Hello everyone. In this message, I want to focus on our latest announcement, which was the call for consultation on an amendment to the Standard of Practice (1.5), Protected Professional Titles and Endorsements. In the event you may have missed it, the College sent a direct message to all active regulated members inviting you to participate in this consultation period until May 12, 2026. This amendment is to address the use of the Critical Care Paramedic (CCP) title in Alberta.
To provide a little background, a few years ago, the College made the decision to adopt COPR’s new competency framework as an effort at working towards national unity within the profession. These new competencies will align each designation across Canada and provide a much need update to each scope of practice to meet the medical needs of today’s paramedicine. An important piece of this framework was outlining the full competency for the CCP designation.
During the College’s work at redesigning the education curriculum, it was determined that within the degree structure, the CCP designation would best exist as a post credential certificate program. Recently, the College received its first submission for a new Critical Care Paramedic certificate program from STARS in collaboration with the University of Calgary. This submission was approved by Council and is anticipated to begin its first program later this year. We look forward to receiving more submissions from other approved educators in Alberta.
In order to move forward with the use of the title of CCP in Alberta, the College must make amendments to Standard of Practice 1.5, which currently prohibits any member from using this title. We will continue to work with our partners in government to have our Paramedics Profession Regulation changed to include an actual register category for CCPs.
There are some complexities at play with the current Regulations and the use of the CCP title. I have tried to address these in an information video which can be found here.
I encourage all of you to review the information provided on the website and provide your feedback before the deadline of May 12, 2026. This is an important aspect of co-regulation and we value your feedback.
Take care and stay safe,
Tim A. Ford, Registrar