QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Labour
Labour Shortage
February 9, 2023
Thank you, minister, for being here today.
Canada is facing an unprecedented shortage of doctors, nurses and many other health professionals. In our home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, our government has recently announced new measures to recruit internationally educated registered nurses, who can fill health care vacancies. Our government has also introduced legislation that will make medical licensing more streamlined.
Recognizing the provincial-federal jurisdictional divide, can you speak to what measures the Government of Canada is taking to help address these critical labour shortages, including in health care but also other sectors?
I appreciate the question, senator. The key is always in the qualifying phrase: respecting the fact that this is provincial jurisdiction.
I am a product — my first job, I worked for five years in the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador. When I came into the Ministry of Natural Resources, my Alberta colleague at the time Sonya Savage schooled me immediately on what is in provincial jurisdiction and what is in federal jurisdiction. But I knew darn well, having been around in Hibernia’s early days, but also in areas like health, that you tread into those places very carefully.
I think that what we are seeing happening right now with the quantum that has been proposed by the Prime Minister to the premiers and as the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs goes about bilateral agreements and working with each province, I think I have to be very careful about what I say.
But I can tell you that given the dearth of health care professionals right now in the system, how we figure out how people can move around within this country and how we recognize foreign credentials are some of the absolute top priorities as I sit down at the table.
