In their recent survey it found 75 per cent of respondents believe implementing pan-Canadian license would improve access to health care in rural, remote and northern communities.

Association President Doctor Alika Lafontaine who works in Grand Prairie, Alberta shares some insight into this.......

“We depend pretty heavily on physicians who visit, who come and help support care and then we often depend on folks from outside of the province to come to our place of work in order to make sure that patients get what they need.  Pan Canadian licensure would make it easier for people to not only travel around to provide temporary services but it would also drop the barrier for those who might consider moving to a smaller city or town. I think for a lot of folks just because they didn’t train in a small community most of the time they actually don’t think of that as a place that they would want to practice so the easier we can make it for people to come to smaller locations I think the more chance we have to retain those people in those locations.”

Lafontaine says some jurisdictions such as Ontario and the Atlantic provinces are looking into inter-provincial health worker mobility