November 5, 2026 - Xavier Flanagan, Founder

How to get your mental health records in Canada

The short answer: yes, in most cases. Your mental health records are health information, and in Canada you have a right to see and copy the information your health care providers hold about you. That includes records from a psychiatrist, psychologist, counsellor or family doctor, and from a hospital or community mental health program.

The longer answer is that mental health records are one of the few areas where a provider can, in limited circumstances, refuse part of a request because of the risk of harm. This guide explains when that can happen, what the provider has to do instead, and what you can do if you are refused. It was checked against the legislation in November 2026. It is general information, not legal advice.

The short version

You can ask. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that patients should have access to their medical records “in all but a small number of circumstances”, and provincial laws now set out the details.
Timing: in Ontario and British Columbia, a provider must answer within 30 days (in Alberta, it must make every reasonable effort to), and can extend that by up to 30 more only in specific situations.
Cost: fees are limited, and in some cases there are none. A provider usually has to estimate the fee before charging it.
Limits: access can be refused where it could reasonably be expected to cause serious harm to you or someone else. Even then, you have a right to the rest of the record.
If you are refused: you should be told, and you can complain to your province’s information and privacy commissioner. In Ontario and Alberta, and for BC hospitals and health authorities, no answer in time counts as a refusal.

The starting point: McInerney v. MacDonald

In 1992, in McInerney v. MacDonald, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that a patient is entitled, on request, “to examine and copy all information in her medical records which the physician considered in administering advice or treatment”, including records prepared by other doctors. The physical record belongs to the doctor, but the Court said information about yourself revealed to a doctor “remains, in a fundamental sense, one’s own”.

The Court accepted that access can be refused in rare cases, but set a high bar: records should be disclosed “unless there is a significant likelihood of a substantial adverse effect on her physical, mental or emotional health or harm to a third party”, and “the onus lies on the physician to justify a denial of access”. Provincial laws now govern most requests, and they build on the same idea. Our article on how to get a copy of your medical records in Canada covers the general rules.

Ontario

In Ontario the law is the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA). It covers what it calls health information custodians, which include health care practitioners (members of Ontario’s regulated health professions, social workers and social service workers, and anyone whose primary function is to provide health care for payment), hospitals and psychiatric facilities, and it gives you a right of access to records of your personal health information that they hold.

Deadline: as soon as possible, and no later than 30 days after they receive your request. They can extend that once, by up to 30 more days, if the records are extensive or they need to consult someone, and they must tell you in writing how long the extension is and why.
Fees: a custodian can charge only after giving you an estimate, and the fee cannot be more than the prescribed amount or, if none is prescribed, reasonable cost recovery. It can also waive the fee.
The harm ground: a custodian can refuse access where granting it “could reasonably be expected to” result in “a risk of serious harm to the treatment or recovery of the individual or a risk of serious bodily harm to the individual or another person”. Before refusing on this ground, it may consult a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario or the College of Psychologists of Ontario.
You still get the rest. You have a right of access to any part of the record that can reasonably be severed from the part being withheld.
If they refuse: they must give you written notice that tells you that you can complain to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. If they do not answer in time, the law treats that as a refusal. A complaint must be in writing and filed within six months of the refusal, and the custodian carries the burden of proving the refusal was justified.

Alberta

In Alberta the law is the Health Information Act, which gives you a right of access to any record containing health information about you held by a custodian. Custodians include hospital operators and the province’s health agencies, plus health services providers named in the regulations. Not every provider in private practice is necessarily a custodian, so if you are unsure, ask the provider or the Commissioner’s office which law applies.

Deadline: a custodian must make every reasonable effort to respond within 30 days, and can extend that by up to 30 more days in specific situations, or longer with the Commissioner’s permission. No answer in time counts as a refusal.
Fees: a custodian cannot charge a fee for a request for your own health information, except for the cost of producing the copy, and must give you an estimate first.
The harm ground: a custodian may refuse where disclosure could reasonably be expected “to result in immediate and grave harm to the applicant’s mental or physical health or safety”, or to threaten the mental or physical health or safety of another person. If that information can reasonably be severed, you have a right to the remainder of the record.
Psychological tests: a custodian can also refuse information about “standardized diagnostic tests or assessments”, including intelligence tests, where disclosure could reasonably be expected to prejudice their use or results.
If they refuse: the response must give you the reasons and tell you that you can ask the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta for a review. The written request for review must usually reach the Commissioner within 60 days of being told of the decision.

British Columbia

In BC it depends on who holds your records.

Private practices, such as a psychologist, counsellor or doctor’s office, fall under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). They must respond within 30 days, can extend by up to 30 more in specific situations, and can charge only a minimal fee, with a written estimate first. They must not disclose information that could reasonably be expected to “cause immediate or grave harm to the safety or to the physical or mental health” of the person asking, or to threaten someone else’s safety or health. If that part can be removed, they must give you the rest.
Hospitals and health authorities fall under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). They must respond within 30 days, extendable by up to 30 in specific situations, and they cannot charge you for a request for your own personal information. They may refuse personal information about you if disclosure could reasonably be expected “to result in immediate and grave harm to the applicant’s safety or mental or physical health”.

Either way, if you are refused, you can ask the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia to review the decision, usually within 30 days of being told of it. If the provider simply did not answer in time, that time limit does not apply.

Everywhere else

Every province and territory has its own rules, and most have a law written specifically for health information. Your provincial or territorial information and privacy commissioner’s website explains them, and the commissioner is also where you complain.

In some provinces, a private clinic or practice may instead be covered by the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada notes that New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Ontario have health information laws considered substantially similar to PIPEDA, and that working out which law applies “must be done on a case-by-case basis”. Your commissioner’s office can tell you.

Quebec has its own law for health records. Our article on health records rights is available in French for Quebec.

How to make the request

Work out who holds what. Your psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor, your family doctor, any hospital or inpatient unit, the community mental health team, and any workplace or university counselling service. Each keeps its own records.
Ask in writing. An email is usually fine. Give your name, date of birth and contact details, the dates of treatment, and what you want, such as your complete record, or the notes and reports from a particular period.
Say how you want to receive them. A PDF is easiest. If you would rather go through the records with your clinician, say so. That is a choice you can make, not something you have to accept.
Ask for the fee up front. In most cases they have to estimate it before they charge you.
Keep a copy of your request and the date you sent it. The deadline runs from when they receive it.

A word on reading your own records

Clinical notes are written for clinicians. They can use blunt language, shorthand and diagnostic labels that read very differently on the page than they did in the room. Some people find that confronting. It can help to read them with someone you trust, or to ask your clinician to go through them with you. If reading them brings up something difficult, you can call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

If you think something in your records is wrong, the Ontario, Alberta and BC laws above also let you ask for it to be corrected.

Where exora fits

Once you have your records, you can upload them to exora along with the rest of your health documents. exora reads them and organizes the conditions, medications and history into one record you control, with every detail linked back to the page it came from. You choose what to upload and who, if anyone, it is shared with. How exora handles your information is set out in our privacy policy. exora is free to start, with an optional membership.

exora does not connect to your clinician’s software or your provincial health record. It works with the documents you request and decide to add.