This extract posted with the intention to clarify relationships between Registered Acupuncturists, CAAA, Health Disciplines Act, and Health Professions Act. Dr. Benny Xu believes all Registered Acupuncturists should be well informed to make us a stronger profession. Comments are welcome!
 
Dear Friends and Colleagues, good afternoon!
 
It’s a great honour for me to be here today as a candidate, and I would like to thank you all for devoting your valuable time to participate in this AGM and to be part of the general election. I would like to begin with a brief introduction of myself.
 
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Now, I would like to share my understanding on where CAAA is coming from, and also where it’s heading to.
 
CAAA was formed with the anticipation that acupuncture will be regulated under the Health Professions Act, which will replace the Health Disciplines Act that we are currently under.
 
So what are the differences between the two Acts? In short, Under the Health Disciplines Act, most of the health professions are overseen by the Alberta health. Under the Health Professions Act, all the health professions will be run by independent associations.
 
The Health Professions Acts was the idea of the former Health Minister Gary Mar, our longest serving Health Minister ever in Alberta. Health Professions Act creates a democratic environment to run the profession, as well as saving the government millions of dollars of operating cost.
 
CAAA is the designated association overseeing the acupuncture profession under the Health Professions Act.
 
Over the last few years, the most misunderstood term I heard is ‘self-regulation”. I would like to clarify, no health professions regulating themselves; the government owns all the Regulations, Acts, and any other forms of laws in Canada. We are not self-regulating acupuncture now, and we will not self-regulate acupuncture in the future.
 
Under the Health Professions Act, the government gives CAAA the rights to only govern Acupuncture Regulation. Correctly speaking, we will “self-govern” not “self-regulation”
 
So what are the differences between ‘self-regulation’ and ‘self-governing’? First of all, we cannot change the Acupuncture Regulation; it requires legislative process to modify any Regulations. Second of all, should we fail to “self-govern”, the Government of Alberta may take the governing rights Back anytime.
 
By understanding those significant differences, it means we have to work together as a group to govern Acupuncture Regulation. Failing to do so may result in suspension of the Regulation, and here is why: 

• The Health care cost is the fastest growing and occupies the biggest portion of all provincial budgets, across Canada. It is totally unsustainable.
• Health care reform is the focus of our Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, for example - Health Super Board. 
• The reform may take years to complete, and It will be extremely difficult to put acupuncture on the priority list

The point is that, Alberta Health likely will not and is unable to devote much energy to acupuncture, the future of the profession lays on our hands.
 
The smooth transition from the Health Disciplines Act to the Health Professions Act for acupuncture is a critical step, and we should try everything we can to avoid complications.
 
Details can be complex on how to proceed from here, visions and leaderships are required. The council needs to identify the objectives and priorities, and choose the correct steps and pathways to make us a proud profession.
 
I believe there are many things we can do to improve our College going forward, things like:

• An informative website and a comprehensive email system for better communication 
• An electronic or printed News-Letter not only to improve communication, but to eventually generate revenues to the support college 
• A better and open system on how the college operates with meeting minutes accessible to all members 
• Offer graduate and post graduate program to increase the credibility of the profession 
• It might be better for us to adapt Western medical system here, or the Chinese medical system to establish specialty practices, such as Paediatricians, Gynaecologists, Internists, Dermatologists and so on. Such establishment will enable more focused practices with better results, and eventually generate more credibility for the profession 
• With better credibility, we can eventually establish a referral systems with other health professions
• Basically, we need to find ways to make us a stronger group, we need a strong College Council with leaderships and visions not only to work on the members’ behalf, but also bring the profession to a much higher level.

We have to let people know, acupuncture does much more than just pain management.
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We are here today to vote for an administrative Council, which will eventually decide where the profession is heading to and how the profession will look like years from now. I believe everyone here has the same goal to make acupuncture a better profession... You are voting for yourselves, you are voting for the future of the profession!
 
Thank you!