moved for leave to introduce Bill C-405, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (deduction for medical doctors in underserviced areas).
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to introduce this bill today that would help underserviced communities recruit doctors to their hospitals and establish family physicians.
I would like to thank the students at the University of Ottawa Law School, specifically, Paul Braczek and Jeffrey Kroeker, who assisted in the drafting of this private member's bill.
One out of 30 Canadians do not have a family doctor. In small towns and underserviced areas, it becomes as acute as one out of four do not have a family doctor. Barrie, the riding I have the honour of representing, is one of those communities where we have a very acute doctor shortage. This bill would certainly be a step forward in helping alleviate that concern.
Specifically, I want to also pay recognition to Dr. Rob Ballagh and Dr. Brad Dibble, who chaired our physician recruitment task force in our community and helped me come up with this idea as a means to entice doctors to small towns and rural areas that do not have the pleasure of having as many doctors as do larger urban areas that have medical schools.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)