Nurses union, NDP question cost, limited success of province’s health-care worker recruitment mission to Philippines By: Danielle Da Silva Posted: 6:30 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023

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This article was published 15/08/2023 (783 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two overseas consulting firms were given untendered contracts valued at nearly $1 million each to support the provincial government’s mission to recruit 300 health-care workers from the Philippines, four of whom have arrived in Manitoba.

The approximately 10-day trip to Manila, Cebu and Iloilo taken by government and health officials in late February, meantime, cost taxpayers more than $460,000, with the total expense to settle the internationally-trained nurses and health-care aides still being tallied.

“We’re in a critical nursing shortage, and we welcome the fact that we do have 200-odd nurses coming from the Philippines, but at the end of the day what does it cost us to recruit this small number of nurses?” Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said.

“That is a significant amount of money that could be spent retaining the nurses who are already here.”

“That is a significant amount of money that could be spent retaining the nurses who are already here.”–Darlene Jackson

Records obtained by the Free Press show the Manitoba government spent $460,189 on airfare, hotels, food, transportation, advertising and other unspecified “professional services” to conduct the recruitment drive between Feb. 21 and 25 in the southeast Asian island nation.

Additionally, Filipino agencies Staffhouse International Resources and Andrews Manpower Consulting each received sole-sourced contracts valued at $900,000 to recruit pre-qualified candidates and facilitate the immigration process for successful applicants.

By comparison, recruiting firm Canadian Health Labs was recently awarded a $3.75 million contract to bring 150 doctors to Manitoba, following a competitive tendering process. The firm will be paid on a per-physician recruited basis.

Jackson called the overseas recruiting cost outrageous as Manitoba’s health-care system grapples with more than 2,000 nursing vacancies.

“We know that they’ve spent $1.8 million on two recruiting firms in the Philippines,” she said. “I can guarantee you that’s a drop in the ocean to what this entire venture has cost, but I doubt that we are ever going to get firm numbers.”

Jackson said a full public accounting of the recruitment effort — including the cost to settle, train and license the 311 candidates who accepted positions in Manitoba — is needed to properly compare government spending on local nurse training and retention initiatives.

The province is offering to pay credentialing and licensing fees, cover travel costs and provide a three-month accommodation and settlement allowance for the recruits, among other incentives.

“What was spent and could have been spent in order to retain those experienced nurses in Manitoba who have spent years holding our health-care system together?” Jackson said. “What would it cost to maintain those and could that money have been used in a different way — that’s my concern.

“If there’s no transparency, the public has no idea what this government has spent on this recruitment.”

“If there’s no transparency, the public has no idea what this government has spent on this recruitment.”–Darlene Jackson

The Philippines government requires that foreign employers work with a licensed agency to conduct recruitment programs in the country, and all activities must be pre-approved by the government.

According to Shared Health records, the two firms were awarded the contracts on Jan. 18 and 20.

The province formally announced the recruitment initiative on Jan. 25, though its plans to hire abroad were first confirmed last November, when Health Minister Audrey Gordon announced a $200 million health human resources action plan.

Shared Health, the provincial health authority overseeing the initiative, said a competition was not held to select a Filipino recruitment agency, owing to urgency.

“The recruitment firms were selected based on recommendations received by Shared Health as well as past experience during previous recruitment initiatives undertaken in by Manitoba health employers,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“These contracts were put in place to support the logistics, candidate recruitment and pre-vetting for a recruitment initiative in the Philippines in early 2023. Contracts were required to be in place prior to any candidate promotion or recruitment activities in the Philippines, lending urgency to the procurement activity.”

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According to the health authority, the two firms have a track record of good candidate support and understanding of processes required by the Philippines government.

They are also responsible for managing materials required to process exit visas, responding to candidate questions about immigration and providing pre-departure orientation and travel arrangements, in some cases, the spokesperson said.

Records obtained through a freedom of information request also show government delegates received meal allowances of up to $38 for lunch and $56 for dinner while abroad. A daily incidental allowance ranging from $17 to $37 was also offered.

As of Tuesday, four Filipino nurses interviewed during the February visit have arrived in Manitoba and are going through the licensing process, Shared Health said. The nurses had already started the immigration process at the time of their interviews.

Four more nurses have received work permit support letters through the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program. Another 17 candidates also completed their clinical competency assessments in July when a team of assessors from the University of Manitoba travelled to Manila at a cost of $100,000.

“When there’s lack of clarity around how contracts are awarded… the true amount of how much money is being spent… it raises a number of concerns.”–Uzoma Asagwara, NDP health critic

Remaining candidates are making their way through the immigration and licensing process, Shared Health said. Previously, the province said recruits would start landing in Winnipeg this summer, but pushed back their arrival date to early September.

NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said the government’s recruitment initiative has not lived up to expectations.

“When there’s lack of clarity around how contracts are awarded, the full details of those contracts, the true amount of how much money is being spent… and on top of that, they’re failing to meet their own targets that they promised Manitobans they would deliver on, it raises a number of concerns,” the Union Station MLA said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca