Meanwhile, the gastroenterologist is twiddling her thumbs in her apartment. “We were told that my file has not yet been scanned and processed. The work permit I used during my internship expired on December 4th. So I’m waiting,” she said.

Gastroenterologist in the Laurentians, the D^D Myriam Langlois explains that the region urgently needs doctors in her specialty. They are currently three to cover the Saint-Eustache hospital. “We should be at least seven […] We may have the worst waiting list in Quebec,” says the D^D Langlois.

On Thursday morning, the gastroenterologist treated patients in her practice who had not seen a gastroenterologist in two years.

long course

The D^D LeCleac’h had completed a fellowship in hematology at CHUM between 2014 and 2016. She loved Quebec. Therefore, when questioned by colleagues from the Laurentians in August 2021, the French specialist agreed to come and settle here.

After stations at the medical association, she completed an internship between September and November last year, which she completed and passed at CHUM. For this internship, she had received a three-month temporary work permit from Immigration Canada. The document expired on December 4th.

During the internship, on October 22nd, the D^D However, LeCleac’h had submitted his application for a work permit extension to Immigration Canada in advance, as suggested to him.

The aim was to speed up the processing of his application after receiving his license to practice medicine.

The D^D LeCleac’h will eventually learn that Immigration Canada never received the documents in question. “Where did they get lost? We do not know. But she hasn’t been able to work since December 4,” notes Luc Désilet, deputy of the Bloc Québécois for riding Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. The latter has been dealing with the case for weeks. Because the region “urgently needs gastroenterologists,” he says.

On December 9th, the D^D LeCleac’h again sent his entire file to Immigration Canada to obtain his new work permit.

Due to the urgency of the situation, such requests are usually processed within 10 days, she explains. But she’s still waiting.

“All I know is that my file hasn’t been digitized yet…” says the D^D LeCleac’h. She said she was “concerned”. Because if a document is unfortunately missing in her application folder, she has to send it again and wait even longer.

“Priority Processing”

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) declined to comment on this particular file. But spokeswoman Isabelle Langlois says her organization has “prioritised the needs of workers in essential healthcare occupations” since the pandemic began. “This priority processing remains in place,” she said.

M^me According to Langlois, processing times for work permit applications have improved greatly, with nearly 700,000 of those permits processed by November 30, 2022, compared to 223,000 for the same period in 2019.

M^me Langlois adds that the time it takes to process an application depends on a number of factors, including “the type of application submitted, the quality and speed with which applicants respond to IRCC requests to provide biometric data (if applicable) and additional information (including medical examinations) and the ease with which IRCC can verify the information provided”.

For the d^D Langlois, this file needs to be done quickly. “We have a specialist who is willing to come and help. Who could we give clinical lessons to tomorrow. But who is waiting in their apartment? And during this time we have service outages at the Laurentians… This needs to be fixed quickly,” she points out.

Mr Désilet, who multiplies the calls every day, agrees that the file is “sluggish and frustrating”. “These cases should be given priority. Because in the meantime, this doctor doesn’t see any patients,” he says. Nevertheless, the MP says he has “good hope” that everything will be settled “quickly”.