An issue that I think we did pretty well in addressing in a non-partisan fashion in an earlier study this year was the health workforce shortage. That was the shortage of doctors and nurses. A strong recommendation, coming not just out of that study but out of at least one other study, was to make it easier for foreign health graduates—doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals—to get licensed in Canada.
From what you said, out of the Charlottetown agreement, there is some progress. For example, there's a national licensure, which, yet again, was something we heard about over and over as something that was in our best interest. It would also make it easier in other ways for foreign-trained health professionals to get licensed here in Canada.
Where do we go from here to get to that end? Certainly, in my riding, we have places like Atikokan, Emo and Rainy River that have been short on doctors. A lot of places were short on nurses for a while. What are the next steps, and when do you foresee there will actually be more health practitioners out there?
You're welcome to answer yourself or ask one of your staff to answer.