Thank you.
I think if we could match immigration policy with needs, we might create a better sense of expectation among those who are immigrating to Canada and the practice realities.
Fitting it into practice is really a complex issue. It's not just the technical skills, it's the social acculturation as well. To have a clinician tell me I'm not breathing well because I'm probably a stressed woman I don't think would go over well—and that has actually happened to me.
So the issue is community placements, it's observations and practice, and so on, and these are all very time-consuming perspectives that occupy already very busy clinicians.
I think we're making great strides in trying to integrate our internationally educated health professions into practice, but we have to be realistic. A lot of them will never get the job because they're not good enough.
The experience in Quebec.... When I toured the various medical schools in Quebec, they were saying that a lot of physicians who trained in la francophonie internationale are not fit to practise. They really have to start from the start, from medical school. Are we ready to make that investment in these people?