Suggestions include funding the salary of the international graduate, and their supervisor, when they elect to work under a Canadian-trained physician in-lieu of a residency, as well as advising provinces on where needs for doctors are most acute.

For foreign-trained doctors, relocating to Canada involves several steps, including the checking of credentials, and potentially exams and a residency depending on their speciality and destination within Canada where they plan to practise.

Besides these suggestions, the federal government is already working on shortening the typical time it takes to check credentials to under a year.

Examples of provinces with a high penetration of foreign-trained doctors include Ontario, where 20 percent of physicians in residency programs were foreign-trained, and Saskatchewan, where a full half of the doctors practising are foreign-trained.

Other provinces lag on this measure, such as Quebec, where acceptance into required residency programs for foreign-trained doctors is far behind compared to their native equivalents, although even there, Quebec’s Health Department is taking measures to rectify the discrepancy.

General practitioners and family physicians as well as specialist physicians both qualify under the Federal Skilled Worker category for admittance into Canada.

If you work in the medical field find out if you qualify for Canadian immigration by taking our free assessment.