Question Period Note: Health Workforce Challenges

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KEY MESSAGES
• Canada's health workforce is facing several challenges, including supply shortages, difficulties retaining staff, and health worker burnout.
• Our government is working with provinces and territories, Indigenous Peoples and other health system partners to add thousands of new health providers to Canada’s health care system by:
- addressing labour mobility issues and implementing pan-Canadian licensure models and,
- funding projects to create new training positions for international medical graduates, increase foreign credential assessment capacity, and help newcomers navigate credential recognition systems.
IF PRESSED
Q1 : If pressed on labour mobility for health professionals
A1 :
• Our government is committed to addressing labour mobility challenges for health professionals by investing in national infrastructure to help regulators share data and streamline licensing for health professionals.
• These efforts aim to support more flexible movement for nurses and physicians across jurisdictions, which could help improve access to care, reduce regional shortages, and enhance workforce responsiveness.
• Key initiatives include
o The National Registry of Physicians – Canada's first integrated source of physician licensure data, and
o Nursys in Canada – national platform for nursing licensure data supporting consistent credentialing and efficient data exchange.
Q2 : If pressed on foreign credential recognition
A2 :
• Our government is working with provincial and territorial partners to streamline credential recognition for internationally trained doctors and nurses so that qualified professionals coming to Canada and those already living here can contribute to our health system.
• Staring this year, our government is also funding a number of projects to create new training positions for international medical graduates, increase assessment capacity, and help newcomers navigate credential recognition systems.

Q3 : If pressed on retention of health professionals
A3 :
• The Government of Canada is focusing efforts on the retention of our health workforce. In recognition of the acute nursing shortages across Canada, the “Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada” provides a framework for the development and improvement of retention strategies.
• Budget 2023 provided $25 billion over 10 years to advance shared health priorities with provinces and territories, including supporting our health workers who work tirelessly to keep us safe and healthy.

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KEY STATS
• There are currently shortages of over 23,000 family physicians and 28,000 registered nurses. These shortages are projected to deepen over the next 10 years.

• There are an estimated 198,000 internationally educated health professionals employed in Canada, but only 58 per cent—114,000 workers—have employment in the field in which they were trained.