Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. I apologize that you do not have my comments in front of you. I will take the chair's advice and try to speak more slowly.
My name is Margo Craig Garrison. I'm the director of health human resources policy at Health Canada.
On behalf of Health Canada, I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to contribute to your study today. I will focus my remarks on Health Canada's contributions to improving foreign qualification recognition, first by providing some context to my remarks and then some examples of the department's participation and accomplishments.
The recognition of foreign qualifications is important for the health workforce. Internationally educated health professionals, or IEHPs, continue to grow in number and as a proportion of their respective workforces. For example, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reports that international medical graduates, or IMGs, increased by over 14% between 2005 and 2009 and represented 23.4% of the total physician workforce in 2009. Over the same period, internationally educated nurses increased by almost 15% to represent 8.3% of the total registered nursing workforce.
Despite the significance of IEHPs in the health workforce, it is well documented that these professionals face challenges during their path to workplace integration, such as navigating the steps to licensure; their language and communication skills; and their lack of familiarity with and experience in the Canadian health care system.
In 2003, Canada's first ministers made a commitment to work together to secure and maintain a stable and optimal health workforce in Canada. In 2004, first ministers adopted a 10-year plan to strengthen health care and respond to concerns around timely access to quality care for all Canadians. A key part of the plan focused on increasing the supply of health professionals, in part by accelerating and expanding the assessment and integration of internationally trained health care graduates.
In support of the 10-year plan, in its 2005 budget the Government of Canada committed $75 million over five years to the internationally educated health professionals initiative or IEHPI. We are pleased to say that the IEHPI was renewed in 2010. Currently, the initiative has an ongoing funding base of $18 million per year.
The goal of the initiative is to address barriers and to advance progress in areas related to the integration of internationally educated health professionals. In practical terms, this means working to improve access to credential assessment and verification, and increasing the availability of training, orientation, and other supports to facilitate integration into the workforce.
Since 2005, investments under the IEHPI have focused on seven priority occupations: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical laboratory technologists, and medical radiation technologists. These IEHPI priority occupations align well with the priority occupations targeted for FQR framework implementation.
Approximately 140 projects have been completed or are currently being supported by the IEHPI funding. To provide a few examples of Health Canada's investment, funding has been provided to the Atlantic provinces at $1.2 million over four years. The provinces have partnered to develop self-assessment tools for several professions including licensed practical nurses, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists. These online tools help IEHPs identify whether they have the knowledge and skills needed to work in Canada. By using these tools online, immigrants can access them prior to coming to Canada and therefore be better informed about Canadian practice requirements.
With $7.3 million over five years, the Government of British Columbia is supporting the workplace integration and retention of IEHPs through the development and implementation of courses that help IEHPs improve their communication skills, as well as a course that helps employers identify and deal with communication challenges. Additionally, B.C. will improve consistency across their bridging programs.
The Medical Council of Canada's national assessment approach for IMGs is receiving $110,000 over two years for the common assessment tool the council created to determine IMGs' preparedness for entry into first-year medical residency training. Discussions are now under way to explore whether this tool can be used as part of a common national assessment process for physicians who arrive in Canada practice-ready. And Quebec's
Department of Health and Social Services
is providing $6.4 million over three years to help remove barriers for IMGs and other IEHPs.
In addition to aligning IEHPI's investments with the priority outcomes identified in the framework, Health Canada has been an active participant on the FQR Working Group, which manages this initiative during the first phase of analysis and action planning for the five health occupations selected from among the first eight for FQR implementation.
Building on these successes, governments are leading work on the second set of six priority occupations, four of which are health-related, including physicians.
Health Canada is pleased to act as the co-chair with the Province of Alberta on the Physician Task Team, and is also an active contributor to the work under way with the other health-related occupations.
Health Canada's support for the successful implementation of the FQR framework is not limited to funding provincial and territorial governments and national stakeholders. Health Canada is the co-chair of the federal-provincial-territorial advisory committee on health delivery and human resources. HRSDC is represented as a member of that committee. The ACHDHR has established an internationally educated health professionals task force, which is co-chaired by Health Canada and the Province of British Columbia. The task force identifies the impacts of the framework on health ministries across the country and works towards addressing common policy issues.
As federal partners in foreign qualification recognition, both CIC and HRSDC are invited to Health Canada-organized meetings. We truly are cooperating among ourselves.
After six years of the successful implementation of the IEHPI, Health Canada is revising its policy agenda in collaboration with partners. Among the principal issues going forward are workplace integration issues. These continue to be a challenge, particularly language and communication skills and alternative careers. Health Canada is continuing to work collaboratively with all of our partners, including the regulatory authorities, the professional associations, and others to facilitate implementation of the framework.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that Health Canada is playing a key role in addressing some of the most complex challenges in foreign qualification recognition and has been instrumental in engaging a wider network of government ministries, organizations, and others who are dedicating their time and effort to improving FQR in Canada. These broad partnerships are essential to the continued success of the framework.
Thank you, Mr. Chair