Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you all for coming. It's very good to listen to you.
I'm going to take a different tack. We used to focus strictly on marks when looking for medical students. I know that's changing, but how do you look for students who are going to have the right compassion, empathy, and ethics?
We need foreign-trained graduates, and I'm wondering what the average cost is to become a practitioner here, for someone who was trained overseas. I know it varies by specialty and at what point in the system they come in, but are there numbers on that?
Do we capture data on how many start to take their exams? I come in contact with a lot of people who take the first exam and then can't afford it. I've met about 50 physicians in the last three months who aren't practising--one was a senior house officer in the U.K.
How many spots exist for foreign-trained grads in Canada? I know it differs by field, and a few years ago there were eight spots for pediatricians.
My last point is that we really need foreign-trained physicians. We need their language abilities and cultural understanding. I'll share a story. A gentleman in my riding was frantic. He thought his one-year-old grandson had smallpox, because when he was growing up smallpox still existed. It took me 20 minutes to assure him that the baby did not have smallpox. The physician didn't have the language ability to share that with the family.
We need to find a way around this. We have many languages and cultures, and we have to make sure that when people go to physicians they'll be understood and looked after.
Those are my comments.