As Paul said earlier, I'm now a full-time volunteer, but a week and a half ago, I had a job. I was Director of the Health Professions Department at Université Sainte-Anne. I'll answer your question somewhat in that capacity.
There's the program for paramedic-ambulance attendants. We're also looking at the possibility of offering a similar program as part of the nursing program at the University of Moncton. The Université Sainte-Anne has already made the decision to put a program in place for nursing assistants. We also have the Acadie-Québec agreement for spaces in medicine in Quebec. There are three places for that: Sherbrooke, the University of Montreal and Laval University. I'm a nurse and social worker by training, and I think the key is to offer training as near as possible to home. To do that, you have to be very creative. For example, the agreement concerning our medical students provides, among other things, that those students do their practicums back home.
We know we'll never have a Francophone faculty of medicine in Nova Scotia. So we have to be creative and ensure that our students come back: that's the key, it seems to me. I'm sure that the New Brunswick people will tell you about that this afternoon. We have the opportunity to benefit from their experience and they're well disposed toward helping us put practicums in place for medical students in Nova Scotia. It isn't signed yet, but the first medical graduate under this agreement will very likely come back home to practise next summer. That's being negotiated. She's negotiating with the province to come and practise back home. We're very optimistic. She'd be the first and would attest to the major success in this file.
I believe that French-language training as close to home as possible is the key. That's why we have high hopes for the agreement with Sudbury. Students can study back home and take their courses remotely. They'll do practicums organized by our health professionals in Nova Scotia. Then they'll be on site and will know what it is to practise in Nova Scotia. Employers will come looking for them. In Nova Scotia, there's a shortage of health professionals in general, and the shortage is even greater among Francophone professionals. So we have to make major efforts to train and retain these young people.