I can add a little bit to what Jasmin just said about the challenges of establishing practices in the north. This is a concern for students right from the time they begin the program throughout their placements and when they graduate.
Partially it's the funding model. It has added some wonderful improvements, but the funding model is basically fee-for-service. If you cannot generate enough clients for the midwife to make what would be an equivalent full-time salary or earnings in a southern placement or location, then it's quite possible that the midwife may not be able to stay there, particularly if she is the sole breadwinner for a family. Plus, she wouldn't necessarily have the ability to add in a second midwife to the practice to cover time off so that they can take vacations or take time off when they're ill. There is a locum program that can assist with that, but it isn't always possible to assist at the last minute and have somebody cover if they need that weekend off.
A funding model where we would expect...like in schools in the north, where you have small classrooms but the teachers are paid the same as teachers in a large urban centre with large classrooms. In fact they sometimes even get extra money for distance. Could it not be possible to develop funding models for supplements to funding models? If the Ontario government funding model is not sufficient, is this a place where something like FedNor might be able to help out to assist with the economic components of having midwifery right across the province?