Evidence of meeting #14 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was spots.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
I am happy to provide you with that information.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Okay.
Is there anything requiring the University of Toronto to use foreign visa trainee funding to expand medical training for Canadians?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
No. The funding for the expansion of programs for Canadians is provided by the Ministry of Health or by MCURES.
It doesn't go directly to the expansion of the programs. It supports all of the programs, the existing—
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
So, it goes into general revenue, and then you decide where it goes. It doesn't go back into funding programs.
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
It supports all of the programs, not just specifically the expansion programs. I'll give you an example. It is also used to support our office of learner affairs.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
It could go into artwork for the walls. It could go into anything into the university.
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
We take responsibility for the use of the funds, and I would be happy to provide you with what the expenses are within education.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Yes, that would be very good if you could table with the committee what funds are visa trainee revenues and where they are deposited. That would be great.
How much money, in total, did the University of Toronto receive last year from foreign governments to train visa trainee doctors?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
The amount of dollars that I just explained to you: the $45 million approximately, for the 459 trainees we had last year.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Before accepting the money from foreign governments, do you evaluate that country's human rights record?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
We do not. In the postgraduate medical education office, that is not our role.
Liberal
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Dr. Houston, thank you for coming out here.
On these visa trainees we're talking about, I just want to confirm. This is part of your testimony, but I want to get this so that there's no confusion. These are funded by the governments that send these people, and these are not funded by provincial or public funds. Is that correct?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
That is correct.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you.
There may have been a misunderstanding as well regarding whether these trainees are taking residency positions from physicians who are eligible to practise in Canada. Does that happen?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
It does not.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
All right. Thank you.
You said that it is the province that is determining how many medical residency spots you have.
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
That is correct.
Each year, the Ministry of Health determines how many residency positions there are across the institutions in Ontario. It used to be six. It is now seven.
We work with the ministry to determine in which of the programs—family medicine and the Royal College specialties—they would like those spots attributed to. We then work at the university with the departments to ensure that we have the numbers, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Then we put those numbers into CaRMS. Every year at the University of Toronto, we have the good fortune of filling all of our positions.
To give you some context, through the CaRMS match, we match to 183 family medicine spots and 276 Royal College spots, for a total of 459 residents that go through the PGY-1 match. We have a total of Ministry of Health-funded residents of 1,865 spots.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you.
On this funding you received for the visa trainees, you said that it goes to support the postgraduate programs. Could you expand on what kinds of things this money helps support in the postgraduate programs?
Vice Dean, Medical Education, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
It is first used at postgraduate medical education essentially to provide the funding for all of the administrative structures within postgraduate medical education: the outreach programs; the admissions process; the registration process, because all of our learners must be registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario; our curriculum office, which develops and helps to support curriculum; our accreditation office; our student and learner assessment office; and all of the supports for our learners that we have available through our learner affairs office, which includes supports for learner wellness.
