More reading on the Canadian doctor shortage:

http://www.caribbeanmedicine.com/article7.htm

or:

"With take-home pay lower than some auto plant workers, no fringe benefits and increasing overhead, many family doctors are asking themselves why anyone would want their jobs.

"I essentially make what my plumber or auto mechanic earns once I have paid my overhead," said Daniel Maher, a Glebe physician who has been practising medicine since 1991. "Why spend nine years in university for all the responsibility and risk of lawsuits to make what a beginning engineer would earn?""

"Mark Stevens, a skilled tradesman at the Ford plant in Windsor, earns about $90,000 a year. Workers willing to put in 56 to 60 hours a week at any of the Big Three auto plants can increase their income to up to $130,000 a year after completing a free apprenticeship program."
...

Family doctors and general practitioners in 1999-2000, working a typical 54.7-hour week, on average billed OHIP $168,300 a year, according to Ontario Medical Association figures. Their average net earnings after overhead expenses is $99,300, the OMA reports.

That means their pay is less than skilled tradespeople willing to work 50 to 60 hours a week, plus some weekends, installing and repairing machinery at vehicle assembly plants in Windsor, Oshawa, Oakville and St. Thomas.

Other tradespeople can earn more than $75,000 a year, as much or more than a doctor working a 40-hour week.

Geof Botting, head of Ottawa's Regional Centre for Excellence in Skilled Occupations, says efficient drywall workers, carpet installers and automatic transmission rebuilders can earn more than $80,000 annually. The centre is a partnership among area school boards and community colleges to promote skilled trades as a career option.

Mr. Botting said good auto-body repair workers earn $70,000 to $80,000 a year.

Skilled autoworkers willing to work 56 to 60 hours a week, plus some weekends, at General Motors, Ford or DaimlerChrysler can earn up to $130,000 a year after completing a free apprenticeship program, according to John Bettes, a Canadian Auto Workers spokesman.
Tool and die makers, electricians, industrial mechanics and millwrights working at auto assembly plants earn $34 an hour.

"The average guy makes $70,000 to $75,000 a year, but there can be extremes where people make well over $100,000 a year," Mr. Bettes said. "If you worked every third weekend you would get $100,000 and if you worked two out of three weekends you would probably get over $130,000." These workers need to have done a four-year, 8,000-hour apprenticeship, plus continual upgrades, with auto companies, parts suppliers or aerospace corporations. The schooling is paid for by the corporations.

Being a doctor, on the other hand, is not nearly as lucrative as most people think, Dr. Maher said.

"I know a lot of people working in the government with a bachelor's degree who do little most of the time and make $60,000 a year plus benefits. I make $75,000 a year with no benefits. There is no pension, no sick days, nothing."

Most doctors work extra hours if they can to earn extra income, he said. He said a family doctor working an average 37.5 hours a week will gross about $132,000 a year and spend at least a third of his income on overhead."

http://www.caribbeanmedicine.com/article9.htm