NB Labour Leader Warns Province Not to 'Raid' Poor Countries for Nurses

The president of the NB Federation of Labour says the provincial government should improve working conditions and wages to attract workers to public health care, instead of trying to "raid" nurses from the global south.

"When you go and you raid or poach nurses from another country, you're leaving that country worse off," NBFL president Danny Légère said in an interview with the NB Media Co-op. "I would like to think that Canada's got a bit of a social conscious and would hesitate to do that, but apparently not."

"The other part of that is that New Brunswick is a relatively small province and we're going into a high stake poker game here with $100 in our pocket. We'll never outbid some of the richer provinces or some of the places that have got a greater ability to pay than we do," he said. "And you're not addressing the problem of keeping your homegrown nurses in the province."

He made the comments after provincial Minister of Health Bruce Fitch told reporters that government staff are currently overseas in the Philippines as part of recruitment efforts.

"I had a text from one of our staff, I think it was Tuesday night, they're down in the Philippines, recruiting more people to come here and work in the health care system," Fitch said during a media conference. "They were in Dubai earlier, and again, that's a great opportunity for people who are looking to come to Canada."

The provincial health minister was in Moncton on March 26 alongside other provincial and federal cabinet ministers to announce two bilateral agreements on health care and long-term care worth more than $430-million.

The event took place in the bunker-like setting of a basement auditorium at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre.

The federal Liberals and provincial Progressive Conservatives are frequently at odds over health care, but cabinet ministers from both the Trudeau and Higgs governments were all smiles as they signed the agreements in front of reporters.

A media release from Health Canada said the health care deal would, in part, support initiatives meant to improve safety and reduce stress in the workplace, as part of larger staff retention and recruitment efforts.

The NB Media Co-op asked Fitch for details about how the government would measure improvements in those areas from a labour perspective.

The provincial health minister pointed to efforts to improve staffing such as increasing the number of registered nursing students in universities — which he said had doubled since 2018 — and recruitment from elsewhere in Canada and overseas.

Those measures "will make sure that there are an appropriate number of people and the appropriate number of care providers to make the workplace safer," he said. "And if the workplace is safer, it's a better experience. People tend not to be as disheartened and consider leaving."

Problems of burnout and fatigue linked to chronic staffing shortages were already a problem before the COVID-19 pandemic ratcheted up pressure on the health care system.

Paula Doucet, president of the NB Nurses Union, has described punishing conditions including 24-hour shifts and violence against nurses.

Fitch stressed the benefits of overseas recruitment for people who dream of living in Canada. But the ethics of overseas recruitment is controversial.

African nursing leaders have accused the UK and other rich countries of undertaking a "new form of colonialism," by using their economic power to drain away members of a badly-needed workforce, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Labour leaders have warned government for "decades" about an impending shortage of nurses, said Danny Légère, president of the NBFL. "Governments just haven't acted on it."

The full interview with Danny Légère, president of the NBFL, also includes perspective on issues including:

• private temporary nursing services that charge up to six times the hourly wages that nurses in public health typically earn;
• protests at a recent provincial Progressive Conservative fundraising dinner in Saint John attended by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre; and
• the banning of three Canadian Union of Public Employees leaders —CUPE NB president Steve Drost, regional director Sandy Harding, and Sharon Teare, president of the NB Council of Nursing Home Unions — from the Legislative Assembly and the surrounding area.
• This report also includes uncut footage from the media conference on health care and long-term care deals, signed by the federal and provincial governments on March 26 at Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).