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I would like to begin this message by thanking everyone that tuned into the Annual Members’ Meeting on Wednesday last week. Over 600 members registered and there were 188 participants in pigeonhole asking questions and voting on the top questions they wished to see answered live. We received a total of 43 questions and 22 of those were answered live. As a reminder, the AMM will remain available for viewing online and can be claimed for 6 CE credits for this CC cycle. Please reach out to communications@ABparamedics.com if you have any issues accessing the recording or receiving your certificate of attendance.
For those who were unable to attend last week and have not had a chance to watch the recording yet, I would like to give a brief update on some important news that was shared.
The College receives many comments and concerns about the registration fees and during the AMM I took some time to address the two main areas of concern.
The first misconception is that we have the highest registration fees across all regulatory colleges in Alberta. There are 30 other regulatory colleges in Alberta and we are among the ten lowest registration fees.
The second misconception is that our fees are the highest for paramedicine across the country. In Canada, there are four provinces that have the same self-regulating structure as the College. It is important to note that there are other provinces with much lower registration fees, however, those provinces are under a vastly different regulation structure. Our registration fees are correlated to the structure and work required to regulate the profession the way we are legislated to do. In comparing our fees to the other four provinces, we have the second lowest fees.
In 2021, Council approved a decrease of $15 bringing the fees from $525 to $510. That year we also provided a one-time credit of $15.
I’m very proud to share that this year we have approved another decrease in the fees to $499 effective August 1.
It was imperative to Council that when providing a reduction it could be maintained for years to come. With this decrease, we should be able to maintain the fees for at least the next few years even if we face some economic uncertainty. In a time where expenses seem to be drastically increasing, the College has worked hard to reduce expenses wherever possible and this has given us the opportunity to lower fees by $26 over the past three years.
The College and Council are committed to fiscal responsibility and as we move forward will continue to monitor our finances and lower costs wherever possible.
Thanks again to those that tuned into the AMM and I encourage everyone to take some time to watch the recording as many important topics were discussed. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@ABparamedics.com.
Travis Lanoway, ACP
President