The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) is an intergovernmental trade agreement signed by the Canadian provinces and territories.

The CFTA deals with labour mobility provisions and states that individuals certified or licensed in an occupation, including social work, by a regulatory authority1 in another Canadian province or territory, should be eligible to become registered in Ontario without any “material additional training, experience, examinations or assessments”, if they meet certain criteria for registration.

Questions?

Contact the College’s Registration and Renewals Department:

Footnotes:

  1. “Canadian social work regulatory authority” means a body that is authorized, under an Act of a Canadian province or the Northwest Territories or the Yukon, to issue a certificate of registration, licence or permit which attests to the individual being qualified to practise the profession of social work and authorizes the individual to practise the profession of social work or to use a title or designation relating to the profession or both.
  2. The Ontario Government approved an exception to the labour mobility chapter of the Agreement on Internal Trade for social workers registered in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Canadian Free Trade Agreement, which came into force on July 1, 2017, replaced the Agreement on Internal Trade. Here is the link to the exception: https://workersmobility.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Social-Workers-ON.pdf.