What must an Ontario physiotherapy practice do to operate through a health profession corporation?

An Ontario physiotherapy practice that wants to practise through a corporation must set up a health profession corporation. The College of Physiotherapists of Ontario, the regulator, says you first incorporate with the Ontario Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, then apply to the College for a Certificate of Authorization for a Health Profession Corporation. This matters if you are weighing whether a clinic is worth owning, because it shapes who can own it.

The certificate of authorization

The College says all professional corporations are legally required to have a certificate of authorization issued by the College in order to practise. The Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA), section 34.1, provides that no corporation shall hold itself out as a health profession corporation unless it holds a valid certificate of authorization. Under section 40 of the Act, a corporation that contravenes subsection 34.1(1) is guilty of an offence.

Who can own it

The College says only members of the same profession can be shareholders, officers or directors of a professional corporation, so for a physiotherapy corporation all of them must be physiotherapists. The Health Professions Procedural Code in the RHPA allows one or more members of the same health profession to establish a health profession corporation for the purposes of practising, subject to the regulations and by-laws. The College adds that a practice management corporation, which some physiotherapists use to lease clinic space, buy equipment or pay administrative staff, has more relaxed ownership rules but is not permitted to practise physiotherapy. A buyer who is not a physiotherapist should ask the College how that rule affects a purchase of the corporation’s shares.

Telling the College about changes

Under section 85.9 of the Code, a health profession corporation must notify the Registrar of a change in its shareholders who are members of the College, within the time and in the form and manner set under the by-laws. Check the College’s current by-laws before closing, so the notice is ready when ownership changes. For a clinic’s value, see what a physiotherapy clinic is worth.