Health care recruitment not about “poaching” workers: Moe

The new Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency (SHRA) is not trying to “poach” workers from other provinces.

That’s according to Premier Scott Moe, who made the remark at an event in Saskatoon on Sept. 29.

Moe said he informed Newfoundland’s Premier Andrew Furey and two other Atlantic premiers about a Saskatchewan health-care worker recruitment delegation traveling to those provinces from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6.

“This is not about poaching folks that are working in already, in many cases, understaffed health-care systems in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, but it’s about a focus on job fairs at their post-secondary institutes much like other provinces do in Saskatchewan,” he said.

According to reports, Newfoundland’s Health Minister has been concerned about Saskatchewan recruiting health-care workers in his province.

A news release from Newfoundland’s Health and Community Services dated Sept. 27 indicated that its health minister, Tom Osbourne, will visit Saskatchewan with his own team.

“Members of the department’s recruitment team will be traveling to communities in Saskatchewan on Oct. 3 to recruit health care professionals to work in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said the release.

It didn’t specify where in Saskatchewan Osbourne’s team would go.

According to the SHRA’s news release Sept. 7, “Led by CEO Erin Brady, (the SHRA) will be joining SHA recruiters for the first time to meet with health care professionals, students and post-secondary institutions in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.”

Moe said Saskatchewan’s team would be heading to job fairs and that it wasn’t uncommon for provinces to do that.

“It’s one that maybe we haven’t done as much in the past few years as we’re doing this year,” he said.

He claimed his conversation with the Atlantic premiers was to “clarify” what Saskatchewan’s recruitment team was doing.

“If they’re doing more than that, for example, engaging with folks that are currently and actively working in their facilities to move to Saskatchewan — that’s not what this is about,” he added.

Moe also said building a robust health care system falls, in part, on the shoulders of premiers.

The province recently sent teams to the Philippines to recruit nurses to Saskatchewan.