Dear all
I attended the session yesterday.
It is clear the province - and in particular Indigenous communities - desperately need suitable primary medical care. It's also clear that appropriately trained doctors are a key component of the solution. The proposed medical school may help be part of the solution.
From Oliver's message and the Senate meeting, the cost *per student* is 200K per year. I did not get from the session yesterday enough information about who is paying for this. Certainly the province will contribute. But how much, per student, per year? Put another way - what is the tuition we're going to set for this program, to cover 200K per year? This is a very important fact, which we don't have.
I personally feel that it's critical that we train students from First Nations communities without requiring them to pay huge amounts of tuition. I believe we have a responsibility to not participate in exploitative practices, particularly when it comes to issues as important as medical training. So we should really be pushing for clear costing numbers.
I found the format of the session difficult - it wasn't widely advertised, the timing of the advertising (in the midst of reading break?) was not optimal, and I found it hard to ask questions. [I am also getting on in years, which may explain it.]
thanks
Nilima