Manitoba hiring up to 90 family doctors with new federal dollars

You or someone you know are probably in search of a family doctor. Not everyone has one, and some have been on the lookout for many years. Now, the federal government is putting $6 million towards a plan to hire dozens of international physicians to work in Manitoba, in critical areas. We're joined by the CBC's Ian Fraser in our newsroom. So, Ian, what will this money get us? Brittany, we're looking at up to 90 new family doctors in the next three years, mostly working in rural and remote communities. The federal and provincial health ministers making the announcement Wednesday the new money will expand the assessment program that speeds up licensing for foreign-trained doctors. Manitoba's health minister says the new family physicians will have a particular set of skills. We actually asked them if we could really focus this on ER-trained physicians with an emphasis on rural and northern communities. Canada could have said no, but instead Minister Michelle and her team said yes. As Oma Segura says, the province will put these doctors where they're needed the most. The physicians are expected to sign an agreement which will commit them to staying in the community for a set period of time. All right, meantime, the Manitoba government cutting a $5 million check of its own. This one for children's autism services that are delivered by Sainte-Amand. So Ian, what changes with this announcement today? The Premier, Brittany, saying it will cut wait lists for children needing support. There's also focus here on early intervention geared towards preschool-aged children. Colin Hilden is one parent who's benefited from Sainte-Amand's programming. He's happy more families will be getting the help. So many strategies have been able to be worked on with them where we have a life we can live now. We can take them on vacations, which that was something we attempted in the past that never went well. and we can take them to the Spirit Cottage here and give them a vacation, which they're excited to go very soon to that. Now the announcement comes as opposition parties ramp up their calls for better autism supports. The PC's forced a debate on improving services across the province, while Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux is ready for a committee hearing this week on her bill calling for an autism strategy.