I can comment on that. Thank you for the question.
We know there are huge barriers right now for international medical graduates to be able to practise in Canada. There are many physicians who were trained in other countries living here and not working in the health care system. There are many barriers that could be addressed with initiatives from the federal government.
On issue is the ability to have people trained and assessed within our system, and the cost and the barriers to that. That area could be supported by the federal government.
The other piece is the assessment and licensing process. I'm referring back to the need for pan-Canadian physician licensure. We have that same process where each province and territory has its own way of assessing credentials, training and licensing international medical graduates. That creates a huge bureaucratic barrier.
We feel there are certainly opportunities for the federal government to support international medical graduates to be able to better access the system, the training, the supervision and the assessment that they need to enter our system. There's also the side of making sure that the licensure process is more transparent and clear and that there aren't barriers there.
There are, of course, ethical concerns with Canada not creating enough human health resources within our own country and taking those resources from other countries. We do believe that in the long term, we need to be self-sufficient in creating enough of the resources here. However, there are many physicians, nurses and other health care professionals who are already here in Canada and are not currently able to practice.