I certainly agree with you on that.
Dr. Rao, I don't know if you're aware of this, but I think your testimony will be added to the testimony of some other people the Conservatives brought before this committee, the theme being that immigrants are a big part of the problem in the health care system.
I've worked in health care. I was an emergency room doctor for 35 years. For the last five years, I haven't practised emergency medicine because I'm mostly here in Parliament, but I do some walk-in clinics.
I don't know if you're aware, but the last figure I could find was that 23% of the Canadian population was not born in Canada, so 23% are immigrants. However, 50% of the nurses working in Canadian health care are immigrants. I would suggest that the numbers are probably pretty similar for doctors. For PSWs, the numbers are even much higher.
On balance, yes, there are some costs to immigration, but there are also some benefits to immigration. If you're going to weigh the costs and benefits of immigration to the Canadian health care system, I would say, overwhelmingly, that immigrants have helped our health care system, not caused problems in our health care system.
You practise. You're practising a lot more than I am at the moment.
In my walk-in clinic, yes, I see people who are here on work permits, people who have PR status. Yes, there are quite a few of them, but for the most part they're young. There's nothing wrong with them. They don't need artificial knees. They don't need artificial hips. They don't need colonoscopies. They don't need biopsies. They don't go to ICUs. They're not the people come in with oxygen prongs in their noses. They're not the people who are asking for drugs. They're not the people with mental health problems.
Maybe your experience is different. Do you not feel that, for the most part, these are young people who, despite their numbers, don't have a lot of medical problems?