Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2025/2026 registration year! With another renewal complete, I am encouraged to see that our number of renewed members continues to trend upwards. As of October 1, 2025, we had 8,638 registered members, which is the highest we’ve seen in years. In the past 6 years, attrition continues to be outpaced by new registrants, and hopefully this positive trend will continue.
I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who submitted their renewal early in the two-month window this year. This was the fourth year now of our renewal deadline being 4pm on September 30, and every year there are fewer and fewer people renewing at the last minute and incurring late fees.
On that note, I want to remind everyone that while most renewals are automatically approved, certain responses will be flagged for review by College staff. These include a member inputting a new employer that the system is unfamiliar with, reporting a legal name change, answering “yes” to any one of the personal declarations, and more. Accounts involved in PLI or CC audits may also be flagged for review. While our staff strives to follow-up with these renewal reviews as soon as possible, it can potentially take up to two business days to do so. Ultimately, it is your responsibility as a regulated member to fully complete your renewal before the deadline, and to allot for potential delays due to College review. I always encourage members to submit their renewal with plenty of time to spare, but I especially suggest it if you know one of your responses will flag your renewal for review. As well, please carefully double-check your answers to the personal declarations, as mistakenly answering “yes” will result in your renewal being unnecessarily flagged. This will make the process smoother for all involved.
In other news, our first Continuing Competence audit of the year is now underway. Instead of one large audit, we will be carrying out three smaller audits throughout the year, with an anticipated 1,000 profiles audited in total. This October, 350 people were randomly selected to participate. They will have until November 5, 2025, to finish uploading supporting documentation for the activities claimed for the 2024/2025 registration year. If this is your first time being audited, let me assure you that the process is pretty straightforward. Just follow the listed steps in your emails; our team will work with you to ensure everything is as seamless as possible.
The College has recently received an increase of member-to-member complaints on the topic of social media use. I’d like to take a moment to remind you that a regulated member’s personal opinions posted on social media do not fall under the College’s regulatory jurisdiction. Our Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice apply to expectations of regulated members in the context of provision of patient care; this means that unless social media use concerns patient care or confidentiality, we cannot weigh in.
By the way, our Learning Management System (LMS) has just relaunched with a new look and feel, in anticipation of our upcoming course on Documentation. We look forward to your feedback on the new LMS, so check out the feedback form on the homepage once you’ve had a chance to explore it.
Finally, as this will be my last Registrar’s Message of the year, I want to acknowledge that this year has been particularly trying for all our members. With the public EMS system undergoing an organizational restructure, a prolonged collective bargaining process and ongoing fluctuation for the demand for paramedics in industry, everyone is likely experiencing additional stressors. Please take some time to care for yourselves and your colleagues because the work you do is extremely important to the health of all Albertans.
Stay safe and take care,
Tim A. Ford, ACP
Registrar