Alberta Liberals promise $100M to put more doctors in smaller centres

RED DEER, Alta. – The Alberta Liberals say they have a plan to make sure the doctor is always in – no matter where people live.

Leader Raj Sherman says a Liberal government would put up $100 million to help train more doctors as general practitioners to work in small towns.

Sherman, an emergency room doctor, says incentives are the way to go.

Campaigning in Red Deer for the April 23 election, he noted it can take a decade to become a doctor, and medical students put down roots in larger centres during that time.

He said small communities are being forced to offer doctors huge financial incentives to come and work.

Otherwise some communities wouldn’t have health care within 100 kilometres, which, Sherman said, amounts to no health care at all.