Juno News - November 20, 2025


Liberals don’t track immigrant doctors finding jobs

Topics
immigrant doctors tracking West Coast Pipeline negotiations
Mentioned
Lena Diab John Rustad Danielle Smith Mark Carney Marjorie Michelle Jory Brooks David Eby Clerk Michael Sabia Monsieur Yatso-Yang Nanaimo Lanceville Surrey Panorama Saanich South Pierre Poilievre Dan Mazier Cosman
BOMBSHELL U.S. allegations put spotlight on crime in Canada Trudeau-era minister given cushy UN role

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

144.63

Word count

2,078

Sentence count

102

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Despite boasting about attracting immigrant doctors, Liberal ministers have admitted they do not track how many of these individuals actually become practicing doctors after arriving in Canada. There are now 30 former and current riding association board members in the B.C. Conservative Party calling for their leader to resign, but he refuses to budge. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she s just days away from getting clarity on Prime Minister Mark Carney s future policies around her province, including getting a pipeline.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Despite boasting about attracting immigrant doctors, liberal ministers have admitted they
00:00:09.740 do not track how many of these individuals actually become practicing physicians after
00:00:15.760 arriving in Canada. There are now 30 former and current Riding Association board members in the
00:00:21.160 B.C. Conservative Party calling for their leader John Rustad to resign, but Rustad refuses to budge.
00:00:26.920 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she's just days away from getting, quote, clarity on Prime
00:00:33.520 Minister Mark Carney's future policies around her province, including getting a pipeline.
00:00:39.400 Hello, Canada. It's Thursday, November 20th, and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm
00:00:44.940 Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:50.200 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:56.920 Both the Liberal Immigration Minister and the Health Minister admit that they don't track how many
00:01:04.420 medically trained doctors the Liberals bring into the country actually become doctors, despite
00:01:10.700 lauding their own program for bringing healthcare professionals into Canada. During a House of
00:01:16.480 Commons Health Committee meeting on Tuesday, Conservative health critic Dan Mazier, grilled
00:01:22.140 Minister of Immigration Lena Diab and Minister of Health Marjorie Michel on the issue, but neither
00:01:29.480 provided an answer. Mazier asked the two how many of the 674 immigrant doctors at Diab's department
00:01:37.160 approved through the Federal Skilled Workers Express Entry Program have become licensed practicing
00:01:44.220 doctors in Canada. Both Diab and Michel said they didn't know.
00:01:48.820 Minister Diab, does the Immigration Department track how many immigrant doctors become licensed
00:01:54.760 as doctors once a minute into Canada?
00:01:55.820 No, I don't believe that is an IRCC function. Again, it's the licensing bodies as well as the
00:02:10.740 hospitals that are employing them or the medical institutions.
00:02:15.680 So, does the Immigration Department know how many doctors are driving taxis instead of working
00:02:21.680 in hospitals?
00:02:22.680 Let me give you a fulsome answer. Monsieur Yatso-Yang, please.
00:02:27.620 Just answer the question. Do they know how many?
00:02:31.620 Despite this, Diab said in her opening remarks that immigration plays a, quote, vital role in bringing
00:02:38.220 skilled professionals into the healthcare system and, quote, strengthening care for Canadians. When asked
00:02:45.140 whether the immigration minister considers Canada's healthcare capacity when setting immigration targets,
00:02:51.980 Diab said her department works with provincial and territorial governments, quote, with respect to
00:02:58.420 that, she said, quote, everything is considered before the federal government sets immigration targets.
00:03:05.000 When asked about the department's analysis of sustainable levels of immigration for Canada's healthcare
00:03:10.680 system, Diab laughed and said it wasn't a, quote, fair question for immigration.
00:03:16.680 How many more patients can our healthcare system handle this year, according to your department's analysis?
00:03:23.100 Oh, that's not a fair question for immigration.
00:03:26.320 Jeff, you would expect that the immigration minister would have a good grasp on how their decisions are
00:03:35.540 impacting Canada's healthcare system, which admittedly is under a lot of stress right now.
00:03:41.300 I think everybody realizes that or has some first person experience if they've been to the emergency
00:03:47.060 room or have had to deal with delayed appointments or long wait times for specialized treatments.
00:03:54.500 But what is the government's justification for not tracking this?
00:03:59.300 Because Diab seems to laugh off the idea of analyzing sustainable levels of immigration when it comes to 1.00
00:04:07.540 healthcare impacts.
00:04:09.160 Yeah, Cosman.
00:04:09.780 Well, to start, once someone's approved as a permanent resident through federal programs like Express Entry,
