Facing a severe physician shortage, feds offer loan forgiveness for some doctors, nurses

In a bid to increase the number of doctors and nurses practising in rural and remote areas, the federal government said Tuesday it's increasing forgivable loans for some students.

Canada is experiencing a severe doctor shortage — and it's only expected to get worse as the population grows and physicians retire en masse. Federal data suggests Canada will need roughly 48,900 more family doctors by 2031.

As CBC News has reported, the number of medical residency spots has remained stagnant for the last decade, limiting the number of new doctors entering the field.

There's also a tangle of red tape that internationally educated physicians have to navigate before they can practise here. It's an onerous, years-long process that has driven thousands of Canadian-born doctors to leave for the U.S.

The result of these and other policies is a limited supply of doctors; 6.5 million Canadians report they do not have regular access to a family physician or nurse practitioner, according to the latest data.

To draw more practitioners to areas where the shortage is particularly acute, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault said Ottawa is offering a 50 per cent increase in forgivable loans for doctors and nurses who work in rural and remote communities.

Boissonnault said up to $60,000 will be forgiven for a family physician or family medicine resident, and up to $30,000 for a nurse or nurse practitioner with a Canada Student Loan.

An estimated 3,000 doctors and nurses will benefit from the program this fiscal year, Boissonnault said.

While the program was pitched to reporters Tuesday as something new, the loan forgiveness initiative was first announced in Budget 2022 and it's been slow to roll out.

The program started accepting applications in