this morning we continue our CBC News analysis of federal data looking at Canada’s temporary foreign worker program the focus today the impact of that program on the Health Care system which of course faces persistent Staffing shortages notably after the pandemic healthc care facilities are turning to temporary foreign workers to bolster their ranks once again let’s Head Live to Calgary and reporter Kyle B who’s been looking through the data what have you learned Carl and Kyle sorry in terms of the positions that are in demand and are being filled using the temporary foreign worker program yeah we’re talking about positions across the board not just registered nurses and doctors but even technicians and and nurse practitioners and you know most of these hires are happening in Quebec but it’s a trend that we’re seeing across the country and if we take a look at the overall numbers it kind of paints a pretty good picture you can see how back in 2018 employers were approved to hire around 450 healthcare workers through the temporary foreign worker program last year those approvals Rose to more than 4,000 and those in the industry point to various different reasons for why they’re turning to this program talking about how we have this aging population so fewer people are entering the field and of course they talk about the pandemic where a lot of these healthcare workers um were felt burned out they were working long hours uh in hospitals healthc care clinics Care Homes and so on we spoke with one employer in particular that runs a network of clinics and they talk about how they’ve now hired nine doctors through this temporary foreign worker program and here’s why obviously we would love if there were more Family Physicians with permanent residency or citizen citizen status readily available to fill the vacancies that we have right now and provide the much needed Primary Care to the of the Canadians but unfortunately it’s not the case um the demand that we’re seeing from patients for access to a family doctor currently far out ways our supply of Physicians that we have that are have the capacity to take on additional patients and it’s not just private companies that are turning to the temporary foreign worker program but provincial health care agencies as well including Albert Health Services as an example that provincial health agency was approved to hire about 50 nurses and doctors and a spokesperson for the agency says it’s just one of their many different avenues that they look to hire locally and internationally to fill positions so as they’ve looked in this bit of a stop Gap way Kyle to address shortages what is the long-term plan and what are the long-term Solutions well some point to how employers need to just spend a lot more time on retaining the workers that they have some also point to how their needs to be higher wages and and try to train more Health Care Professionals within the country but it’s a really difficult situation and it really speaks to the problem that’s happening in the country right now and some experts say you know they’re there’s no easy solution to this have a listen to One expert and what they had to say I think this is another example of the overall health care Workforce crisis we see um high levels of workload high levels of burnout high levels of attrition and if you can imagine that that’s a vicious circle and we have to interrupt that in some way shape or form and right now the federal government is tightening up the temporary foreign worker program but there are two exemptions for two different sectors construction and the health care sector and the government says that’s just because those two sectors are facing the most acute the most acute labor shortages right now
While the health-care sector represents a small fraction of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, employers are increasingly turning to it to hire nurse aides and other staff.
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