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In a bid to fill local gaps in medical services, provinces and territories will be able to nominate 5,000 health care professionals for fast-tracking.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Foreign doctors are to be offered a fast track to permanent residency in a bid to persuade more medical professionals to stay and work across Canada.
The announcement Monday by Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab of a new pathway to permanent residency is designed to increase the number of family doctors in Canada and cut wait times to see specialists and surgeons.
It will be opened next year for foreign physicians who have worked in Canada for more than a year over the past three years.
Provinces and territories will also be given the power to nominate a total of 5,000 health care professionals for fast-tracking in a bid to fill local gaps in medical services.
Foreign doctors who have been offered jobs will have their work permits processed within 14 days so they can start work within weeks.
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Speaking in Toronto, Ms. Diab said “provinces and territories are best placed to determine where their pressures are.”
She said staff shortages have led to “strain in our emergency rooms” and on the front line.
The new measures would apply to family doctors as well as surgeons and specialists, including oncologists, cardiologists and gynecologists, as well as people working in clinical and laboratory medicine.
Maggie Chi, the parliamentary secretary to Minister of Health Marjorie Michel, said the pathway to permanent residency will help plug staffing gaps.
Last year, about 5.7 million Canadian adults and 765,000 children and youth reported not having a regular health care provider.
The responsibility for recognizing foreign medical credentials and licensing them to work in Canada lies with the provinces and territories.
Health care professionals from abroad have complained for years that getting qualified to work in Canada is fraught and full of obstacles and delays.
Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Canada is short about 23,000 family physicians. She has called for health care work force planning at a national level and the creation of one coherent, sustainable system, including addressing immigration and training.
More to come
