I appreciate that. It goes back to the “blue seal” program pitch that we make that way as well. We do have the Red Seal, which is a voluntary program that all the provinces opted into over 50 years ago to deal with skilled trades. Everyone opted in and maintained it. It's actually a very good best practice.
I agree about the standardization by province, and the voluntary opting in, but that could be replicated in that certain part. In agreeing with you, if somebody comes in as a doctor or an RN, for example, at least being able to be in a health care setting, perhaps doing PSW functions or something in there would help provide that. They could work their way up, being in there.
Again, I would just go back to the chaos. We all hear the stories about a doctor driving a cab or about the number of nurses who have some sort of health care background. Getting in and having some sort of organized, coherent process varies by province. A lot of times, for a number of those I've met for whom nothing is recognized, it goes back to the cost of living. In my area of eastern Ontario, I met a woman working at Tim Hortons who had a nursing background as an RN in India. None of it was recognized when she came into the area. She was working full time just trying to pay rent, and could only afford to do one or two courses at a time at St. Lawrence College. She figured it would be six or seven years for her to get retrained to work in a health care setting. Many just walk away because of how that works.
I appreciate the further context from a federal lens of what we can do to make it better organized and have a better outcome for the health care setting, keeping the quality, but also what we can do to have the people for whom the intention was express entry actually practising in health care in some form, working their way to that full form and their full potential.
Thank you.