Starting a Dietitian Private Practice in Canada: What Changes by Province

What does every Canadian dietitian have to do, regardless of province?

In every province, register before you advertise. Registration governs the title you may advertise under, and misusing a protected title is an offence separate from practising without registration. In Ontario, title contravention carries a fine of up to $25,000 for a first offence and $50,000 for subsequent offences under the Dietetics Act, 1991.

Record retention ranges from five years to sixteen, "nutritionist" is a protected title in some provinces and unprotected in others, and dietitians may form a professional corporation in four provinces but not in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland and Labrador. This page sets out what differs and links key primary sources; check the relevant college and governing instrument before acting.

Is "nutritionist" a protected title in Canada?

"Nutritionist" is a reserved or protected title in Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It is not protected in the other six provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia: the word appears nowhere in Ontario's Dietetics Act, 1991, and zero times in British Columbia's designation regulation. "Dietitian", by contrast, is restricted in every province.

In Quebec, "diététiste", "diététicien" and "nutritionniste" are all reserved under the Professional Code, as are the initials P.Dt., Dt.P. and R.D. Nova Scotia goes further than title protection alone: unlicensed persons there may not engage in, offer to engage in, or describe their activities as dietetics. New Brunswick also prohibits practising dietetics without registration.

The College of Dietitians of Ontario has proposed protecting "nutritionist" in Ontario. As of August 2026 that is a proposal, and the word remains unprotected there.

The full picture, including the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick restrictions on the practice itself, is in which words you may advertise under.

How long must a dietitian keep client records in Canada?

From five years to sixteen, depending on the province. The event that starts the clock also differs, which can change the answer by years for the same client. Quebec is the shortest at five years from the last service rendered. British Columbia requires 16 years from the date of the last encounter, the longest period in Canada, set in a Practice Standard that the Health Professions and Occupations Act requires licensees to follow. Ontario requires 10 years from the client's last visit. Alberta states 10 years from the date of last service.

The instruments differ in force as well as in length. British Columbia's period sits in a Practice Standard, and the Health Professions and Occupations Act requires licensees to practise in accordance with all practice standards. Ontario's 10 years is a College standard, and failing to maintain a standard of practice is professional misconduct under O. Reg. 680/93 (PHIPA itself sets no numeric period). Saskatchewan's 10 years is in a regulation, as one of two options a practice's written retention policy may adopt. Alberta's 10 years appears in the College's Professional Practice Handbook phrased as "should", not in the bylaws, the Standards of Practice, the Health Information Act or its regulations.

All thirteen jurisdictions are set out separately, with the clock-start event province by province. Six of them publish no period at all.

Rules for records of minors are not simply the adult period. Ontario runs to the client's 28th birthday (10 years from the 18th). British Columbia runs 16 years from the age of majority, which at 19 puts a paediatric record close to the client's 35th birthday. Alberta uses whichever is longer of 2 years past the age of majority or 10 years.

Which privacy law applies to a private-practice dietitian?

Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta each apply a different statute. In Ontario, PHIPA governs and a private-practice dietitian is a health information custodian through the "health care practitioner" limb; PIPEDA is displaced for custodians by federal order. In British Columbia no health-information statute reaches private practice. BC PIPA governs, there is no "custodian" concept, and client health data is ordinary personal information.

Alberta changed in 2026. Alberta Regulation 106/2026 designates regulated members of the College of Dietitians of Alberta as custodians under the Health Information Act, which displaces Alberta PIPA for that health information. The change is recent enough that, as of August 2026, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner's own Health Information Act page, alberta.ca, and the College's 2023 practice handbook all still describe the previous position. Alberta PIPA continues to govern the rest of the practice: staff records, marketing lists and other non-health personal information.

Breach obligations follow the statute, and they are not equivalent. Under Alberta's Health Information Act a custodian notifies three parties (the Commissioner, the Minister and the individual) on a "risk of harm" trigger, a lower threshold than Alberta PIPA's "real risk of significant harm". British Columbia's PIPA contains no mandatory private-sector breach-notification provision at all; reporting to the OIPC is discretionary.

The provinces draft the custodian test three different ways, and the privacy guide works through whether you are a custodian at all.

Quebec is unsettled. Law 25 (P-39.1) expressly excludes health and social services information held by a health-sector body, and whether a private-practice dietitian falls inside that exclusion, and therefore under the LRSSS instead, is not resolved in primary sources as of August 2026. A Quebec practice should take advice rather than assume either answer.

Can a dietitian incorporate a professional corporation in Canada?

Yes, in four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. An Ontario dietitian may incorporate and the College of Dietitians of Ontario issues the Certificate of Authorization. New Brunswick runs an express regime with its own Corporations Register, and Prince Edward Island issues health profession corporation permits. Since 19 December 2024 a Quebec dietitian may practise through an SPA or SENCRL under a dedicated ODNQ regulation, C-26, r. 100.01, made under paragraph p of the first paragraph of article 94 of the Professional Code.

British Columbia does not issue a health profession corporation permit to dietitians; only optometry and physical therapy hold that permit there. Dietitians in British Columbia may still operate an ordinary business, because the College regulates the practice name rather than the corporate form. Saskatchewan's Professional Corporations Act is opt-in by designation and dietetics is not among the designated professions, though The Regulated Health Professions Act (SS 2025, c 12), not yet in force, would create a health professional corporation category, subject to designation. Alberta's Health Professions Act does not list dietitians among the professions that may practise through a professional corporation. Manitoba has no professional-corporation regime for dietetics, Nova Scotia has no NSRD corporation permit, and Newfoundland and Labrador's Dietitians Act has no professional-corporation part.

The conditions differ by province, and New Brunswick’s corporate clock runs on a different year. Both are covered under the four provinces where a professional corporation is available.

Guidance written for US limited liability companies (LLCs) and S corporations does not describe Canadian structures.

What comes next once the practice is registered?

Two operational questions follow. Whether your services attract GST/HST turns on the statutory test, not the clinical-versus-wellness one, and that test expressly covers maintaining health and preventing disease. What a carrier actually asks for on a receipt also differs between carriers, so no single field list fits them all.

If you intend to bill insurers directly rather than take payment at the point of service, that runs through four national billing portals, and five in Alberta.

If you are practising in Quebec, start with Quebec, where almost none of this transfers. The retention period, the insurance arrangement and the rules on taking payment all differ there.