Pharmacy Technician from Canada (CFTA)

If you are a licensed, practicing pharmacy technician in good standing from another Canadian province/territory, you can become licensed with CPBC through the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).

The CFTA allows your current qualifications as a pharmacy technician licensed in a Canadian jurisdiction to be recognized, and therefore you are not required to complete any additional assessments.

However, if you are on the non-patient care or non-practising licence class in a province/territory, you will need to transfer to the province’s patient care or practising category in order to apply through the CFTA.

Licence Application - Part 1
- Access the Online Licence Module in eServices to start your online application.
- Refer to the Application Checklist for the documents you need to upload.
- Pay the application fee and criminal record check fee, as per the Fee Schedule.
- A Criminal Record Check (CRC) will be initiated upon receipt of payment. You will also be required to initiate an extrajurisdictional CRC if you have been licensed as a health professional outside of Canada.
- Refer to the Professional License page for further information about processing times, application and assessment validity periods, and payment.
Review the legislation under the Resource tab
- You must be familiar with all legislation relevant to pharmacy practice in BC in order to complete the Declaration of Currency with Legislation and Practice Standards section of the application.
Licence Application - Part 2
- To be eligible to submit Licence Application – Part 2, you must have completed your Licence Application – Part 1, including documents, CRC and extrajurisdictional CRC (if applicable), and completed all the required assessments.
- Log into eServices to complete Part 2 of the application and pay the licence fee (fee prorated to align with the March 31^st expiry date).
- Refer to the Application Checklist for any updated documents you need to upload.
- Obtain Professional Liability Insurance.
- After payment, a confirmation email will be sent the next day, including your licence number.

Additional Practice Information

PRIME Enrolment

All newly licensed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians needing access to PharmaNet must enrol in PRIME.
Complete Step 1 of the PRIME enrollment process any time, but only complete Step 2 after 8pm on the day your full licence is granted.
Visit the PRIME webpage or contact [email protected].

Other Training

Additional training is required for certain areas of practice (e.g. Opioid Agonist Treatment).
Refer to Declarations for more information.

Need Help?

Refer to the FAQ page.
Contact Professional Licensing at: [email protected].