Health committee  Dr. Ouellet, please.

Health committee  I think it's a key factor, because there is, for better or worse, provincial pilfering going on already. Most of our health professions do have national mobility, with their certifications and their registrations, so, as was commented on earlier, full graduating classes have left one province to go work in another.

Health committee  The quality work-life initiative, I think, is a key issue, because we have a lot of debris lying around from the 1990s, when we went through the years of health reform. In our profession, they reduced the workforce by 27%, basically overnight, and that has not come back since that time.

Health committee  There's a key issue in the clinical education for foreign workers as well in our profession, because many of them have taken advantage of bridging programs that are provided to integrate them into the Canadian workplace. You're robbing Peter to pay Paul for a bridging program that's taking seats away, usually, from a local clinical program of an academic training program in a local college.

Health committee  In our organization, the membership numbers have been holding steady because of the reality that the retirees have not been leaving as fast as was originally anticipated, so the number of new graduates coming into the system is basically keeping pace. I think the mutual fund meltdown of 2001 is keeping professionals in the workforce more than they originally planned.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chairman. I'd like to share with you some concerns today in a key area of health human resources in the area of clinical education. The medical laboratory has been referred to as the diagnostic engine of the health care system. With over 85% of physician decisions being based on medical lab results, you can be pretty well assured that you need to have a good motor in this engine.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I'm afraid so.

Human Resources committee  I think our first priority would be to have additional resources to expedite the prior learning assessment process. There's no question that it's very burdensome. We can't afford to charge what it would truly cost, because it would be too much of a burden on the recipients. Our members are paying a big piece of the bill.

Human Resources committee  To add to that, though, with the restructuring of how pensions are calculated, for many health care workers it's the last three years of your working life that is the basis for your future pension. We need to look at changing that so that those workers can continue on in part-time, reduced hours.

Human Resources committee  There are basically two different configurations of bridging programs. The one type, I would say, is familiarization with the practice and the profession, and basically an exam preparation type of course. The other type of program that exists in Canada for our profession is more focused on a true examination of the gaps and deficiencies of the individual.

Human Resources committee  A couple of key things come to mind. The first would be a central information resource where our representatives who are doing this intake overseas could get consistent and reliable information. We find that often the people who are advising immigrants in various different countries around the world don't have access to all the information that they really, truly need.

Human Resources committee  We've found great success with bridging programs as well. I can't say enough positive about bridging programs. They yield the results we need. We need all these folks who are coming knocking on our door. We really can't afford not to get them through the system. We're very short.

Human Resources committee  That's a key concern in this whole process. We want to make sure that the people who make the decision to come to Canada to work in our profession know and understand what the process is. From that perspective, we've had our information available on the Internet for in excess of eight years now, I believe.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am a trained medical laboratory technologist as well as being the executive director for the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. I have a passion that runs deep for this profession, and you might say that I'm also married to the profession, as my wife is a current practitioner as well.