With 2. 2 doctors per thousand population, Canada is well below the OECD average of 3. 0, although its 10 nurses per thousand was slightly above the OECD average of 8. 6. 4 This imbalance causes serious detrimental effects in the Health Care System of Canada. Solutions included increasing the number of training spaces for doctors in Canada, as well as streamlining the licensing process for foreign doctors already in the country.
Doctors in Canada make an average of $202,000 a year (2006, before expenses). Alberta has the highest average salary of around $230,000, while Quebec has the lowest average annual salary at $165,000, creating inter-provincial competition for doctors and contributing to local shortages5. A number of doctors flee to the United States of America to pursue career goals or higher pay.
New graduates and those planning to pursue post-graduate training in medical residencies proceed to the US for the said endeavor. More often, cutting-edge specialties are widely available in the U. S. than in Canada.
Statistics published in 2005 by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), however, show that, for since 1969 (the period for which data are available), more physicians returned to Canada than moved abroad for the first time. 6