00:04:15.140 they get the same rights as any other resident, and it's up to provincial health colleges and regulators
00:04:19.320 to handle licensing and credentialing.
00:04:21.500 Immigration Minister Lina Diab basically said it's not their job to follow up or analyze outcomes.
00:04:26.260 It's a hands-off approach after the visa stamp, even though they tout the program as a big win 0.94
00:04:31.460 for healthcare staffing.
00:04:32.900 And yeah, the issue's brutal.
00:04:34.400 Over 13,000 internationally trained physicians are stuck in Canada, unable to work because of
00:04:39.520 red tape and credential barriers, while 6.5 million Canadians, like one in five Canadians,
00:04:44.820 don't have a family doctor.
00:04:46.440 And this is all according to the Canada Health Association and experts like Dr. Therese Bichet
00:04:51.060 from Internationally Trained Physicians of Canada.
00:04:53.300 And that's on top of shortages, like 23,000 general practitioners and 60,000 registered
00:04:58.660 nurses.
00:04:59.440 Groups like the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of Family Physicians,
00:05:04.040 and Canadian Anesthesiologists Society have testified that the feds never consulted them
00:05:09.140 on how high immigration targets, 395,000 permanent residents and 673,000 non-permanent ones this
00:05:17.200 year alone, are slamming the healthcare system, leaving no room to absorb all these pros.
00:05:21.800 It's even worse with retention.
00:05:23.940 A new Leaky Bucket 2025 report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship found 35% of immigrant 1.00
00:05:30.080 healthcare workers bail within five years, often heading to places like the U.S. or the
00:05:35.000 U.K. where licensing is smoother, thanks to our endless barriers and training limits.
00:05:39.860 A growing grassroots revolt inside the Conservative Party of British Columbia has now expanded to
00:05:48.120 30 former and current Riding Association board members and other officials who are publicly
00:05:53.080 calling on the party caucus to trigger a leadership change.
00:05:56.280 In a letter dated November 18th and circulated to caucus and constituency offices, Corey Brooks,
00:06:02.020 president of the party's Burnaby North Riding Association, says 15 additional board members
00:06:06.700 from across B.C. have added their names to an open letter released November 7th by directors
00:06:12.060 from the Burnaby New West Tri-Cities region.
00:06:14.880 The original letter urged caucus to, quote, act with courage and conviction to begin the process
00:06:20.100 of leadership renewal.
00:06:21.200 Brooks says the latest signatories, who include elected board members from regions such as
00:06:26.040 Saanich South, Surrey Panorama, Peace River North, Pennington Summerland, and Nanaimo Lanceville,
00:06:32.580 are now formally endorsing the initial call.
00:06:35.240 Brooks writes that the mounting number of signatories represents, quote,
00:06:38.640 province-wide concern among grassroots organizers, whom he describes as the people who, quote,
00:06:43.600 knock doors, raise money, and organize the vote.
00:06:46.620 The letter states, quote, the message is unambiguous.
00:06:50.060 Continuing with the current leadership makes winning an election virtually impossible.
00:06:53.920 Brooks argues caucus has both the authority and a, quote, moral imperative to act,
00:06:58.220 saying party leaders in the legislature, quote, serve at the pleasure of caucus.
00:07:02.220 The letter concludes by urging MLAs to initiate, quote, leadership renewal immediately.
00:07:07.420 So, Cosmin, how is Rustad reacting to this added level of pressure he's facing,
00:07:11.280 calling for his resignation?
00:07:12.220 Yeah, just from watching the past few weeks and months, Rustad has a habit of just doubling down.
00:07:20.980 And it's quite remarkable how much the B.C. conservative leader has decided to bunker up,
00:07:29.580 because if it were any other province or provincial conservative party at this point,
00:07:35.680 I think there would be a leadership underway.
00:07:39.140 Even just Tuesday night, the B.C. conservative caucus held its caucus meeting,
00:07:45.020 and that ran, actually, I think, until around 11 at night.
00:07:50.560 So they went in around 7 p.m. Pacific time, and they came out around 11.
00:07:56.000 And from reports, it seems that things really blew up, and certain MLAs spoke their mind about
00:08:05.220 Rustad's leadership, and it got really heated.
00:08:08.860 Now, Rustad has not stepped down.
00:08:11.300 He hasn't even commented on that caucus meeting, as far as I know.
00:08:15.320 His own MLAs, who remain loyal to him, have thwarted attempts to hold a secret ballot on Rustad's leadership,
00:08:25.620 which would give some clarity on where all the MLAs stand, but that hasn't happened.
00:08:31.440 So he's coming under serious pressure from his own MLAs on top of party members, grassroots party members,
00:08:39.440 who aren't happy with his leadership, aren't happy with where the party is at right now,
00:08:45.780 both in terms of fundraising, in terms of how they're doing in the polls,
00:08:50.620 and in terms of how Rustad has responded to this criticism, it tends to lean towards accusations.
