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Montreal’s cash-strapped universities have a wealth of notable and famous alumni who got their start at one of our local universities before leaving their mark on this province and beyond. Across the fields of business, science, politics and the arts, there are countless examples of notable alumni who earned a degree at a Montreal university before making it big. The list from Université de Montréal reads like a veritable Who’s Who of Quebec leaders, while McGill University has an embarrassment of riches, with bragging rights to the longest list of notables across all fields and by far the most prestigious prize winners. Here are some examples of those famous alumni (with apologies to the many accomplished graduates we didn’t have space to include). We have also included Nobel Prize winners and the number of Rhodes Scholars to round out the list of distinguished alumni. Montreal universities have bragging rights to many famous alumni | Montreal Gazette

Quebec to limit family doctors next year Aaron Derfel Gazette health reporter Friday, November 28, 2008 Despite a shortage of doctors across the province, the Quebec government is planning to issue fewer permits than the actual number of graduates in family medicine next year, The Gazette has learned. A total of 238 doctors are expected to complete their residencies in family medicine and pass their board exams in 2009. However, the government is counting on issuing 220 permits, according to the Quebec Federation of General Practitioners. The gap stems from a five-year-old permits policy aimed at making sure that young doctors start their careers in short-staffed regions across the province. In the past, the government had issued more permits than the graduating class, and some regions had a harder recruiting new doctors. This year, however, the government has decided to keep a tight lid on permits to make sure that all regions are able to hire new doctors. But the policy - known as Plans régionaux d'effectifs médicaux or PREMs - has actually backfired and led to an exodus of mostly anglophone, Quebec-trained doctors quitting the province for Ontario and elsewhere, say critics. "It's absurd," said Mark Roper, a Westmount family physician, who is also chairman of the medical manpower committee of the Regional Department of General Medicine of Montreal. "It's almost like they're pushing young doctors out of the province." Most new doctors prefer to practise in Montreal rather than in small rural communities. Quebec has offered doctors financial carrots to work in the Far North, but it has used the stick to get them to practise in La Mauricie, the Outaouais and other regions. Before the PREMs, new doctors who decided to stay in Montreal were docked 30 per cent of their billings for the first three years of their careers. Most doctors toughed it out, so the government switched to the more restrictive PREM system. Each year, the Health Department - in co-operation with the federation of GPs - decides on a certain number of positiongs for the 15 regions of Quebec. Newly-graduated doctors must then apply for positions in a number of regions. Most apply to work in Montreal as their first choice, and if they don't get accepted, they are more likely to get hired by another region. For Montreal, the government has decided to issue only 54 permits even though the city has a shortage of about 300 family doctors. If new doctors decide to stay in Montreal, their billings will be docked by 25 per cent, not for the first three years but their entire careers. Figures obtained by The Gazette show that recruitment was actually higher before the PREMs system went into effect in every region except La Mauricie. So where have all those young doctors gone? Coincidentally, Quebec has been a net exporter of doctors to other provinces in the past five years, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Serge Dulude, director of planning at the federation of GPs, confirmed the gap between the number of permits to be issued and the graduating class. But he said that these are projections and adjustments can be made. Some doctors might decide to pursue another medical specialization apart from family medicine. Others might fail their board exams. There are also young doctors who go on sick or maternity leaves, and so won't be applying for a PREM. "Besides that, some decide to take a break and to travel for a year, some decide not to go into medicine (after all), and some decide to leave Quebec." Health Minister Yves Bolduc has defended the PREMs policy as necessary, saying that without it some regions would have even bigger shortages of doctors. Marie-Éve Bédard, Bolduc's press attaché, provided The Gazette with different figures, but they still show a gap. She said that the government is projecting next year 217 new doctors, or new billers as it prefers to call them. At the same time, the governmet expects to issue 211 PREMs. However, she said that some regions still have PREMs that have gone unfilled from previous years, and when those are included, the true total is 235. Still, the federation of GPs is projecting a graduating class of 238. "It's totally false to suggest that this incites new doctors to practise elsewhere," Bédard said of the PREMs policy. "We're aware that there is a shortage and we have designed a plan to make sure that there is a fair distribution of doctors in all regions." Even so, the Quebec College of Physicians has criticized the PREMs policy as restrictive, and most doctors bitterly complain about it. Doris Streg, a Montreal GP who graduated in 1978, described the PREMs system as "magical thinking." The government is "not discussing the real bottleneck, which is the PREMs," Streg said in an email. "No matter how many new doctors are graduated, there will be no increase in availability of GPs to Montrealers unless this policy is removed." aderfel@thegazette.canwest.com © Montreal Gazette 2008