Poilievre calling for national standardized test to license doctors, nurses trained outside of Canada

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for a national standardized testing process to be created in order to speed up the licensing process for doctors and nurses who are either immigrants or were trained abroad.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for a national standardized testing process to be created in order to speed up the licensing process for doctors and nurses who are either immigrants or were trained abroad.

Poilievre said in a press conference Sunday that this would help to address the doctor shortage currently affecting our health-care system.

“In Canada today, we have a doctor shortage of about 40,000,” he said, speaking outside the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa. “In other words, if we had all the doctors that are here today in Canada, but trained abroad, working in our health-care system, we could reduce our doctor shortage by half.”

He is suggesting a “blue seal” testing standard, which would also allow qualified health-care professionals to work in any province or territory that volunteers to be part of the program.

Under his proposed program, health care professionals would be able to take a standardized test and receive an answer within 60 days, which he says would speed up the licensing process.

Currently, the process to try and get licensed to practice medicine in Canada depends on which province or territory you live in. Some provinces have introduced new methods during the pandemic to streamline the licensing of doctors trained outside of Canada, but many candidates still struggle to obtain the necessary approvals.

“It’ll work like this: there’ll be one, standardized testing system. Within 60 days of an immigrant or a foreign-trained Canadian applying to work in their profession, they will be able to do the exam and get a yes or no based on their competency, not based on where they come from,” Poilievre said.