OCTOBER 7 & 8 : IMPORTANT VIDEO CONFERENCE BEING ORGANIZED BY SOCASMA

URGENT! – FEDERAL ELECTION ACTION REQUIRED – YOU, YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE INVITED YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN A VIDEO CONFERENCE being organized by the Society for Canadians Studying Medicine Abroad. Key issues are outlined further down.

OCTOBER 7, 2019 7 PM EST (Ontario time); 4 PM PST (British Columbia time)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/396546062

Or

OCTOBER 8, 2019 8 PM EST (Ontario time); 5 PM PST (British Columbia time)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/902886202

Joining the Meeting or Webinar

1. Click the link to join the meeting.

2. An option Join from your Browser may appear automatically. If it does not, select download & run Zoom.

3. The option Join from your Browser will appear.

4. You will be prompted to enter your name.

5. Click Join to be taken into the meeting.

It is highly recommended that prior to participating in this meeting, you test your system to make sure you are able to properly use Zoom with video and audio by following the instructions on this page to Join a Test Meeting: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002262083-Joining-a-Test-Meeting

When you join us, your audio will be muted so that noise in your background does not disturb the meeting. However, you can turn the audio on any time you want to speak by using the button at the bottom.

Look forward to seeing you.

Rosemary Pawliuk, Executive Director, SOCASMA
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OCTOBER 21, 2019 FEDERAL ELECTION.
The Problem: ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE IS FAILING CANADIANS
More than 4.5 million Canadians don’t have access to family doctor. People are literally dying on waiting lists and in hospital waiting rooms. Canada ranks at the bottom or near the bottom of developed countries for access to healthcare.
The candidates in this federal election have all stated that they will address the family doctor shortage and waiting list issue in one way or another, but have not provided specifics. We will be voting for the party that promises to manage healthcare spending in a responsible way:
a. Fund residency training positions for Canadian citizens and permanent residents who
have medical degrees INSTEAD OF recruiting more foreign doctors for a short term fix;
b. Stop using our scarce training resources to train foreigners. The federal government
must reinstate a requirement for a Labour Market Impact Assessment for all foreign visa applications for doctors pursuing residency training. The LMIA requirement will force
employers to prove that there is no Canadian citizen or permanent resident who is able and willing to take the job before issuing a work visa to a foreigner seeking residency
training in Canada. Directing funding to more residency training positions is an immediate and cost-effective
solution. We don’t need to recruit more doctors from foreign countries; and taxpayers don’t need to fund expensive new medical school places and wait over 6 years for their new doctors. Canadian citizens and permanent resident medical graduates who studied medicine abroad, passed all required exams of the Medical Council of Canada, and applied for residency training in Canada can begin working as resident physicians immediately and will be fully licensed in as
little as two years. The government under the Immigration Act has an obligation to put the interest of Canadians
first: Jobs for Canadians first; training resources for Canadians first. The Immigration Act’s objective is to ensure this happens by requiring a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)
which requires that an employer proves that there is no Canadian citizen or permanent resident able and willing to take the job and that Canadian interests will not be negatively impacted before the government issues a work visa to a foreigner. But in 2010, universities convinced the
government to exempt residency training jobs from this requirement for their profit. As a result, we cannot train enough Canadians to meet the physician needs of Canadians who struggle to find a family doctor and sit on long-waiting. The government must begin enforcing the objective
of “Canadians first” set out in the Immigration Act by reinstating the LMIA requirement for residency positions so Canadians can have the benefit of doctors who will train and stay in Canada to provide the medical services Canadians need..

#socasma #SocietyofCanadianMedicalStudentsAbroad #étudiantsenmédecine #lobbyinggovernmentforchange #healthcareinCanada #Canadiandoctorsintraining