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RHPA - Health Professional Corporations. Casella v. Ontario (College of Chiropodists)
In Casella v. Ontario (College of Chiropodists) (Div Court, 2024) the Divisional Court considers 'health professional corporations' under the RHPA:12. A professional health corporation is a particular kind of corporation created by statute. Under the Code, one or more members of the same health profession, including chiropodists, may establish a health profession corporation “for the purpose of practising their health profession.” Unlike a regular corporation, a health profession corporation owned by a chiropodist must be fully owned by one or more chiropodists and cannot carry on a business other than the practice of chiropody.[2] Chiropodists are only permitted to practise through health profession corporations upon receiving a certificate of authorization from the College. While the Appellant notes that his certificate of authorization was not revoked by operation of his suspension, as set out in the Code, a member’s professional obligations apply equally to their corporations, and to its directors, officers, shareholders, and employees, and are not diminished by the fact that a member is practicing through a health corporation. The Code is explicit that “[i]n the course of practising a health profession, a health profession corporation shall not do, or fail to do, something that would constitute professional misconduct if a member of the health profession did, or failed to do, it.”[3]
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33. The Committee accepted that there was no prohibition against the Appellant using his corporation to issue invoices, pay staff and locums and to maintain the clinic’s business operations. But it found that by authorizing his corporation to pay him a salary from funds derived from chiropody services throughout the period of suspension, the Appellant violated the intent and purpose of the June 2021 Order.
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