Proposed changes to CMRITO fees

Unfortunately as a IHF employee, I do not receive any cost of living wage increases. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I had a raise. I also don't get paid for sick time over 2 days per year! It is becoming increasingly difficult to "afford" to work!!!!

It is not necessary and completely unacceptable. We already pay too much.

I do not agree with the increase registration fee. I work only two days a week, and I am already paying for ARDMS, the Echo Society, CMRITO, and Sonography Canada.

I prefer the fees did not change as they are already very high, especially compared to other professions. In addition, we have to pay for Sonography Canada fees every year as well and all of these necessary fees add up.

I find this new proposition to be very tone-deaf from CMRITO. The issue last time this was approached was how high CMRITO wanted to spike our fees. CMRITO then put it on pause to re-evaluate and came back to hard working technologists still wanting to do the exact same price jump but now it’s spaced out over a short timespan of three years. While I can understand a fee increase to support the organization, jumping from our $470 fee to $643 in the span of three years is absurd. We are in a cost of living CRISIS and CMRITO’s insensitivity to their MRTs is highly noted. In the fact sheet provided, CMRITO gives us a chart of other professionals' fees which is skewed to only compare us to professionals that have a higher salary. My fees SHOULD be lower than surgeons, I don’t know why we are even being compared in the same chart. Where’d the chart go that was provided last time in the fall that had a better comparison of professions of similar salaries? Wasn’t helping CMRITO’s case to show us other professions that make similar salaries with low fees while trying to hike up fees? This new proposition comes off very biased and untrustworthy. MRT salaries can vary depending on where they work (clinic vs hospital) and this spike may be crippling to some. Think of the new starting technologists trying to get a start in life and just trying to keep a roof over their heads living paycheck to paycheck. It’s very disheartening how little CMRITO seems to care for their technologists. MRTs are essential and crucial to peoples health and wellbeing and we should get more respect than this. CMRITO is going to scare away people from becoming MRTs and is going to push current MRTs out of the profession. CMRITO is going to add to the shortage of healthcare professionals in an already struggling system. Please put this proposition back to the drawing board. This drastic fee increase should not happen.

I have a few comments. 1. I understand that costs rise, for everyone. I’m not opposed to a fee increase but I think the proposed increase is inflated. The reason that “I think” this is the lack of transparency with how the funds you do collect are spent. There are approximately 12,000 members. At the current rate that is about 5 ½ million dollars per year. You provide some year-end reports that can be referenced for this, but the information lacks any sort of detail. For example from the 2022 to the 2023 year-end report there was an increase in human resource expenses of $491,000. Was there an increase in the number of staff members that supports almost a half million dollars per year, were these raises? How many staff members are there? Should there be transparency in their wages for members? There is no explanation for it. There was $220,000 spent on “committee meetings”. Is there a way to be more fiscally responsible with that cost? I feel that detailed accountability for member’s fees and more transparency would make me more comfortable with any proposed increase. 2. The numbers you present are misleading. Why are you tracking back to 2011 for data? Sonographers became regulated in 2018, data prior to this is almost irrelevant due to the influx of new members. In one category you quote an increase of 403% since 2011! This is ridiculous! Why not go back to 1985, maybe you could bump that to a 1000% increase. Stop trying to be misleading and just be real. 3. I have a big problem with the proposed “yearly increase” going forward. Depending on the current rate it could mean $15.00 or $25.00 a year, so over 4 years that could mean our fees are up by another $100.00! Please reconsider this plan. Respectfully submitted.

extremely high, especially with salary not increasing. ways to cut costs, perhaps not have a downtown office or rent a space that's cheaper

The updated proposed changes were supposed to address concerns that registrants had about the significant increase in fee. However, these updated changes result in an annual fee that HIGHER than the initial proposed fee. Just because the fee increase is gradual - it does not take away the fact that the overall increase is greater than what was initially proposed. Can the fee increase not be smaller if the goal is to not be in deficit? I'm not sure why a not-for-profit regulatory college must have an annual net income of $1.4M by 2029.

Fee is already too much, so i wouldn't support any change.

I would like to know how your organization is run. You have increased members, yet you still need to increase annual dues. Increase members mean more money for the College, yet you still need to increase fees (lets look at your operating expenses). Last I heard, you are operating from home, thus no need to pay for rents. You need to have a better justification for membership fees increase than your reasoning (I have more members and thus have more work and need more money). Lets look at your operating expenses.

I find it very interesting that an organization who is claiming financial difficulties is able to sponsor a national conference and can afford to send 3 people there. Meanwhile it is not even in our own province, no other provincial regulator was sponsoring it and get this: YOU ARE ASKING US FOR MORE MONEY!! No, I oppose the increase in the merit of your own financial mismanagement has caused this issue. Please have a third party audit of your budget and financials. Enough is enough.

Please share what cost cutting measures have been taken prior to proposing this dues increase? Where can your current budget be found so that we can see where the colleges is spending their dues money. Who on the payroll needs to be cut. You stated that there was an increase in membership of 80% within the last few years, that is a lot of revenue that was generated, how is that not enough money. Any increase would push people who are close to retirement into retirement, at a time when there are staffing shortages.

CMRITO should approach the Government of Ontario to request more funding. The members are paying enough already. CMRITO should do some less spending to save money. For example it could move it office from downtown Toronto to a more affordable location. CMRITO should provide further justification for why it wants to increase fees. CMRITO should thing of orther sources of revenue rather than just relying on fee increases from its members.

