You have asked a very good question. It has been a burning issue recently.
We had 66 residency positions allocated to the Alberta IMG residency program. That was reduced to 40 this year. So some people who already have their LMCC certification--the certificate you get from the Medical Council of Canada after meeting all the requirements--cannot get residency positions. It is like a bottleneck. All of these people are trying to get through the neck, but only a few of them get through it.
I think that's a big step. If we had a federal grant, these issues could be dealt with and the number of residency positions could be increased. That certainly would be helpful.
The other point I would like to make is that not everybody needs a two-year program of training for family medicine. It could be customized according to the capabilities of pre-assessed candidates. With all the vigorous exams they have to go through and the language exams they have to take every two years to stay in the system, it costs a lot of money and there is a lot of frustration.
If those things were dealt with, it would certainly be helpful.