Health committee  Health Canada, in partnership with the federal-provincial-territorial committee, has been working on the shortages issue, the numbers recruited into the profession. We have also invested in a number of projects directed at getting people to remain in the profession once they're i

Health committee  Actually, that's been one of the major areas of investment under the internationally educated health professionals initiative. Most of the money goes to provincial-territorial governments, about 90% of the program funds. So investment is at the discretion of the provincial-territ

Health committee  Health Canada does not have direct responsibility for the regulatory function in medicine, of course. That's with provincial and territorial governments, and they've delegated that responsibility, in most cases, to their own regulatory agencies. All of the work we've done on new

Health committee  I did bring along some numbers on the residency issue because there has been quite remarkable progress in the past few years actually. Just to put it into context, before we talk about the specific issue of internationally educated doctors and their capacity to come in as residen

Health committee  Yes. Just to give you a number on internationally trained medical graduates, in 2003 there were 75 students from outside the country, foreign-trained, who were successful in getting residency seats in Canada. In the current year, in 2009, that number is up to 442. So from 2003 t

Health committee  The most recent data we have are from the Health Council of Canada, a study published at the beginning of 2008, based on 2007 data. This is survey data. It's a survey of Canadians. It found that 14% of Canadians don't have access to a regular family physician. If you translate th

Health committee  Yes, I think it's definitely improving—it has been improving since 2002-03. The investments are quite dramatic in undergrad, in residencies, and in graduating physicians.

Health committee  Yes, we do. Your specific example of British Columbia is probably the best one. We have worked with the University of British Columbia as the host for housing what's called the Canadian Inter-Professional Health Collaborative. We have done a lot of work with them. One of the piec

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Malo. I'll pass the question over to my colleague from the first nations and Inuit health branch, Shelagh Jane Woods.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. I'll give a bit of a response, and if colleagues want to jump in they're welcome to. One of the pieces that the Advisory Committee on Health Delivery and Human Resources is working on, the federal-provincial-territorial committee that I talked about,

Health committee  That one's been largely funded by Health Canada, so colleagues haven't had as much involvement in the work.

Health committee  I'm not sure if I can give you the kind of detailed answer that you're looking for. From a Health Canada perspective, we invest in the models, the best practices, the pilots, however you want to describe them. Just to give you a couple of specific project examples, we did work

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. On behalf of Health Canada, I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to participate in your study on health human resources. I'd like to focus on two things in my remarks this afternoon. First, I'd like to provide an overview of Health Cana

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thanks very much for the question. I was going to talk a little bit about an initiative that addresses exactly the challenge you've raised. International medical graduates' entry into the medical profession, as you know, is one of the most complex licensing processes in Canada

Citizenship and Immigration committee  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 fisca