Regulation Protects Quebecers.

Title clarity and competency are a matter of public safety.

The Current Problem

This creates public confusion, potential risk, and no clear accountability mechanisms.

What Regulation Would Enable

Regulation protects patients. It strengthens trust.

The Reality in Quebec Today

Naturopathic practice in Quebec is currently tolerated, not regulated. There is no professional order, no government body overseeing who may call themselves a “naturopathe,” and no legal requirement to meet any particular standard of training before practising.

Associations like QANM exist to do voluntarily what regulation would otherwise require: verifying credentials, enforcing standards of practice, and holding members accountable. But membership is optional nothing compels the estimated 2,000+ people using the title “naturopathe” in Quebec to join an association, meet its standards, or disclose their training to patients.

The gap is starting to carry real financial consequences. Under Quebec’s 2025–2026 budget, the province’s medical expense tax credit will, starting in 2026, apply only to services provided by professionals belonging to a government-recognized professional order.⁵ Naturopathic care grouped with other “médecines douces” that the Office québécois de la langue française defines as using therapeutic approaches not yet validated to conventional scientific standards will no longer qualify, unlike professions with a formal recognition pathway already underway (osteopathy, for instance, has received a favourable opinion from the Office des professions du Québec toward eventual recognition).

For patients, that means naturopathic care already meeting the bar for licensure in 7 Canadian provinces and 26 U.S. jurisdictions is becoming less accessible in Quebec not because the training is any less rigorous, but because Quebec has no formal mechanism to recognize it.

Sources: ⁵·⁶ Gouvernement du Québec, Budget 2025–2026, Plan budgétaire; reported via Narcity Québec, “Ostéopathie, homéopathie : finis, les crédits d’impôt pour ces spécialistes au Québec,” narcity.com, March 26, 2025 (accessed August 2026). To verify final policy language and effective date before publishing.

Naturopaths Trained to a Rigorous Standard

Naturopath trained to a rigorous standard minimum 7 years of post-secondary education, 1,200 supervised clinical training and NPLEX or the Ontario Clinical Sciences Examination must be distinguishable from practitioners without standardized medical training. Regulation clarifies roles for patients, physicians, policymakers, and the health system.

Naturopath vs. Naturopath:

Key Differences

Naturopath
(unregulated)

Naturopath
(QANM)

Title protected

No (not yet)

Standardized education

None

Yes

Post-secondary education

Variable

Minimum 7 years

Supervised clinical training

Variable

1,200 h supervised

Biomedical sciences

Not standardized

Yes

Professional accountability

Not defined

Yes, including ethics,
records keeping,
and informed consent.

Regulated Jurisdictions Where This Standard Already Applies

QANM members are trained to the same entry-to-practice standard used across 7 Canadian provinces and territories and 26 U.S. jurisdictions. Our members already meet the bar for licensure in more than 30 places just not yet in Quebec.

Canada (7)

Alberta · British Columbia · Manitoba · Northwest Territories · Nova Scotia · Ontario · Saskatchewan

United States (26)

Alaska · Arizona · California · Colorado · Connecticut · District of Columbia · Hawaii · Idaho · Kansas · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Minnesota · Montana · New Hampshire · New Mexico · North Dakota · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Puerto Rico · Rhode Island · U.S. Virgin Islands · Utah · Vermont · Washington · Wisconsin

System Integration

Professional oversight would enable:

Support clear, rigorous, public-protection-focused professional oversight for naturopathic medicine Quebec

Become a Member

You're already trained to the standard. QANM is where Quebec's naturopaths are building that future together join the association putting your training on the record.