Thank you very much for your question.
First, I'd like to say that Health Canada recognizes that the provincial and territorial governments have jurisdiction over health human resource planning. That includes the recruitment and retention of health professionals, as well as the number of residency seats that are available on an annual basis.
At the same time, I can tell you that some improvements are being made. For example, we now have online self-assessment tools to assess someone's readiness to write qualifying exams. We have exams being written more frequently and online in other countries. This is a step forward as well.
We have multimedia faculty development programs for teachers of international medical graduates. This is being implemented to more fully integrate internationally educated medical professionals into the health workforce. We also have a website that is a central source of information.
The more complex issues are also being tackled. One of them is related to the assessment of IMGs when they come to Canada and seek a residency placement. We have consistent standards developed around entry to residency through the Medical Council of Canada and with a number of other stakeholders, including regulatory authorities and provincial and territorial governments, as well as a whole host of stakeholders.
That work has been done. It's been completed. It is in the implementation stages. This should help accelerate...or certainly it will help people's expectations around what is required of them for entry into residency. It speaks to some of the issues related to the FQR framework around fairness, transparency, and timeliness.
The basis of this work that we're doing now will support work that is starting to happen around entry to practice and developing the same types of consistent standards around assessment for entry to practice. So when someone comes to Canada and has been a practising physician in another country, these processes will help accelerate their assessment; and then if the assessment is not what they had hoped, there'll also be an opportunity to help direct a person into a possible alternative career.