Summary#
Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Midwifery Act, would amend New Brunswick’s Midwifery Act; it does not create a separate law. Its apparent goal is to update who can be registered and what different registrants may do, but the bill has no formal goal statement. This is the first-reading text, so it is not law; it would take effect on a day or days set by proclamation.
- It would add a student register. A student midwife’s practice would be limited to health care in their education program under the direct supervision of a midwife in the active practice register.
- It would define midwifery practice to include reproductive health care for people of childbearing age; care during pregnancy, labour and postpartum; care of healthy infants; and management of low-risk vaginal deliveries. For people in the temporary register or a roster, the Council would determine which health care services they may provide.
- It would require employers and agencies that arrange work to check registration when a midwife or student midwife is engaged, and at least yearly while the engagement continues. They must also check that the person’s duties fit any restrictions on their registration.
- It would require those employers and agencies to report to the Council, and give the person a copy, if they end an engagement because of dishonesty, incompetence or incapacity.
- It would bar unregistered people from practising or presenting themselves as midwives or student midwives, and from using protected titles. The bill makes breaches of these prohibitions offences, but the penalty amounts are not in the supplied text.
- It would allow up to 10 Council members, including at least one and no more than four lay people who have never practised midwifery. It would also require certain returning members to notify the Council about discipline findings or outstanding complaints from outside the province and receive authorization before resuming practice.
What it means for you#
- Midwifery students: If registered, you could provide only care that is part of your program and under direct supervision by a midwife in the active practice register. The bill would make using the student-midwife title without registration an offence.
- Midwives and applicants: The bill would establish a student register and change the wording of registration rules for the active practice register, temporary register and rosters. The Registrar would have to remove a person from a register or roster if they lack or fail to maintain its requirements.
- Employers and work agencies: You would have to check registration at engagement and at least once a year if it continues, and ensure duties do not breach registration restrictions. The reporting duties do not apply to a patient or someone acting for a patient free of charge and without expecting payment.
- Patients and the public: The bill does not itself guarantee access to new services, change fees or coverage, or create a new front-line service. It would set a broader statutory description of midwifery practice, with service limits for temporary registrants and people on rosters set by the Council.
Money#
No cost information is in the available material.
- The bill would require employers and agencies to do registration checks and, in specified cases, report terminations. The material gives no estimate of the cost.
- No spending amount, staffing estimate, fee change or fine amount is stated. The bill refers offence penalties to Part 2, but the Act’s penalty provisions were not supplied.
What is unclear#
- The Midwifery Act and its regulations were not supplied, so the current rules—and how much of the bill’s wording changes existing law—could not be verified.
- Only the first-reading text was supplied. No proposed amendments or later version were provided, so changes made by amendments cannot be identified or treated as adopted.
- The bill does not say what services the Council would approve for temporary registrants or people on rosters, or how it would make those decisions.
- It does not set out the student register’s application process beyond enrollment at an approved school and requirements set by the Registrar. The meaning of “roster” and some key terms is not explained in the supplied text.
- The bill does not give a start date; it leaves that to proclamation.
Case for#
- A student register and a direct-supervision rule could make students’ legal status clearer while limiting their practice to their training.
- Tailoring services for temporary registrants and people on rosters could let the Council match their permitted work to their registration.
- Annual checks and required reports could help employers identify registration restrictions and bring certain serious workplace concerns to the Council.
- A larger Council, with a required range of lay members, could bring more public representation into its membership.
Case against#
- The bill gives the Council authority to determine services for temporary registrants and people on rosters, but the supplied text does not set decision rules or limits for that authority.
- Student practice depends on supervision and program rules, but the bill does not explain how supervision or those rules would be set.
- Employers and agencies would have recurring checking duties and reporting duties, with no cost estimate or detail about how checks must be done.
- Because the current Act and regulations were not supplied, it is unclear which provisions are genuinely new and how these changes would interact with existing registration and discipline rules.