To wit:
Canada is currently short nearly 69,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers, says a Department of Health report. The figure is lower than 2023 estimates but still “substantial,” it said: “Canada clearly has urgent work to do.”**
When dozens of hospital patients were evacuated by military flight out of Yellowknife as the wildfires approached in the summer of 2023, the doctors who accompanied them couldn’t care for their patients once the aircraft landed, because they didn’t have licences to practise in British Columbia or other jurisdictions. ...
The scenario underscores the limits imposed by licensing barriers at provincial borders and the benefits of a more flexible system, Reimer said. “What we want to see is an ability for doctors to work anywhere in the country.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and “51st state” turbulence have put new focus on interprovincial barriers within Canada, including labour mobility hurdles.
The CMA has long lobbied for a pan-Canadian licensure program, which it defines as the ability of doctors with full licences and in good standing to practise in any jurisdiction “without having to acquire more than one licence or pay additional licensing fees.”
Such a scheme “represents a path to a more unified and efficient health-care system,” the CMA says.
Support among doctors is high: 95 per cent of 5,002 members who responded to a 2022 survey said they were very (87 per cent) or somewhat (eight per cent) in favour of the idea.
The “overall complexity of the process,” the time (often months long) and costs (thousands of dollars in fees) were cited as the biggest obstacles in applying for an additional licence.
It's protectionism of the worst sort.
Why won't we train and keep medical professionals here?
Let's ask the biggest medical insurance company in Canada: the government.
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