Mazier sets priorities for Ottawa

Getting internationally trained doctors to work in Canada is a top priority for Riding Mountain MP Dan Mazier as he heads back to the House of Commons Monday.

Mazier, who is the federal health critic for the Conservatives, said health care, canola markets and immigration are some of his priorities as MPs are set to return to federal chambers.

Ottawa needs to have a role to play in helping solve the lack of health-care workers across the country, he said.

“There’s a whole licensing barrage. Right now, we’ve got 13 different approaches between the provinces and territories. There’s no national standard to write a test and to practise anywhere in Canada,” Mazier said in a phone interview this week.

“The practising of health care should be borderless (in Canada), as far as I’m concerned.”

Canada is currently short 23,000 family physicians and 28,000 registered nurses, according to a study released by the federal government earlier this year.

“Provinces are starting to work on this on their own, but I think that there is a role for the federal government to orchestrate and create that continuity so we can go right across this country and get people,” Mazier said.

“The fact is that we do have the 6.5 million Canadians do not have a family doctor. Meanwhile, the minister’s own department revealed that of the 198,000 internationally educated health professionals employed in Canada, only 58 per cent are working in their field.”

He said it’s a shame that some trained professionals are working as Uber drivers or in the hotel industry instead of in hospitals.

“If we fix that, that would be an ultimate win for everybody, and Canadians would get the care that they so rightly deserve.”

Mazier is in his third term as MP. He first won in 2019 when the riding was called Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. He was appointed health critic in May.

Locally, Mazier said Canada needs to look at Southeast Asia and other markets to sell canola, which could offset the Chinese canola tariffs impacting farmers in his riding and across the Prairies.

“(Prime Minister Mark) Carney was supposed to be able to make trade deals and do all this stuff,” Mazier said. “Well, I would honestly have to say I didn’t think there’s a canola farmer out there right now that will tell you the deal is better than it was when we elected him.”

China placed a 75.8 per cent tariff on Canadian canola last month. The move came after Canada placed a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles last year. At the time, the Liberal government cited unfair trading practices and “abysmal” environmental and labour standards that then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland said allowed China to dump products into the market.

“The Liberals are accountable to this, and we’ll just have to see where they end up in a trade deal for it,” Mazier said. “Meanwhile, it’s to the detriment of our farmers and billions of dollars lost just because they can’t get their act together when it comes to trade.”

Mazier noted that hindsight on the overdependence on the Chinese market is “20/20.”

He added that the Liberals have “a record of failure” over the last 10 years, including on immigration.

“We’re on track to have the largest number of temporary foreign workers in history, while youth jobs numbers are worse than in the last 30 years,” he said.

“It’s unimaginable. The whole immigration system is just a complete mess, so we’re going to be holding them to account on that in Parliament.”

Mazier also mentioned crime and housing prices as items he and the Conservatives will hold the governing Liberals accountable for.

» alambert@brandonsun.com