Report From Parliament Hill

Eric Melillo, MP, Kenora Riding

Dear Constituents

The NDP-Liberal government has failed to solve Canada’s major shortage of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Under this government, these problems will only get worse.
Endless barriers and red tape are preventing less than half of foreign-trained doctors and nurses from doing the work they are trained to do. This means that more than 50,000 doctors and nurses are not able to work in their profession in Canada.
A Common Sense Conservative government will put an end to this bureaucratic mess and bring home our doctors and nurses to fix our broken healthcare system. Our common sense plan will ensure foreign-trained healthcare workers can easily work in Canada and make it easy for healthcare workers to take their skills wherever they are needed across the country. 
Conservatives will bring home doctors and nurses by:
•    Establishing a “Blue Seal” national testing standard to get a license in regulated trades, starting with doctors and nurses but continuing until all regulated professions are covered. Provinces and territories would have the freedom to join or keep their own systems. 
•    Working with provinces and the healthcare sector to establish a national competency body that will set standards just like the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA) does for the Red Seal certificate that exists for many skilled professions. 
•    Signing a deal with provinces and territories that will create a 60-day standard so foreign-trained health professionals applying for Blue Seal certification get a chance to take the test and get an answer within 60 days.  
The Blue Seal will mean that it won’t matter where someone comes from, it matters what they can do. If they meet our national Blue Seal standards, they will be able to work in our healthcare system.
It’s time to remove red tape, fix our broken healthcare system and bring home doctors and nurses.
Working for You 
If you’re planning to be in Ottawa and are interested in attending Question Period or taking a tour of Parliament, please let me know and my office can help reserve Question Period and tour tickets. 
As always, if there is anything my office can assist you with, please call me at 807-223-2182 (Dryden) or 807-468-2170 (Kenora) or email me at 
eric.melillo@parl.gc.ca.
Sincerely,
Eric Melillo
Member of Parliament
Kenora Riding