PEI, Manitoba criticized for handling of funds related to healthcare workers
Two provincial governments are being criticized for the way they are spending funding on healthcare workers.
In Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), Green MLA Matt MacFarlane put forward a motion in the provincial legislature to have the government roll out the rest of the retention bonuses set aside for healthcare workers in the province.
However, 13 MLAs voted no on the motion, including all nine PC cabinet ministers who voted, according to a CBC report.
"These [bonuses] were implemented to stabilize the system. We often refer to them as bonuses, but we characterize them as a stabilization payment," said provincial health minister Mark McLane. "We were trying to stem the flow of retirements and those positions that were moving to the federal government."
The provincial government previously set aside $8 million for the retention bonuses of healthcare workers. However, only about half of that was ever spent, CBC noted.
PEI’s use of private healthcare workers
The International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents physiotherapists and respiratory therapists, among others, expressed its disappointment over the vote, according to the report.
The union raised the issue around PEI’s spending on travel nurses, which “has grown exponentially in the past year,” according to the report.
Also, on Thursday, the PEI government revealed for the first time that it's using agency physiotherapists and respiratory therapists to fill vacancies.
Recently, a Toronto-based private staffing firm was accused of having received payment from two provinces so nurses and personal support workers they brought to those places can enjoy free meals — but the firm never gave the workers their free meals.
Manitoba’s plan to recruit nurses from Philippines
In Manitoba, Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook claimed that the New Democratic Party (NDP) government is blocking nurses from coming to the province.
In 2023, the former Progressive Conservative (PC) government promised to recruit 300 healthcare workers from the Philippines in hopes of reinforcing the province's healthcare system.
“They were willing to do whatever it took to come to Manitoba and work here. Still, they were denied because the NDP is putting politics ahead of the need of patients,” Cook said, according to a Global News report.
“Why would the NDP slam the door on these healthcare workers? Is it because they consider them to be the wrong kind of immigrant?”
In July last year, the previous PC government announced 300 healthcare workers in the Philippines had accepted job offers in Manitoba. However, many of those workers have had their job offers abruptly withdrawn, said Cook in the report, claiming that the current government is halting funding on the program.
“The cut to the Philippine nurse program was identified back in December when the government identified, what they called, $5.8 million in savings from this program.”
In January, the Manitoba government started seeking feedback from health care workers in the province as it seeks to bring about some improvement into its healthcare system.
Funding for retention of nurses in Manitoba
However, Uzoma Asagwara, Manitoba health minister, claimed that the previous PC government itself was the one that could not deliver on their target.
“This is a program that was initiated by the previous PC government that, by their own standards, has wildly underperformed, fallen way short of their own targets,” Asagwara said in the Global News report.
The minister said the previous PC government spent millions of dollars on the recruitment initiative. However, to date, only 51 healthcare workers have been recruited under the program, including just 11 nurses.
“That’s a pretty significant cost for the number of nurses we got,” Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson told Global News.
“So it makes you wonder if those dollars hadn’t been better spent investing in retention of nurses here in Manitoba.”
The Manitoba Nurses Union also believes that a number of job offers were withdrawn after the nurses failed to pass their assessments, according to the report.
Ottawa and some provinces, including Nova Scotia, have previously set aside funding to boost retention of nurses.