Meghan Ford is training to become a psychologist in Ontario. Here’s some back-of-the-napkin math on her journey: four years of undergrad, two years for a master’s degree, four years of doctoral studies, plus one year of residency to graduate, followed by one year of supervised practice and three exams to earn her license. That’s a total of 12 years, give or take.
The province wants to throw some minus signs into that equation.
In a bid to ease staff shortages and wait times for care, Ontario is looking to adjust work requirements for various health professionals, including optometrists, diagnostic imaging specialists and foreign-trained physicians. But the proposed changes for psychologists are causing the most tension.
The College of Psychologists and Behavior Analysts of Ontario, the regulator behind the proposal, has suggested changes that would reduce the total years of training and exams. The pared-back licensing conditions would enable those who complete a master’s degree and one year of clinical supervision to practice as psychologists.
“To be clear, these changes are about eliminating barriers, not lowering standards,” Tony DeBono, the executive director and registrar of the organization, told me in an email, noting that wait times for care in Ontario lag behind those in Alberta and Quebec.
The new standards are designed to encourage psychologists from other provinces to work in Ontario. It’s a concept that economists call labor mobility.
The push for labor mobility is particularly strong right now because of President Trump’s economic attacks on Canada. Many of the barriers that stem the flow of workers and trade among provinces — the types of measures that protect local economies — were suddenly relaxed after some legislative nudging by the federal government to help the country’s economy brace for Mr. Trump’s punishing tariffs.
[Read: Can Canada Offset Trump’s Tariff War With More Domestic Trade?]
“We place a significantly higher burden on Ontario psychologists compared to other jurisdictions,” Dr. DeBono said.
But Ms. Ford, the psychology student, doesn’t view the training as a burden. To her, it’s a gold standard.
“I really worry that these proposed changes could erode public confidence in clinical psychologists,” said Ms. Ford, who is in her third year of doctoral studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Ms. Ford is also the head of a committee at the Ontario Psychological Association, an advocacy group, exploring how new regulations might affect students. Members are concerned that more students enrolled in training programs could make it harder for all students to find supervisors, and that other ways to increase the number of providers — like improving outreach and mentorship programs for Black, Indigenous and other underrepresented groups in psychology — are not being considered.
“Providing alternative pathways, but still with adequate supervision and not just immediately going to the shortcuts, is one way to increase diversity within our profession,” Ms. Ford said.
An important role of regulators is to reduce risks to the public. But when it comes to changing qualifications for providers, “we don’t necessarily know what the risks are” for patients, said Tracey Adams, a sociology professor at Western University in London, Ontario, who studies professional regulation in health care.
The province is accepting feedback from psychologists on the regulatory changes, as well as a proposal to expand the profession’s authority to include prescribing some medications.
In the last two years, Nova Scotia and Quebec have moved toward raising their licensing standards to match those in Ontario.
Efforts to overcome the patchwork of standards in Canada can leave the public with an impression that Ontario, Dr. Adams said, will “meet the lowest common denominator.”
Trans Canada
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Canada has threatened action against Stellantis after the automaker said it would shift the manufacturing of a Jeep model to the United States, abandoning its earlier plans to make it in Brampton, Ontario.
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The Canadian actress Sandra Oh makes her opera debut.
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From The Athletic: The Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners continue to battle it out in the American League Championship Series.
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Julian Brave NoiseCat, an Indigenous director and author from Canim Lake Indian Reserve in British Columbia, reflects on the nontraditional way he mended ties with his father.
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Dyani White Hawk, a Lakota artist based in Minneapolis, will show her work at an exhibition next year in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. And a Zapotec couple show off their technique of “dancing on the loom” to create colorful handwoven rugs.
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Researchers in Canada and the United States are investigating the effects of debris flows caused by rainfall after a wildfire.
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Hackers took over the public address systems at airports in Canada and the United States.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter at The Times based in Toronto.
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Vjosa Isai is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
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