As a researcher denounces a “privilege” granted to Canadian medical professionals who come to Quebec for training, McGill University defends the current formula.

The newspaper reported Monday that Quebec funds the training of McGill University enrolled medical professionals from outside the province.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, there were 303 (full-time equivalent students) in 2021-2022.

Under current rules, these medical professionals pay the same tuition fees as their Quebec counterparts, which are significantly lower than other Canadian provinces.

Quebec, therefore, funds much of their education by paying a $9,430 annual stipend for each medical professional to the university to which they belong.

Invited to answer our questions on the subject last Thursday, McGill University finally sent us “clarifications” on Monday evening after the publication of the article.

The facility initially states that positions for medical assistants will be awarded by the CaRMS matching system, which allows physicians with graduate degrees from all Canadian medical schools to apply. The Department of Health determines the number of positions available in Quebec in each specialty.

These resident physicians “are board-certified physicians who provide health care to the people of Quebec,” says McGill University.

The facility also states that between 2018 and 2022, 114 of its 1,243 physicians were from the rest of Canada or the United States, according to CaRMS data.

The institution specifies that this data corresponds more closely to the “true” portrait than the data available to the Ministry of Higher Education, which is collected in full-time equivalents.

For his part, Martin Maltais, professor at the University of Quebec in Rimouski, persevere and sign. This education funding expert believes that the government should not pay for English training for out-of-province medical professionals because the vast majority will no longer practice in Quebec afterward.

University Minister Pascale Déry also seems to share this opinion, as she indicated on Monday that she wanted to “correct” this situation.