Good day, I want to appreciate the leadership of CMRITO. I'm a medical Radiographer I want to migrate to Ontario, please what are the processes, which category of fees will I be required to pay? How am I to Apply? How will I get to know if there are vacant positions? I'd really love to get feedback. My Email: (*) Thanks a million.

* this comment has been edited to comply with the CMRITO's Social Media Policy

I feel that the CMRITO should look at relocating their office rather than increase fees. They are currently in the highest price rental market in the province. Downsizing and moving to a more affordable location, or going entirely remote with no office should be the logical, most cost effective step. We pay the highest college fees in Canada, then must pay more fees for the CAMRT to have insurance. Fees should absolutely not be increased.

I disagree with this significant fee increase. Considering CMRITO's role, which is regulating the profession in the public interest; the proposed fee increase amount is not proportional to either the cost of living or the increase in MRTs salaries. Furthermore, all candidates must undergo a unique and costly regulatory process and then registrants have to pay registration fees annually without expecting any service from CMRITO. The more registrants there are the more money CMRITO earns This sharp increase in fees would be a downside for this profession and discourage students from enrolling in medical imaging technology program.

A 37% increase in fees over 3 years is unreasonable as the cost of living nor MRTs' wages have gone up by nearly that much over the same period. Our wages have not increased by that much even since 2011. CMRITO fees are lower than other RHPA colleges however our incomes are also significantly lower. The fact that the number of registrants has increased means that there has also been an increase in the amount of fees collected by the college. If anything, the college has significantly more money to work with now. Instead of significantly increasing fees the college should look at ways to reduce cost. Examples would be finding cheaper office space and eliminating unnecessary processes such as increasing the percentage of members to be audited for QA each year. Fees have not increased since 2011 but that was the college’s choice not its’ members’ decision. The fact that CMRITO has chosen not to increase fees for that long perhaps mean that there was no need for them to do so in order to maintain operations and their reserve fund. It is not fair to make current members help “catch up” on missed fees by suddenly imposing such a huge increase in fees just because the CMRITO now feels that they need more money to sustain operations. A yearly cost of living increase based on the annual increase in the CPI starting in September 2025 would be more reasonable. The proposed additional 37% increase over the next 3 years should not be implemented.

The rationale behind the change does not appear justified to me. In the announcement, the main reason for the fee increase seems to be the larger number of registrants, but larger volume means more fees collected, yet there was no mention of how much revenue was generated. The comparison is also cherry-picked, please try to compare us to similar positions such as med lab technologists, not doctors. Trying to collect more money from your members is not a great move to balance your financial situation, our profession doesn't even have colleges in some other provinces, this will simply encourage MRTs to start thinking about relocating to other provinces, which does more harm to our practice as we are already having staffing issues since COVID. Before you figure out how to reduce revenue loss from the downtown office, I am against the fee increase, period.

-why frontloading the fee increase in the first 3 years from 2025-2027; and the increase for 2028-2029 is negligible? why not spread out the increase and make it a gradual annual increase from 2025 onward? -why does the fee increase start on Sept.1, 2025? How do you justify for the registrants' whose birthday is on or after Sept.1 will pay a high fee than all the registrants' whose birthday is before Sept.1, but we all have been practicing the same amount time since Jan.1, 2024? Why not implement the fee increase on Jan.1, 2026 so everyone pays the same fee. -what has the cmrito actually done to prudently decrease expenses and spending (as per the youtube done by Blair MacKenzie, he stated cmrito has tried their utmost to cut expenses)? there is a lack of transparency of type of expenses and spending and methods of decreasing cost -where does the deficit come from? again, lack of transparency of cost spending -what areas are the fee increase going toward? i.e. what is it going to cover? how do you distribute the increase in fees to cover which cost prudently? -from insight winter 2025, what are the additional mandatory regulatory workload undertaken by the college? what are these costs? The types of activities and programs that cmrito has to fulfill has not changed, so why is there a cost increase? Even w/ increase in workload, the increase in revenue generated by the increase of registrants should cover the cost (it is common sense that each of the registrant's fee should be sufficient to cover his/her cost to run the cmrito). So why is the increase in revenue not sufficient and still be in a deficit? -what is the rent for cmrito? how many more months is the current lease left? is it going to save more $$ if lease is terminated early instead of paying for the full term until the end of the contract (despite paying for penalty for terminating lease early [perhaps negotiate for a non penalty])? why not work from home for all employees to save $$ from renting an office? -what is the minimum # of registrant require for QA audit? if 20% of registrants in 2024 represents a hefty workload which led to increase expenses, then reduce the # of registrants being audited or reduce the QA hrs required for each registrant selected for audit (why is 6% of total registrants being audited acceptable back in 2011 and why not still maintain the 6% for auditing in 2024 to reduce cost and workload?) -why does increasing applicants submission increase the cost? all is required is to check whether the applicant has completed the necessary education and passed camrt, which can be verified all online straightforwardly, this shouldn't subject to much, if any, additional cost -there is an increase of capital and strategic projects from 2026 to 2027 (cost is from -35,000 o -205,000). are these all necessary? how did this "projection" derive? -what is the "investment" the college is investing? is it to grow the revenue or reserved fund? if so is the company doing a decent job in looking after the investment portfolio to ensure maximum gain and minimize loss? who is looking after this portfolio to hold the investment accountable and switch investment company if necessary for better return?

Please do not increase fees