatory college who have been granted specific authority to do so in their designation regulation under the HPOA, based on their education and competence, and
• Non-registrants (including unregulated health occupations) who have been authorized to perform the restricted activity by a regulated health professional who has the authority to perform and also delegate* or issue an order or authorization to another person to perform the restricted activity

*The delegation of restricted activities to non-licensees must be authorized in bylaw by the licensee’s regulatory college, before such a delegation may take place.

Interpretive bulletin

The Ministry of Health has developed an interpretive bulletin (PDF, 630KB) to help interpret how restricted activities can be performed under the health professions legislation, designation regulations and regulatory college bylaws.

Exclusive titles

Exclusive titles (also called reserved or protected titles) are specific professional titles that only regulated health professionals can use. These titles show the public that the regulated health professional has met the education, training and registration standards for that profession.

Section 30 of the HPOA prohibits a person other than a licensee of a regulatory college from using an exclusive title, an abbreviation of the title or an equivalent of the title in another language to describe the person’s work or to imply that the person is a licensee or associated with the regulatory college. 

Under section 514 (1) of the HPOA, an individual who commits an offense such as the unauthorized use of an exclusive title is liable on conviction to a fine up to $25,000 or imprisonment up to 6 months, or both. The fine has increased from $2,000 under the HPA to $25,000 under the HPOA to deter the unauthorized use of exclusive titles.
 

Q&As