October 08, 2023
Roughly 1,000 Canadian doctors who went to school abroad are turned away every year because they can't get residency spots in Canada. Meanwhile, the number of foreign visa trainees in medical residency is up 70% since 2019. Critics maintain that dismantling the foreign visa trainee program - which gives several hundred residency spots to non-Canadians - would free up positions so more homegrown doctors can work in Canada and chip away at the physician deficit. Federal data suggest Canada will be short 44,000 doctors, including more than 30,000 family doctors and general practitioners, by 2028.