MEDICAL ACT (1886) AMENDMENT BILL. (Hansard, 4 August 1905)

LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL

My Lords, I rise to move the Second Reading of this Bill, and I think it will be for the convenience of your Lordships if I state in a few words its object. In order to facilitate the admission of colonially trained and registered medical men to practise in Great Britain and hold appointments in the Imperial service, the Act of 1886 provided for reciprocity between the mother country and such of the self-governing Colonies as might comply with certain conditions, but that Act expressly stipulates that when any colony had a provincial and a federal organisation such reciprocal arrangements should be entered into with the federal Government and not the provincial. In the case of Canada the British North America Act of 1867, enacted by the Imperial Parliament, expressly provides that education shall be entirely under the control of the provincial and not the federal Governments, so that it is impossible to bring the Act of 1886 into force with Canada. It is impracticable to amend the British North America Act of 1867, and to transfer the control of education to the federal authorities, and therefore it is the object of this Bill to amend the Medical Act of 1886 without in any way interfering with the principle, and to enable reciprocal arrangements to be entered into either with the federal or provincial Governments.