Evidence of meeting #9 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A video is available from Parliament.
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
No...well, when I worked for Toronto Metropolitan, I was there for two years to start up the medical school, and I was paid consulting fees to do that.
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Does any of this amount to a significant conflict of interest to you?
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
Well, I don't think so. In fact, I'm here because I firmly believe that the Saudi visa training program and many other programs known as the King Abdullah scholarship fund, which sent other students across the world, many to Canada in engineering and science areas, was probably one of the world's greatest technology transfer projects ever undertaken. It was socially transforming, because those trainees who came to Canada brought their families with them and went back imbued with our values, and I think—
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I'm sorry. I have one other thing I want to get to.
You mentioned in your testimony that you recruited 12 hematologists to Saudi Arabia when you were there.
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
That's correct.
Conservative
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
They were from Europe, England and North America. We had one American, a couple of Canadians and a couple of Brits, and one was Danish.
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I'll just put on the record that this all seems tantamount to producing a significant conflict of interest to me.
I'll bring to the committee's attention that at our first meeting, we discussed asking witnesses to disclose their conflicts of interest before speaking to the committee. I'll note that it is my understanding, Dr. Padmos, that you were invited by the Liberal members to speak at the committee. Is that correct?
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
I'm not sure who invited me. I—
October 30th, 2025 / 12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Matt Strauss Conservative Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
That is my understanding.
I have no other questions. Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We have gone over time now. Thank you very much.
I think I'll go to the next questioner. That would be Mr. Powlowski for the Liberals.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I was just going to reply as a point of order on the conflict of interest. I don't think we've established that there's any conflict of interest.
I listened, and I know that Mr. Strauss asked Dr. Padmos a bunch of probing questions, which I think he responded to very well. I personally do not see any conflict of interest. He was asked quite a number of detailed questions.
Dr. Padmos, I'll give you the opportunity. You started to talk about the benefits of this program to Saudi Arabia and the culture of the medical community in Saudi Arabia. I would tend to agree with you that there are probably some very useful and helpful spinoffs as a result of this program. I'm going to give you the opportunity to continue your thoughts on that subject.
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
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.
Liberal
Marcus Powlowski Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
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?
Emergency Physician, As an Individual
I will say that those experiences are probably reflective of your experience working in the walk-in clinic, so there's a little bit of selection bias.
I certainly do see a substantial number of immigrants, new immigrants, patients here on super visas, refugee claimants who are 80-plus years old—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
I go now to Monsieur Thériault.
You have the floor for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Mr. Padmos, how many women from Saudi Arabia are being trained at our universities?
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
There are quite a few, probably at least 50% of the trainees.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
We're helping to ensure that 50% of the people trained in our universities are women who will practise in Saudi Arabia.
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
Yes, that's correct.
Executive Vice-President, American Canadian School of Medicine
Well, I think we all have challenges. I think the Saudis have particular challenges. I think they've made progress.
Do I believe that it reflects on the individuals I've come in contact with? No, I'd say that these are people I'd be proud to be with, whether in Canada or in Saudi Arabia.
Do I like the politics? Not a lot. Do I like other politics near us? Not a lot.
It's an important question, but it's one that I've learned to live with in my own way.