October saw Canada’s first ever Federal-Provincial conference on immigration. The Immigration Minister met with politicians from the provinces to discuss solutions to labour shortages in Canada, especially in rural regions.

Solutions are being sought to allow skilled workers to enter Canada in order to meet the needs of specific locations. This would appear to be in order to supplement the existing Economic Immigrant programs. No formal plan has yet been announced.

Provinces to Encourage Foreign Doctors

In Ontario, where the government’s own statistics suggest 588 additional
family doctors are needed, Health Minister Tony Clement plans to increase the number of new foreign-trained doctors from the present 90 a year.

The intention is to ease the requirements that foreign physicians must fulfill in order to receive conditional eligibility to practice medicine. Such eligibility will also be conditional on an agreement to work in an under-serviced area.

Shortly after this announcement, the province of Quebec announced similar plans to increase the number of foreign doctors recruited each year.