MASSAGE THERAPY REGULATION:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE PUBLIC?
What does regulation mean for the general public?

PUBLIC PROTECTION & ACCOUNTABILITY – Currently anyone can practice massage therapy in
Manitoba – even people with little or no education and training! Regulation will help ensure
that all massage therapists have the required knowledge and skills to safely and effectively
assess and treat patients at all stages of life and with a wide range of health conditions. Further,
all massage therapists will be accountable to follow practice standards and a code of ethics, and
to participate in any complaint investigation or discipline procedure that may arise from a
complaint about their practice. These are some of the elements of regulation that will help
reduce risk of harm to the public:
o With regulation in place, all massage therapists will be required to complete a specific
minimum level of education at an approved & registered school, and all new graduates
will be required to demonstrate they have the minimum level of competency to practice
massage therapy by passing provincial written and practical examinations.
o All massage therapists will have to pass a criminal record screening, and this will help
protect the public from seeing a therapist who may seek to harm, harass, exploit or
defraud them.
o All massage therapists will be required to adhere to a code of ethics and follow
mandatory practice standards set out by the regulatory college, and all therapists will
have to maintain and enhance their competencies through mandatory continuing
education.
o All massage therapists will be required to hold liability insurance.
o Massage therapists will be subject to practice audits to ensure safe, ethical and
competent practice. This could include but is not limited to clinic visits, review of patient
files, and interviews to ensure practice standards and regulations are being followed.
o Massage therapists and other health professionals will have a legal duty to report any
concern or complaint they have about the competence or ethics of another therapist or
another health professional. If a complaint about a massage therapist is founded, the
therapist will be required to follow an appropriate discipline process that may include retraining/upgrading, practice restrictions, fines, or loss of registration.
All of the above components help to ensure that the massage therapist someone chooses to see
for treatment will be fully competent, safe and ethical in their practice, and therefore less likely
to cause physical or emotional harm, or financial exploitation. Some of these things are
currently in place for MTAM members, but as a voluntary professional association the MTAM
cannot require all massage therapists to be MTAM members, nor to maintain their membership
by following the MTAM code of ethics, practice standards, policies, etc.

PROFESSIONAL TITLES - The titles “massage therapist” and “registered massage therapist” will
be protected and reserved only for those who are eligible to register as an RMT with the
regulatory college. This means the public, other health professionals, and insurance companies
will be able to clearly identify who is a fully qualified and competent massage therapist. The
Regulatory College will maintain a current registry of all qualified RMTs, and the public can easily
find out if the therapist they plan to see is registered. This will reduce the risk that a person may
unknowingly seek treatment from an unregistered, untrained, under-qualified, incompetent,
unethical or otherwise unfit therapist.
MASSAGE THERAPY REGULATION:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE PUBLIC?

COMPLAINTS - There will be one place (the Regulatory College) for the public and other health
professionals to make any complaints about massage therapy services or a massage therapist.
All massage therapists will be required to participate in any discipline or remediation (e.g., retraining) program that may stem from a complaint. At the moment, there is no regulatory body
who oversees all therapists, nor is there a requirement for all therapists to belong to a
professional association such as MTAM. As such, there is no clear, consistent, transparent or
mandatory complaint and discipline process for massage therapists who may be incompetent or
unethical.

TAX DEDUCTIBILITY – When massage therapy becomes a regulated health profession in
Manitoba, MTAM will apply to Revenue Canada to have massage therapy made an eligible
health care expense that is income tax deductible. This is currently the case in the regulated
provinces (Ontario, BC, Newfoundland)

MPI & WCB COVERAGE – MTAM is in discussions with Manitoba Public Insurance and Workers
Compensation Board to establish agreements that would have MPI and WCB cover massage
therapy treatments from RMTs, similar to the agreements and coverage in place for
physiotherapy and chiropractic. At present, neither MPI nor the Manitoba WCB cover massage
therapy provided by massage therapists because the profession is not yet regulated.

GST – Once a majority of provinces in Canada regulate massage therapy (i.e., 5), the provincial
massage therapy associations will collectively apply for removal of GST (or HST) from massage
therapy services. There are currently 3 regulated provinces, and Alberta is in the transitional
process toward regulation, so Manitoba hopes to be the 4th or 5th province with massage therapy
regulation.

TREATMENT FEES – Treatment fees will continue to be set by individual therapists and clinics,
and we do not anticipate any sudden increase in fees due to regulation (though fees will of
course tend to increase over time due to inflation and market forces). The new Massage
Therapy Regulatory College will not set specific fee schedules for treatments, but they will likely
have a practice standard that prohibits “unreasonable fees.” (An exception is WCB and MPI,
which will likely set specific fees for treatments under their coverage.) We do not expect
massage therapy treatments to be covered by Manitoba Health, so there will be no impact on
tax payers.

EDUCATION – Any person who wants to become a massage therapist in Manitoba will be able to
select a school that is provincially registered and recognized by the Regulatory College.
Prospective students would have confidence that the school they choose offers a comprehensive
program leading to entry level competency in all the required areas of massage therapy practice,
and a student who graduates from such a school will be eligible to apply to complete provincial
exams and become a registered massage therapist. This will help to protect prospective
massage therapists from wasting valuable time and money attending an unregistered or unrecognized school/program with the false belief that it will lead to a professional credential as a
massage therapist.