00:08:57.420 So in the past, he's went on CBC, and he has essentially accused his own MLAs of not believing in democracy.
00:09:05.860 Those MLAs that want to see him gone apparently don't believe in democracy, if you were to believe John Rustad.
00:09:14.840 But at the same time, he's blocking the caucus, his own caucus, from actually holding a vote on his leadership,
00:09:21.580 which is a democratic procedure.
00:09:24.260 So he's lecturing people about democracy on the one hand, saying his opponents are anti-democratic,
00:09:32.100 while denying them the very process that would let them exercise their own democratic will.
00:09:38.580 And this is just boiling over in terms of frustration for the party's grassroots, too.
00:09:44.800 As you pointed out, these board members and organizers are watching all this happen,
00:09:49.620 essentially powerless to do anything about it.
00:09:53.080 And they're resorting to letters and signing on their names to these initiatives,
00:09:58.520 openly calling for a leadership change.
00:10:01.560 Now, that's up to caucus to initiate any further pressure, which is being thwarted,
00:10:09.460 or at least there isn't enough organized effort from the caucus side to really push that issue,
00:10:16.700 at least at least at this point.
00:10:19.220 But the message from the ground in the party seems to be clear.
00:10:23.640 If Rustad doesn't allow a democratic process and for a new leader to be selected,
00:10:31.160 they're saying it's hard to see how the party can move forward or be competitive in the next election.
00:10:37.660 Ottawa and Alberta are on the verge of sealing a major energy deal that could finally pave the way
00:10:46.940 for a crucial oil pipeline to British Columbia's northwest coast, according to a Globe and Mail report.
00:10:54.100 The memorandum of understanding would represent the most significant federal-provincial breakthrough
00:10:59.160 on market access in years, and federal officials are optimistic an announcement could come within days.
00:11:06.120 The Globe reports that the framework includes a new pipeline route to the B.C. coast,
00:11:11.680 possible exemptions to the region's tanker ban, adjustments to industrial carbon pricing
00:11:16.980 to accelerate carbon capture development, and changes to the federal emission cap.
00:11:23.140 Privy Council Clerk Michael Sabia and senior federal officials are reportedly guiding the negotiations.
00:11:29.880 Speaking at a press conference at the Alberta legislature on Monday, Premier Danielle Smith responded to questions
00:11:37.320 about Prime Minister Mark Carney missing her previously set deadline of eliminating the, quote,
00:11:43.800 nine bad laws and putting a pipeline on the major projects list.
00:11:49.140 She told reporters, quote,
00:11:52.600 We are working on an MOU that deals with, comprehensively, the issue of getting more bitumen to Asian markets,
00:12:00.800 the Pathways Project, and our joint support of that, as well as the nine bad laws that are impairing our investment climate.
00:12:07.700 The Globe reports the envisioned pipeline would require private sector proponent environmental approvals and support from coastal First Nations.
00:12:17.640 It remains unclear whether the British Columbia government would need to formally approve the MOU.
00:12:23.940 On Monday, Smith said she expected clarity, quote,
00:12:27.440 In a matter of days, aligning with the timeline described to the Globe and Mail by federal insiders.
00:12:32.860 So news broke of this on Wednesday.
00:12:37.200 It was sort of a surprise that Carney is at least trying to reach some sort of agreement,
00:12:43.220 which may or may not include a tangible route to a pipeline.
00:12:49.200 But how did other politicians react, including from within the Liberal Party and outside, like David Eby and the conservative leader?
00:13:00.300 Well, Cosmin, Pierre Polyev has been all in on pushing for the West Coast Pipeline,
00:13:04.740 calling it a litmus test for Mark Carney's Liberals,
00:13:07.780 and blasting the Feds for blocking it with red tape like the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act and Impact Assessment Act.
00:13:14.320 He said it's time to get out of the way and repeal the nine bad laws holding back energy projects,
00:13:20.020 arguing the pipeline could be built without government cash if Ottawa just clears the path.
00:13:24.900 Trillions in international investment are waiting, he claims,
00:13:27.640 and is the only thing standing between Canada and billions in exports to Asia.
00:13:32.580 On the flip side, BC Premier David Eby has been straight-up dismissive,
00:13:37.160 repeatedly calling the whole thing fictional and a pipe dream,
00:13:40.500 with no real proponent, investor, or route yet,
00:13:43.240 and warning that it had cost tens of billions while risking BC's coastal economy and great bear rainforest.
00:13:50.020 He's doubled down that lifting the tanker ban is a non-starter,
00:13:53.240 foundational to First Nations and the province,
00:13:56.160 and accused Smith of wedge politics that threatens other projects,
00:14:00.160 insisting BC isn't blocking anything because there's nothing to block.
00:14:06.260 That's it for today, folks.
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