New Brunswick tables bill to cancel ‘unfair’ contract for private nursing services

FREDERICTON — The New Brunswick government has introduced a bill to terminate an “unfair” contract for private nursing services.

Health Minister John Dornan told reporters Wednesday the legislation would end a contract for travel nurses between the francophone Vitalité Health Network and Ontario-based Canadian Health Labs. The bill also aims to protect the province from legal action, he said.

“We want to mitigate the opportunity to be sued for cost,” he said. “It was an unhealthy contract for New Brunswickers, for taxpayers, and so legislation was the only way we could do this.”

The province has consulted with lawyers and teams at the health network to get legal advice, Dornan said. “It’s never easy to walk away from a contract,” he said, adding that the bill reduces Canadian Health Lab’s ability to sue the province.

“Does that absolutely prevent us from being sued at some point in time? I’m not sure.”

Last June, auditor general Paul Martin reported that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Feb. 29, 2024, Vitalité Health Network paid more than $123 million for private nursing services, including $98 million to Canadian Health Labs. The francophone health agency spent the most on travel nurses out of three government bodies under audit.

Martin’s report said that Canadian Health Labs charged $306 per hour for a registered nurse and $162 per hour for a personal support worker. However, registered nurses who are employed by the province are paid between $36.41 and $46.13 per hour, and personal support workers get between $22.61 and $24.24 per hour.

Dornan said the contract was costly and “unfair” to taxpayers.

He said he didn’t have the total number that Vitalité paid for travel nurses. The health network didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The province will not pay a penalty when it eventually breaks the contract with the private nursing company, Dornan added.

Vitalité Health Network signed the nursing deal with Canadian Health Labs in July 2022. It doesn’t expire until February next year, and has an auto-renewal clause if certain linguistic targets are met.

In an email, a spokesperson for Canadian Health Labs said, “Since July 2022, Canadian Health Labs has helped ensure that New Brunswickers have access to quality health care by placing hundreds of essential front-line health-care professionals in rural, remote, and underserviced communities affected by the ongoing health-care crisis.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2025.

The Canadian Press