Canadian Gov Provide $2M to Help Medical Professionals

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

The Canadian government has provided more than $2 million to help foreign doctors become paramedics, give more English-language instruction to adults and provide more resources to those settling in Edmonton and northern Alberta.

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"When we come to recovery out of this difficult economic time, we're going to need people to fuel the jobs of the future," said citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney. "The number one preoccupation to newcomers to Canada is the difficulty of getting their credentials recognized by the professional agencies. ...We want to ensure that the agencies are not putting roadblocks in the way of them getting their credential recognition." According to Kenney, 20 per cent of Canadian immigrants have careers in regulated professions, but many can't work in those fields in Canada. While Kenney said provincial regulators need to ensure the skills of immigrants match Canadian standards, he said the federal government wants to eliminate arbitrary roadblocks and red tape that prevent people from determining if they will be able to proceed in those careers. "We need medical professionals," Kenney said. "We don't need them cleaning houses and working in corner stores. We need them tending to patients." Through the Bredin Institute, the government has already provided $184,000 for two programs. One, which helps foreign pharmacists address gaps in their training, and another program helps foreign-trained doctors become local paramedics. This program has already graduated 82 international pharmacists to work in Canada. In addition, the federal immigration department also gave $370,000 to Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l'Alberta, an organization which aims to prevent crime among French-speaking immigrant youth and families through education. The francophone organization will use the money to create diversity and inclusion presentations in schools. Another $1.3 million is going to Edmonton Catholic Schools to teach English to immigrant adults in a new northeast-Edmonton program, and $423,000 will help the Edmonton Immigrant Services Association reach immigrant families as they enrol their children in Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray schools.

source:http://www.migrationexpert.com