Question Period Note: Health Workforce Challenges

Canada’s health workforce continues to face challenging workplace conditions. High patient workloads, lack of resources, mandatory overtime and fear for personal safety have led to high levels of burnout, absences, and turnover.

The Government of Canada recognizes the immense contributions health professionals make every day and we share their concerns about the challenges they are facing, and their collective impacts.
Budget 2023 confirms the Government of Canada’s plan to provide close to $200 billion over 10 years to provinces and territories, including an immediate, unconditional $2 billion Canada Health Transfer top-up to address immediate pressures on the health care system, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms, and long wait times for surgeries.
$25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities through tailored bilateral agreements as well as an annual increase to the Canada Health Transfer for the next 5 years was confirmed.
These investments will accelerate efforts already underway with provinces and territories to support the retention and recruitment of health workers; support streamlined foreign credential recognition for internationally educated health professionals and increase labour mobility starting with multi-jurisdictional recognition of health professional licenses.
IF PRESSED ON DETAILS ABOUT INCREASING AND MAINTAINING SUPPLY...
New funding of $1.7 billion will support hourly wage increases for personal support workers and related professions, as federal, provincial and territorial governments work together on how to best support the recruitment and retention of these workers.
In addition, $25 billion over 10 years will advance shared health priorities, including supporting our health workers and reducing backlogs, through tailored bilateral agreements with provinces and territories.
These investments will accelerate efforts already underway with provinces and territories to support the recruitment and retention of health workers within the public health care system.
IF PRESSED ON MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT FOR HEALTH WORKERS...
The Government is very concerned about the mental health and well-being of Canadians, and of frontline workers who are working tirelessly to keep us safe and healthy.
In the previous 2 years the federal government has invested more than $290 million in funding to support the mental health of Canadians.
New health investments confirmed in Budget 2023 include $25 billion over 10 years for bilateral agreements that will focus on four shared priorities, including mental health and substance use.
As there is no health without mental health, provinces and territories are asked to take an integrated, inclusive approach to investments in health service teams, the health workforce and data and digital tools required to meet the health and mental health needs of Canadians.
IF PRESSED ON FEDERAL ACTIONS TO PROTECT HEALTH WORKERS AGAINST HARASSMENT…
We have heard many stories about physicians, nurses and other health workers who have been threatened and intimidated, in person and online. This behavior is completely unacceptable.
New healthcare funding confirmed in Budget 2023 prioritizes the health workforce and will allow provincial and territorial governments to address challenges faced by health workers such as violence, discrimination, and racism.
All Canadians, and especially health workers, whose goal is help others, deserve a safe working environment, free from violence and threats

