In December 1985 the Canadian Chiropractic Association (CCA) was advised there was a crisis in the professional liability insurance market in Canada and many associations would not be able to obtain malpractice insurance for the 1986 year.  With only two weeks remaining in the year, the CCA was advised that they were one of the organizations for which no malpractice insurance could be obtained for 1986.  Rather than leave its members as well as the public in the lurch, the CCA immediately undertook, on a gratuitous basis, the provision of supplying professional liability protection to its members.  They did this on the assumption that, sometime in the near future, professional liability insurance through a traditional carrier would again be obtainable.

For the first six months of 1986, the newly created Canadian Chiropractic Protective Fund (CCPF) collected money from all chiropractors in Canada, which was held in trust by the CCA to provide for protection against professional liability claims.  It became clear very early in 1986 that no malpractice insurance was going to be available to the chiropractic profession in Canada in the near term. As a result, the CCA created Canadian Chiropractic Protective Association (CCPA) under a federal charter.  The object of the corporation was to protect chiropractors in the eventuality of professional liability claims, to protect patients so that they would have liability coverage available to them in the eventuality of a mishap, and to provide for the well being of the profession of chiropractic.

The president of the CCA, who was instrumental in setting up CCPA in 1985, was Dr. Don Bramham, a very progressive thinking chiropractor.  In 1986 Dr. Paul Carey became president of CCPA, a position he has held from 1986 to present. The first board members of CCPA were Dr. Paul Carey, Dr. John Cochrane, Dr. John Thyret, Dr. Don Bramham and Dr. James Watkins who as secretary-treasurer completed the five-man board.

As it has from its inception, CCPA currently covers over 80 percent of all the practicing chiropractors in Canada. It has increased its protection limits from half a million dollars per member per claim to two million dollars per claim, with a four million dollar aggregate per chiropractor in any given year.

Over the years, the company has developed an extremely active and effective risk management program, which is completed on a yearly basis.  This has allowed our members to become fully informed of the professional liability issues and has improved the levels of practice and standards of care for chiropractic throughout Canada.  This program involves video, audio tapes and brochures that have been provided to our members. 

CCPA has consistently been a supporter of education and has promoted the chiropractic profession as well as assisted in research efforts over the past years.  It is well known that CCPA gave a grant of three million dollars to the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College to promote and facilitate university affiliation and to help in their capital campaign to build new facilities.  It also gave a grant of $750,000.00 toward the chiropractors in Quebec in their outstanding efforts in obtaining university affiliation at the University of Quebec at Trois Rivières.  CCPA has also supported other research programs and efforts such that well over four million dollars have been donated and granted by CCPA since its inception.

As well as providing increased levels of protection to chiropractors since its creation, fees have actually declined by about 35 percent as protection levels have increased.