Proposed changes to By-law No. 60 regarding annual registration fee

While some nominal increase (ie. $20-$30/year) would be expected given the cost of everything is going up. The ~36% the CMRITO is proposing is exorbitant and unacceptable. Frankly, it amounts to extortion as one cannot practice in Ontario without being a member of the College. In order to secure financial sustainability, perhaps the College should consider reducing the number of board members as, like most institutions, it can probably survive with less people serving on a Board. It may be true that other medical professional College fees are higher than what we pay to the CMRITO, however, MRTs are not held in the same esteem as many of these other professions by either the public, the government, or our employers. (For evidence look at our lack of "pandemic pay" and our hourly wages...which did NOT increase by 36%!) According to the table provided: 12,068 registrants paying the College $643/year is $7.76million/year for the College. That's about $2 million more than what the College currently collects from it's members. What does the College plan to do with this extra $2 million per year? The College needs to explain why the current fees are not sustainable and where every last dime of the proposed $7.76 million will go. NB as of Sept 27 there is a discrepancy in the number of registrants depending on the table viewed: another table states we have 11, 738 registrants.......ironic that the College whom we pay annually for the pleasure of being audited cannot QA their own data!

September 27, 2024

Ms. Pree Tyagi
CEO & Registrar
College of Medical Radiation & Imaging Technologists of Ontario (CMRITO)

Re: CMRITO registration fees

Dear Pree:

Thank you for sharing recent communications about CMRITO’s intentions to increase registration fees for Ontario Medical Radiation Technologists (MRTs) and Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (DMSs). The Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Sciences (OAMRS) values and appreciates its collaborative relationship with CMRITO. Nevertheless, we have several concerns about the proposed fee increase that have been brought to our attention by our members this past week.

As you know, the OAMRS represents the interests of Ontario MRTs and DMSs and our members have been very vocal about CMRITO’s proposed fee increase. We believe the proposed increase is excessive, especially during a major health human resource (HHR) crisis and well documented shortages of MRTs and DMSs in our province. This is a time when we should be supporting MRTs and DMSs and promoting more MRTs and DMSs in the workforce, consistent with many Ontario government initiatives. A fee increase of this magnitude will also place further strain on our members financial stability among record inflation rates, costs for goods, rent, and mortgage rates at challenging highs.

We suggest this proposed fee increase could have a detrimental effect on MRTs and DMSs staying in the profession, attracting new graduates, and ultimately reduced access to diagnostic and treatment services for the public of Ontario as we lose more MRTs and DMSs from the system. We are requesting council reconsider this fee increase. 

Many of our members (also registrants of CMRITO) have asked important questions about the proposed fee increase, how it came about, and its goals. Many have found your letter about the fee increase to be vague. In the spirit of transparency, we would be interested in CMRITO providing clarification and elaboration on the following points to our membership and all Ontario MRTs and DMSs:

1. Could you explain the justification for increasing fees, particularly after the addition of over 4,000 Sonographers to the CMRITO in 2018? This represents more than a third of your total registrants and an increase of over $2 million in revenue. 

2. Please clarify what is meant by the statement that the fee increase "will allow CMRITO to reach its financial goals by 2028 and secure the long-term financial stability of the College"? What specific financial objectives are being targeted? 

3. Will the fee increase be incremented between now and 2028?

4. A more detailed accounting on specific aspects of your financial statements, particularly rent, staff salaries, operational expenses, and meeting costs would be appreciated to achieve a better understanding of the College’s expenses and operations. 

5. You mentioned prior to the proposal to increase fees that there was a robust exercise to review the College's finances by the Finance and Audit Committee, Executive Committee, and your independent auditors. Could you share some of these details to provide members with a better understanding for the increase? 

6. Considering these concerns, would CMRITO be open to holding a town hall meeting with its registrants to discuss the financial statements and the rationale for the fee increase in more detail? 

Our members are questioning the integrity of the CMRITO in meeting its mission for public protection and cost-effective operations of the college. We suggest that an operations and governance review by an independent third party and a reassessment of the fees would be a positive step forward in restoring confidence in the college. Is this something the CMRITO would consider doing?

We look forward to your timely response.

Kindest regards,

Greg Toffner, MHS, RTR, PhD(c)
President and CEO
Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Sciences (OAMRS)

Cc: CMRITO Council
OAMRS Board

I absolutely DO NOT support the proposed changes to our registration fees!! We already pay too much considering how many new members joined when Sonographers became regulated. Our fees should be decreasing not increasing. What does the money even go to? There is not enough transparency!

It is truly unnecessary to increase my registration fee when there has been no significant change in my work experience. The pay has not changed, the working conditions in cancer centers has not improved, Infact it has gotten worse. All cancers centers across Ontario are understaffed and underpaid increasing the registration fee will only make the problem more severe.

Will you also be fighting to increase our wages so that we can pay your proposed increase cost?

In our current human resource crisis, I am not sure if this is the road that we should take. Having so many members with in the retirement window, and not enough young graduates, I feel it would only push some out and discourage others to join. Maybe moving head office out if one of the most expensive parts of the city might be a better idea then taking from your own members who do the work .

If the college has $2.6 million in investments and long-term investments, then why do you need to keep a separate reserve of $2 million by 2028 to cover 4.5 month's of expenditures? This does not make financial sense. You have the reserve - the investments.

