Poaching health-care workers, travel nurses among topics at premiers’ meeting

One of Saskatchewan’s moves to bring more health-care workers into the province is being put to an end by an agreement between premiers.

Premier Scott Moe and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston spoke with media Tuesday morning, after the Council of the Federation meeting that happened Monday.

Moe and Houston said there was an informal agreement around the table for provinces to not go around trying to recruit health-care workers who are already working in another province.

Saskatchewan had recruitment teams out this fall in places in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

“(They were) not only looking at attending job fairs at post-secondary institutions but maybe, in some cases, going a little bit beyond that,” said Moe.

He said the agreement meant provinces could still showcase their offers at job fairs but lay off recruiting people already working.

“Let’s ensure that we are respecting one another as a province, focusing on training, focusing on recruiting globally into our nation and building not only strong provincial levels of care and methods of care but together, by each of us strengthening our provincial health-care systems, we thereby are strengthening health care nationally,” said Moe.

There wasn’t anything formal put down. Moe said that could happen eventually, but he’d leave it to the chair of the Council of the Federation to put in on the agenda for next time.

“There certainly was agreement around the table and I had no concerns coming out of the meeting that it wouldn’t be that way, at least while these faces are around the table,” said Moe.

The premiers also discussed capping fees for travel or contract nurses.

“We certainly understand that people have the right to be mobile and work in this country and there’s credible opportunities in every corner of this country and we want that as well,” said Houston.

“But we know that on the health-care system, on the front lines, when you have somebody who’s being paid a different amount than somebody who’s there day-in day-out like the travel nurses tend to be, it can cause some friction on the floor.”

Houston said the premiers are looking to find a way to mitigate the risk and stress that problem is causing.

Housing

The premiers also took time to discuss housing, the lack of which is a problem across the country.

But according to Houston, they all showed a willingness to resort to legislation if the federal government doesn’t start bringing provincial governments into housing program and funding conversations it’s having with municipalities.

Houston said there are times when the premiers will wake up to a funding announcement in their province that they knew nothing about.

Moe echoed those sentiments, saying all levels of government need to be at the table.

“That is the goal. Everyone has the same outcome that they’re focused on (and that) is to deliver more housing to the residents of Canada, wherever they live,” said Moe.

“I think there’s a shared concern that there is a federal government that is increasingly looking at the potential political benefits, for lack of a better term, of circumventing the provinces and landing in a Toronto or Vancouver and dropping a housing program, strictly for political gain.”

Moe pointed to the federal government’s announcement that it would rebate the GST on purpose-built rental housing as something the premiers weren’t looped in on. He said his government worked quickly to find a way to work alongside that.

“We were able to augment that program. However, we’d had no heads up or conversations around that program coming. And so we got there, (but) I’d say slower than we would have gotten there had we had that initial conversation,” said Moe.

There have been times in the past where the federal government has put funding into a project that the provincial government wasn’t interested in, but Moe said in future with this requirement, that wouldn’t stop the project from going forward.

“There may not be an opportunity for a provincial government to add to a federal initiative in the same voice … There may be a provincial initiative where the federal government isn’t choosing to participate as well,” explained Moe.

Moe said they’re all trying to work together the best they can and aren’t looking to slow down decisions being made. He asked what the harm is in sitting down and discussing intentions prior to an announcement.