The lack of physiotherapists in northern B.C. remains critical, according to Louis Theriault, vice-president of industry strategy and public policy for the Conference Board of Canada.
Theriault released a new report Wednesday by the Conference Board of Canada titled Stretched Too Thin: The Demand For Physiotherapy Services in Canada.
On behalf of the physiotherapists for northern communities, local physiotherapist Hilary Crowley was eager to hear the report.
"We know this shortage is a fact and we want to change that," she said.
"We've been advocating for the last few years to extend distributed programming for physiotherapists. Right now there are 80 with UBC being the only school. Right now, we want to have another 20 and we want them situated here in a distributed program. That way they are embedded into the community and are likely to stay."
According to Theriault, from a sustainability perspective, there is not an abundant supply of physiotherapists to satisfy a dramatic rise in demand, especially in rural and remote communities.
As of 2014, the unemployment rate for all professions in Canada was 6.9 per cent.
With the unemployment rate among physiotherapists around 0.3 per cent, there is no surplus to alleviate the rising demand and exhausted supply especially in rural communities.
Furthermore, nearly all of Canada's physiotherapists (90 per cent) are employed in an urban area.
And the number of Canadians consulting physiotherapists increased from 8.4 per cent of the adult population in 2001 to 11.6 per cent in 2014, representing an increase of 3.8 per cent per year.
