I don't mind starting.
The simple answer is not one of them that will be the single solution that's going to be the biggest one getting us out of this situation. It's multi-faceted. It's going to need a multi-faceted approach.
From a nursing perspective, we do know there are a number of internationally educated nurses who are in the country and struggling to get through the regulatory process to be able to be in the workforce, but it's not a massive percentage of the current nursing population that's going to be the solution for getting us out of this. It helps.
I think that in the situation where we're in, everything that helps needs to be considered to deal with what is going to be a massive crisis. We are looking at there being growing vacancies, growing numbers of individuals in the current workforce who are wanting to leave it and a growing list of Canadians needing procedures and treatments that have been delayed for months. That is eventually going to have a negative impact on health outcomes, and we're going to be in worse and worse trouble and depending on the same workforce to help get us out of it.
There needs to be an all-hands-on-deck approach. We need to look at all of those situations, both short-term, like helping internationally educated nurses become regulated or registered to be able to practise.... To be honest, I think they would offer something even if they were in the workforce doing all kinds of things, let alone waiting until they're registered. There are things they could do now to help them adjust and learn the system.
But we need to do all of them.