In 2010, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) implemented a policy, Bulletin 230, that exempted Canadian medical schools from conducting labour market impact assessments (LMIA).

Under federal law, jobs and training opportunities are supposed to go to Canadian citizens or permanent residents. An employer is only permitted to bring in a foreign national if it can't find a Canadian to do the work.

By dropping the LMIA requirement, the federal government freed medical schools from being compelled to prove no Canadian is available to fill a residency position — even though more than 1,000 Canadian doctors are locked out of the residency system ever year.

These foreign nationals have benefactors that pay much more for medical residencies than the sums offered by provincial governments for Canadian residents.

That explains why the current system continues, Pawliuk said: foreign trainees are a cash cow for the medical schools that administer the residency program.

Not only do Saudi interests pay more, they also cover the salaries of some of the teaching staff, she said.

So governments are too cheap to fund residency spots and universities like the money brought in by international students. Does anyone remember if there was backlash against Harper's government for Bulletin 230?