Nurses pay fees so that CNO can continue its regulatory functions in the public interest, maintaining public confidence and safety, while remaining financially sustainable.

In Ontario, legislation identifies certain professions that are self-regulated to ensure public safety. Nursing is one of these self-regulated professions, along with 25 other health care professions in the province. Members of these professions pay a regulatory body to set and enforce standards and entry requirements. Paying a fee renews a nurse’s ability to practice in Ontario and makes them a contributor in nursing regulation and public protection. It allows nurses to collectively fulfill the profession’s regulatory mandate to protect the public and ensures the public continues to trust nurses.

The fee increase will be incremental from 2024-2026. 

The 2026 renewal fee for nurses in the General and Extended classes is $415.84 (including HST).  

The renewal fee for nurses in the Non-Practising class is $77.97 (including HST). 

Learn more about the prices for renewal and application fees.

After accounting for the increase, CNO’s annual fees are still the lowest of any regulated health care profession in Ontario. They are also comparable to, and on the low end of, other nursing regulatory colleges in Canada.

CNO is funded by fees, including renewal fees, to conduct its regulatory functions in the public interest. That includes work like processing applications, providing practice support and customer service, and conducting investigations when necessary. Fees also support initiatives like registration, the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership, modernizing applicant assessment and transforming the Quality Assurance Program.

CNO increases fees only when necessary to remain financially sustainable.

A few factors contribute to the increased fees at this time. Those include out-of-the-ordinary inflationary pressures, initiatives to support system partner needs, increased volume and complexity of matters reported to CNO, investments to upgrade information technology infrastructure, and revised guidelines on appropriate operating reserves.

Despite a rigourous approach to controlling costs, without a fee change, operating costs would increase faster than revenues, leading to increasing annual deficits and we would no longer be able to achieve our mandate of public protection.

What we’ve seen over the past several years is that the public expects more from health care providers and regulators than ever before. CNO must keep pace with changes in the health care and regulatory sectors. Application and renewal fees support the important work of protecting the public by promoting safe nursing practice because they are helping us to:

• maintain the registration of more than 200,000 nurses who were actively practicing at the end of 2025.
• support innovative programs that respond to system challenges, such as the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership (SPEP), which, to date has matched more than 7,000 applicants with more than 850 employers.
• create registration process efficiencies for labour mobility applicants from other Canadian jurisdictions.
• provide safe and high-quality care to patients by engaging in quality assurance activities that promote self-reflection and life-long learning throughout your careers.
• strengthen patient safety and consistency of care across Ontario by modernizing practice standards and guidelines to reflect how care is delivered today and how it will continue to evolve as practice, technology and care settings change.
• maintain the voluntary Nurses’ Health Program for Ontario nurses, designed to encourage them to seek treatment for substance use and/or mental health disorders that may affect their ability to practice nursing safely.