Over the course of 45 years, the visa program has done all or part of the postgraduate training of some 20,000 Saudi physicians now practising in Saudi Arabia. They are pillars of their health system and they reflect and certainly connect to Canadian medical schools, Canadian hospitals and Canadian science in terms of advancing health care, both in Saudi Arabia and in any other countries where they interact.
Medicine is a scientific program. It requires a lot of brains working with shared goals, and I think that training up a whole cadre of Saudi physicians is a benefit not only for that country but also for the region, and definitely a benefit to Canada. Many of their Saudi graduates have had distinguished careers in fields of medicine and surgery.
In fact, I know personally of one who was a colleague at King Faisal who was invited back to do pediatric cardiac surgery in Canadian hospitals because he was a world-class, world-renowned physician. There are many benefits there that could and should apply to other types of training, because Canada has the advantage of a well-regarded system with extra capacity potential and the willpower to reach out and try and bring what we know and what we value to other countries around the world.