Liberal MP Richie Valdez said the Liberals will expedite the process of foreign credential recognition to mitigate the damage from Canadian doctors leaving over the new capital gains tax inclusion hike.
The statement was made by Valdez, the Minister of Small Business, after CBC’s David Cochrane brought up the fact that many Canadian doctors incorporate their practice for tax advantages and that these family doctors rely on capital gains for their retirement. He added that Canada has already been struggling with keeping its doctors, many of whom leave for greener pastures in the US.
In response to this, Valdez said, “We recognize that, but one of the things that we will continue to do is encourage foreign credential recognition to help with—we know that coming out of the pandemic, our healthcare has really been hampered, and there’s a really challenge with labour.
“But the investments we’ve made with foreign credentialing—we’ve already made a significant investment in previous budgets, and then this year, we’ve topped that up. And we will continue to invest to ensure we’re encouraging bringing talent from other countries to get their credentials recognized, and that will also encourage them to get more jobs here and fill the desperate labour market needs that are required in our healthcare industry.”
Cochrane continued, asking what the Liberals will do about all the doctors who are saying that the new capital gains inclusion rate hike is punitive.
“What we’re really trying to do is really create a Canada that is fairer for every generation,” Valdez responded, quoting Trudeau.
Given that many doctors who were planning to sell their practice to retire will now be penalized and may be unable to retire comfortably, and many younger Canadians feel completely hopeless, this may be accurate. After all, being equally poor is a sort of equality—that is, if doctors don’t just pack up and leave instead.
Fortunately, though, we’ll have a brand-new workforce trained overseas with entirely different standards of care to fill the gap here in Canada.