You need to find alternative methods of raising funds. Every hospital has a foundation to do just that, maybe you should, too. Run a monthly 50/50. Sponsor an auction night. Petition for philanthropy. As well, you need to seriously look at your expenses and justify them to the members who pay your salaries. The financial statements are confusing and non-descript of what is really spent. Please explain why you need an office at University Avenue and who agreed to paying $35K per month in rent? That is insane and was a very poor choice. And it's only set to go up.

The current fee is $470 + tax = $531.10 The proposed fee is $643 + tax = 726.59 The difference is $195.49. That works out to almost 37% increase in the fee. How can the college even justify that kind of increase? How about some transparency from the college. What does "would allow CMRITO to reach its financial goals in 2028 to secure the long-term financial stability of the College" mean? This was from the email that was sent out. Could the college consider moving to a less costly location to save costs?

This is an insanely high increase in fees, considering how high our fees already are in comparison to other similar registering bodies. I wonder if CMRITO would be willing to be investigated by forensic accountants to explain how our money is being used, and for what benefit. Complete transparency would perhaps allow us to understand how a 36% increase could possibly be warranted, when our wages still fall far behind nurses.

Like others, I feel this proposed increase is quite steep. It's difficult to understand the justification for such a substantial increase over one year. I can appreciate that, like the cost of living, the cost to run a business is equally expensive and over time these expenses increase which translates to increased fees for its members (I appreciate that my fees have remained unchanged since I started working as an MRT). With that said, it would be helpful to know how the money from membership fees is be translated into a benefit for its members. More transparency on where money is being allocated would be helpful. I think an increase is inevitable (maybe an unpopular opinion) however, please consider a smaller incremental increase over a few years rather than a big jump in a single year. Thank you.

This raise is absolutely ridiculous. We had to fight with our government and our hospital institutions for proper pay wage compensation and for pandemic pay and now we have to fight because the college of MRTS for Ontario want to increase our fees by 37%. What an absurd amount!! MRTS continually feel unheard and not supported. Can you imagine going to a hospital without any one to work in diagnostic imaging to provide any imaging. Staffing issues is continued to be a problem and you want to raise the fees!! Maybe do something for the MRTS and provide the support that is needed. Every time healthcare workers are advertised it’s nurses and doctors. What about the allied health staff, work on that, find ways to promote MRTs!! MRTs should not have to struggle to pay the fee to practice!! To ask MRTs to pay $760 will not help with retention of staff not only in local hospitals but in the province. To be expected to pay $ 760, in addition to OAMRS, combined that’s a lot of money. People are struggling to make ends meet, and 37% does not make any sense. The college needs to reassess and figure out another way to achieve its financial goals because to ask for such a large increase is not acceptable.

Hello, Considering that CMRITO exists in order to protect the public, please make sure you request all the extra funding you need from the public, not form us, sonographers, who you do not protect or help in any way. I consider the annual registration fee extremely high already, before any increase, taking into account that you do not offer ANYTHING in exchange for it. You, the Council of CMRITO are continuously expecting us to provide: a lot of money, time to fill out all kinds of questionnaires, upload CMEs and fill out all that useless empty talk regarding the CMEs etc. Despite very many of us having worked full time during the pandemic, seeing the regular number of patients every day of the week, we were never considered front line workers, "thanks" to your absent efforts. So I would like to know: what do you provide sonographers with in exchange for the fee we are paying??? The answer is simple: NOTHING! And now you want to even increase it... Ridiculous!

Start by showing us how you spent our money previously. Budget breakdown should be available to your members.

I absolutely do not agree with the proposed registrant fee increase. A 36% increase is absolutely ridiculous and offensive. If anything, our registration fee should be decreasing with the addition of all of the sonographers to this college. In a time of economic hardship for many Canadians (many of whom work in healthcare) who are struggling month to month to feed their families, this increase is totally unreasonable. I looked at the fee comparison chart provided and it's an absolutely unfair comparison. It's a comparison of apples to oranges to kiwis. As members, we can't be expected to be compared to physicians and other professions that make 2 to 4 times what we make in a year. Instead of raising our fees, why not look at other avenues to save, such as executive salaries or overhead costs such as rent in downtown Toronto!? With many remote workers these days why is an office downtown needed? It is irresponsible to use our hard earned money to pay rent in such an expensive city. We as members should not be paying the price for this college's poor management of funds.

One concern is that this is not the only association or college that am MRT needs to belong to. The CMRITO does but have an education requirement and does not offer liability insurance which is required for some positions to practice in Ontario so membership of OAMRS is also necessary. These combined will mean that a member may be paying over $1500 a year to practice in Ontario.

I feel this increase is too much. A small increase fine but $150 per year. We are all feeling the financial hardship and this will add to the stress for everyone. Please reconsider the amount of the increase.

I feel this is an exorbitant increase. Unfortunately, I feel the impact of this 200$ plus annual increase will cause many of we older technologists to resign. The impact this will have on many young families, graduates will be huge. Not in agreement

I do not agree with the proposed increment fee. We, the registrants can not afford an expensive college operation. To govern this profession, the college must reduce their expenses, regulating MRITs should not be that expensive. Please explain where this deficit is coming from. Please make public all of your expenses, we can easily tell you where to make the cuts.

Too high