Canada’s health workers are facing serious challenges. These challenges require transformative and innovative solutions to address problems that have existed for years, with new and different levels of collaboration required across governments and stakeholders.
FPT Collaboration
While the federal government provides financial support to the provinces and territories for health services, the responsibility for the management of health workforces falls within provincial and territorial jurisdictions and their regulators. Health Canada will continue to work collaboratively with provinces and territories to drive concrete steps necessary to address health workforce situation.
On October 12, 2023 FPT Ministers of Health issued a public statement reaffirming their commitment to supporting Canada’s health workforce so our health workers are able to provide high-quality, accessible, and effective health services for people living in Canada. In particular, FPT governments committed to concrete actions focusing on:
• Retention, reducing rates of stress and burnout and improving workplace culture, flexibility, and wellness so health workers can stay in their jobs;
• Domestic education supply and demand, enhancing Canada’s capacity to produce a domestic supply of key health professionals, including more training opportunities for Indigenous Peoples that meets national demand for care and keeps pace with a growing and aging population;
• Foreign credential recognition and ethical recruitment, making Canada a country of choice for health care providers by reducing the time it takes for internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs) to join our workforce;
• Labour mobility, supporting an agile and flexible workforce to support access to care; and
• Health workforce data and planning, improving the availability, sharing and standardization of health workforce data to support health workforce planning.
Recent Federal Investments
The Canada Health Transfer (CHT) continues to provide ongoing support to provinces and territories in the delivery of health care. In Budget 2023, the Government of Canada confirmed new federal investments in healthcare that includes several initiatives that can support the health workforce:
• An immediate and unconditional $2 billion CHT top-up to address immediate pressures on the health care system, especially in pediatric hospitals and emergency rooms, and long wait times for surgeries.
• $25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities through tailored bilateral agreements that will support the needs of people in each province and territory in four areas of shared priority: family health services; health workers and backlogs; mental health and substance use; and a modernized health system. These additional federal investments will be contingent on continued health care investments by provinces and territories. This funding builds on the $7.8 billion over five years that has yet to flow to provinces and territories for mental health and substance use, home and community care, and long-term care.
• $1.7 billion over five years to support hourly wage increases for personal support workers and related professions, as federal, provincial, and territorial governments work together on how best to support recruitment and retention.
• $2 billion over 10 years to address the unique challenges Indigenous Peoples face when it comes to fair and equitable access to quality and culturally safe health care services.
• $505 million over 5 years to Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Canada Health Infoway and federal data partners to work with provinces and territories on developing new health data indicators, to support the creation of a Centre of Excellence on health worker data, to advance digital health tools and an interoperability roadmap, and to underpin efforts to use data to improve safety and quality of care.
In addition to this funding, in the previous two years, the federal government has provided provinces and territories with $6 billion in top up funding through the CHT, distributed equally per capita, to help provinces and territories address immediate health care system pressures, including reducing medical backlogs caused by COVID-19.
Other Federal Government Actions
The federal government is supporting provinces and territories to strengthen their health systems, including sustainably increasing the supply of health workers and helping create healthier workplaces to support retention and the mental health of health workers. Other recent federal actions and investments include:
• On November 1, 2022, the Government of Canada established a Coalition for Action for Health Workers. The Coalition’s efforts are focused on identifying approaches to drive pan-Canadian action and progress on policy implementation, informed by real world perspectives.
• The Coalition is comprised of representatives from key groups, including nurses, doctors, personal support workers, colleges and universities, patients, and equity-seeking communities, and reports to the Deputy Minister of Health.
• On August 24, 2022, Health Canada announced Dr. Leigh Chapman as the federal Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). Dr. Chapman has brought nursing issues in focus federally, while working closely with provinces and territories, stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
• In August 2023, Health Canada appointed Dr. Geneviève Moineau as Chief Medical Workforce Advisor (CMWA) to help support the federal response to current health workforce challenges.
Health Canada will continue to collaborate closely with other federal departments, provinces and territories and health care system stakeholders to address these pressing health workforce challenges.
Mental Health
In September 2022, a Report from the Mental Health Commission noted that it remains critical to break down cultural barriers and mental health stigma in health care organizations and prioritize psychological health and safety beyond the pandemic.
The Government of Canada continues to make significant investments to help provincial and territorial health systems address mental health issues and system capacity. This includes $25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities through tailored bilateral agreements that will support the needs of people in each province and territory in four areas of shared priority: family health services; health workers and backlogs; mental health and substance use; and a modernized health system. This builds on investments through Budget 2017 that provided $5 billion over 10 years ($3 billion remains until 2027) to improve Canadians’ access to mental health services.

There are not enough health care workers to meet the current demand for services.
- Statistics Canada has reported that job vacancies reached 95,200 in the first quarter of 2023, more than double than in the first quarter of 2020 (43,000).
- Health care workers are working more overtime (OT) than ever before. Since 2019, the proportion of health care workers who reported working OT increased each year. By 2022, 31.7% of full-time nurses and 18.2% of personal support workers (PSWs)/care aides put in additional hours over scheduled paid hours (includes both paid and unpaid OT).
14.5% of Canadians do not have a primary health care provider. Without a primary health care provider, emergency rooms become the only accessible option for seeking health care.
Lacking in both staff and physical space for the increasing patient load, hospital emergency rooms across the country have had to temporarily close their doors, particularly in rural areas.