Global University Systems (GUS) Canada, a subsidiary of a Dutch company and owner of nine private colleges in three provinces including University Canada West, University of Niagara Falls Canada, Ontario Institute of Health and Innovation and Trebas Institute, registered to lobby in New Brunswick about an initiative to “help address the family physician shortage by offering fully funded medical school education to provincial citizens.”

Up to 180,000 New Brunswickers are without a family physician, according to a provincial government survey released in February. The lack of family doctors means New Brunswickers have to go to the emergency room for even minor ailments. Reporting by CBC found wait times in emergency rooms in 2024 were up to five and a half hours, and the province is aiming to reduce wait times to two hours, which is still four times the national guideline. One man died in an ER waiting room in Fredericton seven hours after arriving at the hospital by ambulance.