August 2023 Newsletter

Annual Report | Public Health Order | Amalgamation Legislation
 
COBC's 2022-2023 Annual Report

2022–2023 Annual Report 

COBC's Annual Report for the 2022–2023 fiscal year is now available! 

The report offers insights into the College's financial picture, the demographics of our registrants, and the work we've been doing this past year, including projects related to Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility.

Read the Annual Report
 

Public health order repealed

The public health order requiring health profession regulatory colleges to record whether or not their registrants are vaccinated against COVID-19 has been terminated as of July 14, 2023.

Read the full announcement

Colleges must continue to store vaccination information that has been collected, pending the conclusion of an inquiry by the Information and Privacy Commissioner and related litigation; however, the information will not be used.
 

Regulation amended to establish amalgamation

The Health Professions Designation and Amalgamation Regulation has been amended to establish COBC's upcoming amalgamation with six other health profession regulatory colleges.

As previously announced, the Ministry of Health has set an amalgamation date of June 28, 2024.

Review the amendment

Review the full regulation
 

Bylaw amendments

COBC is proposing some minor amendments to its Bylaws, which are available for review on our website in accordance with Section 19(6.2) of the Health Professions Act. Comments on the amendments will be accepted until 4:30 PM on Monday, August 21.

Learn more
 

CCP cycle ending soon

If you are currently in the third and final year of your continuing education cycle, you must fulfill all the requirements of your Continuing Competency Program (CCP) no later than December 31, 2023.

The program is self-managed, so you are responsible for ensuring that all the steps have been completed in the online system.

This includes: taking the assessment(s), creating goals for yourself, finding and completing activities to achieve those goals, and reflecting on how it went.

Please log in to your profile on the COBC website to log your progress. If you have questions about CCP, you can visit our website to access guides and tools or contact Christopher Dodge, our Manager of Quality Assurance.

Unsure when your cycle ends?

Log in to your COBC account and navigate to the HOME tab to see your cycle end date, along with other important dates related to your registration.

(If you can't see any dates in your HOME tab, it may be that you need to complete your log-in security questions!)
 

What's going on at COBC

Here's what our team is working on for the remainder of the summer:

  • Welcoming new registrants
    This month, NACOR will release the marks from the latest BC administration of the national licensing exams. Our team looks forward to processing licensure applications from the successful candidates.
  • Orientation materials for student opticians
    For future opticians who are currently working on their education, COBC is eager to release our brand new student orientation package, which provides an overview of the pathway to licensure and an introduction to regulation. The package is in its final stages of development.
     
  • Amalgamation work
    Work is well underway in preparation for our college's amalgamation into a multi-profession regulatory organization next summer. This month, our team is participating in collaborative sessions with other health regulators to set priorities and timelines for pre- and post-amalgamation projects related to quality assurance, registration, complaints, human resources, and more. 
 

Did you know?

Completion of Indigenous Cultural Safety training is mandatory for all members of the COBC Board, COBC's statutory committees, and the COBC staff team.

The programs we currently recognize for fulfilment of this requirement are:

COBC strongly recommends these programs to registrants as well! Building on your knowledge of Indigenous Cultural Safety will help you to better support your clients and to meet the COBC Standards of Practice.

College of Opticians of BC operates on the traditional, ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

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