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Alberta Recognizes Speech & Hearing Month in Perpetuity

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SAC is thrilled to announce a historic milestone for our professions in Alberta. Following extensive advocacy efforts and ongoing collaboration with the office of the Honourable Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, the Government of Alberta has officially declared May as Speech & Hearing Month in perpetuity.

This achievement is the result of SAC’s dedicated work with Minister LaGrange’s office on various advocacy topics, which highlighted the fundamental importance of communication health and the vital need for early identification and intervention.

In a letter addressed to SAC’s CEO Luciana Nechita, Minister LaGrange commended the association’s efforts to champion the roles of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and communication health assistants. She emphasized that the work of our members not only improves the quality of life for Albertans across their lifespan but also reduces the long-term need for more intensive health and social supports.

This “in perpetuity” status is a significant win for our members and the patients they serve. It ensures that every May, the essential contributions of communication health professionals will be recognized and celebrated across Alberta without the need for annual renewals.

SAC would like to thank Minister LaGrange for her support and recognition of the difference our members make in enhancing the lives of Canadians. We look forward to continuing our advocacy work to ensure that communication health remains a priority at the national and provincial levels.

Read the dedication.

Alberta Introduces Bill 13, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act

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On December 9, 2025, the Government of Alberta passed Bill 13, known as the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act. This legislation will amend how professional regulatory bodies oversee their registrants, including the Alberta College of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (ACSLPA). The central tenet of the bill is the protection of freedom of expression for regulated professionals, specifically ensuring that members cannot be disciplined for off-duty “expressive conduct”, provided that such speech does not constitute a criminal offense, a threat of violence, sexual misconduct, or a direct violation of professional boundaries with a client.

Bill 13 will place new restrictions on the scope of continuing education that regulatory colleges can mandate in Alberta. The legislation explicitly prohibits regulators from requiring registrants to complete training on “social, political, cultural or ideological” topics while specifically citing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), unconscious bias, and cultural competency. Regulators will only be able to require education that addresses a political, historical, social, or cultural issue if it is directly related to professional competence or minimum ethical standards, and it does not seek to dictate the range of acceptable or unacceptable opinion or beliefs on any political, historical, social or cultural issue or on a matter of conscience. This aims to limit regulatory oversight to professional competence and minimum ethical standards rather than broader social competencies, a move the government describes as ensuring regulators remain “neutral.”

Additional restrictions worth noting for our members include the prohibition for Albertan regulators to promote or enforce equity-based principles and must take an official stance of neutrality towards subjects such as privilege, disadvantage, national origin, gender identity, matters of conscientious belief, or sexual identity and orientation. These changes are wide in scope and are entirely unprecedented amongst Canadian regulators.

For speech-language pathologists and audiologists, this bill signals a potential shift in the regulatory environment. This legislation will impact the governance of Albertan SAC members’ professional licensure. SAC will monitor the implementation of this bill.
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