Late last year, newspapers reported our province's efforts to nab medical professionals in the United Kingdom. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) made a freedom of information request to find out what our province spent in the effort. The results didn't seem too out of the ordinary-that is, until more recent headlines gave pause for thought.

The shortage of doctors and nurses in Saskatchewan is real. One town in the southwest corner of the province is on its fourth doctor in less than a year. And urban residents don't fare much better as they wait for diagnostic tests, surgeries, or even appointments with their general practitioner.

At first the expenses of the October 5th and 6th Physician Career Fair in London, England didn't seem so inordinate. Registration and advertising cost $19,934.71; equipment rental $2,595.95; courier and customs $4,531.09; promotional items $648.11. Finally, the transportation, per diem, and hotel costs for two department of health employees cost $10,286.24. The total: $37,996.10.

Within a month of the career fair, a sizeable response was registered. Thirty-three doctors had inquired about getting medical licenses. UK visitors on the HealthCareersInSask.ca website tripled from 166 to 499 per month. Seventeen doctors applied for specific postings, and 74 made e-mail inquiries for specific jobs Click here to see the .pdf).

Not bad. Except for one thing-while bureaucrats cross oceans to recruit health care workers, they may be neglecting the most obvious and inexpensive option: Saskatchewan students.

This came to light just days ago at a Regina career fair where Health Minister Don McMorris tried to convince two third-year SIAST nursing students to stay in Saskatchewan. Savanna Frank and Desiree Piche will graduate in September, but their class had never heard a job pitch from a Saskatchewan health region; only those in British Columbia.

The students might end up in the Peace Country Health Region in northwestern Alberta. That region's representative was at the Regina career fair offering to cover moving expenses and adding a monthly $250 living allowance.

McMorris' Saskatchewan Party has pledged to fill 600 nursing vacancies and hire an extra 200 before the end of their first mandate. In the meantime, Frank and Piche are concerned, since their newly graduated nursing friends are stuck in casual positions, despite an apparent worker shortage.

"One of the things that I've heard often over the last year or two is that other places were recruiting our nurses but we weren't recruiting our own and that's something that we want to change," McMorris told the Leader-Post.

The minister added that he wants recruitment to be just as strong at home as it is abroad. Let's hope that happens. It would be a shame if students drove west for jobs because recruiters focused on the UK and the Philippines. Taxpayers in Saskatchewan pay dearly to subsidize students in colleges and universities. We should take advantage of that home grown talent and make a diligent effort to put them in our medical facilities and services.