Finance committee  To maybe clarify it, what we have...and I know the folks; we work very closely with the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Medical Association. There is a pan-Canadian health human resource framework that has been bought into. It's developed by an FPT, so federal, provi

Finance committee  My apologies.

Finance committee  Those are difficult waters to tread, because there are professional bodies to speak on behalf of those professions.

Finance committee  First, I believe that the leadership of the professions is on the right track. We've spent five, six, seven years and $780 million of taxpayers' money developing a new approach to primary health care. It actually does remove the physician from being the gatekeeper and allows Cana

Finance committee  I was going to speak to the physiotherapy example but broaden it a bit. One of the true barriers to that direct access is the insurers. The services you're talking about are privately funded. They're not part of the publicly funded system, and many of them still require you to se

Finance committee  Yes, but I wanted to give you a sense of optimism. We do have a pan-Canadian health human resource strategy in this country. Actually, we have five, and I have them in a file, but one comes from the federal government. A question I would put to you is: where is it right now and

Finance committee  I'll just add one thought. I do support what my colleagues have said on the tremendous benefit of focused funding that sometimes produces magical results, but I'm also a true supporter of not directing so much, of letting it emerge. That's where we do get some magic as well. It h

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  There are two aspects to the question. One is that generally, in almost every health profession, we have lineups of people trying to get in, but we don't have the spots in the institutions, we don't have the educators to teach, and we don't have the clinical placements to provide

Finance committee  Well, you don't win the cake, but that's exactly my point. It's why I made the comment that in terms of health, we can't rely on the external world. First of all, the United States has been the greatest consumer of Canadian-trained health professionals. If we think it's going to

Finance committee  We can talk offline about that, if you'd like.

Finance committee  Can I make one comment? I do believe that our colleges and other institutions are part of the solution to the issue you raise, in that if we coordinate our work around practising in scope and getting the right health provider in the right place, we don't need the highly educate

Finance committee  Thanks very much, Paul, and monsieur le président et membres du comité. As Paul indicated, our coalition is very concerned about this growing shortage of skilled workers in Canada and the challenge this presents for all of our industries in the years ahead. While the shortage ma

Finance committee  I'm including myself. I'm not talking about political retirements. I'm completely non-partisan. Do I get my 30 seconds back? I am part of a larger coalition but have been asked to speak specifically to some of the health sector issues. I'd like to bring to your attention today

Finance committee  We'd like to bring solutions to you, and my colleague will do that.