NDP to rework Tory foreign health-care worker recruitment plan

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This article was published 14/12/2023 (674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s new government has no plans to extend an ongoing recruiting mission for health-care workers in the Philippines, which so far has brought only 23 employees to the province.

NDP Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday “very few” workers had arrived after the former Tory government had offered jobs to 309 nurses and aides during a recruiting visit to the Southeast Asian country in February.

Kinew blamed immigration delays and accused the Progressive Conservatives of a lack of progress prior to the Oct. 3 provincial election.

“We’re not going to double down on the same approach that the PCs took,” he said during a provincial fiscal update. “We are going to cast a wider net.

“Of course, education and retention are going to be important components of that, but we’re also going to be looking at other places around the globe where we could potentially be recruiting staff.”

The province did not name the countries where it plans to recruit.

The PCs’ recruitment efforts faced delays — plus questions about costs and potential success — while Manitoba and the Philippines worked out an immigration framework to facilitate the departure of the workers, the Free Press reported earlier this year.

The Philippine government requires exit clearances for nationals who move abroad for work.

A team of University of Manitoba nursing faculty assessors was to be sent to Manila in July — at a cost of $100,000 — to help more than 20 recruits complete a clinical competency assessment and shave about three months off the registration process.

Manitoba has been trying to recruit internationally educated doctors and nurses for decades to help ease a chronic shortage of local staff. More than 2,600 nursing positions were vacant this year.

The Philippines has been a popular recruiting ground for Canadian health authorities.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala said Wednesday the delayed arrivals from the Philippines represented $5.8 million in reduced spending this fiscal year. It is among the $123 million that will be diverted to help pay for some of the party’s campaign promises.

“We’re not going to double down on the same approach that the PCs took … We are going to cast a wider net.”–Wab Kinew

In late June, the Tories said immigration and licensing processes had begun for 309 Filipino recruits who accepted offers to pursue careers as registered nurses, licensed practical nurse equivalents or aides.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the province said 23 people had arrived through an expedited immigration process. One more is scheduled to arrive this month, while travel arrangements are being made for five others.

An additional 39 approved by the provincial nominee program are moving on to federal immigration approval and pre-arrival stages.

Applicants must clear a number of hurdles, including language testing and additional regulatory and licensing steps.

Some are in the process of completing their remaining certification requirements for a nursing role, the spokesman said.

None of the recruits has achieved registration yet, according to the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba.

Kinew added his government will continue efforts to bring the remaining recruits to Manitoba, but there are no immediate plans for additional recruiting missions to the Philippines.

PC health critic Kathleen Cook said the province’s decision sends the wrong message to potential recruits abroad.

Cook, the first-term MLA for the west Winnipeg riding of Roblin, said the Philippines should be part of efforts to recruit internationally educated workers because Manitoba has a large Filipino community.

Some of those who accepted job offers earlier this year already have family here, she said.

On its website, Prairie Mountain Health said four recruits — some with spouses and children — arrived from the Philippines on Nov. 28, with more expected in December and January.

Prairie Mountain said a recruit who is working as an undergraduate nurse employee at Dauphin’s hospital will receive additional training to become a licensed registered nurse.

The three others are aides at personal care homes in Brandon, Swan River and Virden.

“While we have yet to hear of any nurses who have come from abroad and successfully transitioned into our system, it’s essential that if this sort of recruitment continue, it be done cautiously,” Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said in a statement.

“Not only because we don’t want to see other countries suffering, but also because in order for these individuals to thrive here in Manitoba, they need to step into a healthy professional support system.”

Jackson said the previous government spent a significant amount of taxpayer money on the February mission, but the impact has not yet been seen.

“It is our hope that the new government will look at innovative ways to bring back qualified Canadian nurses who have left the public system.”

“While we have yet to hear of any nurses who have come from abroad and successfully transitioned into our system, it’s essential that if this sort of recruitment continue, it be done cautiously”–Darlene Jackson

At an unrelated news conference Thursday, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara suggested the NDP government will try to remove barriers to accreditation for internationally educated heath-care workers already living in Manitoba.

The Union Station MLA recited an earlier pledge to retain current employees and expand training.

“Retention is probably the most important part of making sure that we can stabilize our health-care system and start moving things in a better direction,” said Asagwara.

College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba chief executive officer Deb Elias said it is working with the province to expedite applications “while making sure that expectations of safe registered nursing care continue to be met.”

The regulator set up an accelerated pathway for Filipino recruits who received a conditional job offer, allowing them to complete a chunk of the application process while still living abroad.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca