Sure.
Thank you, Ms. Chow.
You asked a couple of very specific questions. First, on the issue of the internationally educated health professionals initiative and the funding, you're right that the first five-year funding cycle is about to expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The full amount of the funding will be renewed, and I've started conversations with provincial and territorial governments about how they want to use that funding, looking at what we've learned over the first five years of the initiative and what they see as the gaps in some of the programming they're investing in. Then we have a period of several months to figure out a go-forward strategy. So the short answer is yes, it is being renewed.
On your question about the number of internships or residencies in hospitals, I can give you more numbers if you're interested in them. The numbers are actually quite encouraging in terms of increases in the number of seats. Between 2003-04 and 2008-09, at the undergraduate level there was an increase of 30% in the number of seats across the country. At the post-grad level or the residency level, which I think is your primary interest, there was an increase of 32%. So that has been a dramatic increase. It's not supported through the internationally educated health professionals initiative; the main support is the Canada health transfer, as you know, which supports health care delivery in the provinces and territories.
With respect to immigrant medical graduates, you asked specifically about getting access to residency seats for international medical graduates. Those numbers are also quite encouraging. In 2003 there were 75 seats in residencies for international medical graduates. In this current year of 2009, there will be 404. So in a pretty short period of time there's been quite a dramatic increase in the seats available.