A ban on travel nurses from the Maritimes? The P.E.I. Nurses' Union wants to see it happen - CBC
How would a Maritime ban on travel nurses work?
The president of the Prince Edward Island Nurses' Union says nurses from private agencies travelling between the Maritime provinces is unsustainable.
Kim Sears said a ban on the practice would be a "meaningful effort" in reducing the use of agency nurses, which has come at a heavy cost to P.E.I. over the past five and a half years.
Many agency nurses who come to work on the Island are from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They're hired on a temporary basis to help fill vacancies, and they often get paid two or three times what nurses working for Health P.E.I. make β money Sears said should be spent locally.
"That is not investing in our local economy. Those nurses that come in are not paying taxes on Prince Edward Island, they're not buying homes here, they're not buying cars here. We need to invest in local nursing," Sears said.
"While we fundamentally on Prince Edward Island would like to eliminate all for-profit [agencies], I think this is a really good first place to start."
Kim Sears, president of the P.E.I. Nurses Union, says the province needs a 'concrete plan' for reducing its reliance on travel nurses. (Rick Gibbs/CBC)
Another option, Sears said, would be to create a pool of nurses could work in other parts of P.E.I. on their days off. They would have expenses such as travel and accommodations covered and receive higher pay β something she said would still cost less than hiring nurses from private agencies.
An auditor general's report from earlier this year said Health P.E.I. spent roughly $28.5 million on unbudgeted travel nurses in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Health P.E.I. said its latest numbers show it spent about $44 million on agency staffing in 2025-2026.
Health P.E.I.'s use of some travel health-care workers will end starting in March next year
P.E.I. government's unbudgeted spending on travel nurses βalarming,' says union president
Health and Wellness Minister Cory Deagle said the province doesn't want to rely on travel nurses but they are necessary in some areas.Β He said he is in support of the idea of a ban in the region.
"We can't continue to spend this amount of money on travel nurses. Not only is the issue money, but it's demoralizing for nurses that are working on the front lines to have someone next to them being paid a significant amount more β¦ than they're being paid," he said.
"I think ideally this would be something we do across Canada, but let's try and start perhaps small first."
Health and Wellness Minister Cory Deagle says he sent a letter to Atlantic health officials asking to come together to discuss ways to reduce the reliance on travel nurses. (Connor Lamont/CBC)
Deagle said he's sent a letter to Atlantic health officials asking to discuss ways to reduce the reliance on travel nurses, and he thinks one consideration could be a ban with Atlantic Canada.
"No one wants to use travel nurses. It's not something that we want to be reliant on, but it's the reality that we see ourselves in right now," he said.
"We also have to have a strategic goal and priorities in place to reduce that number, and I think we are seeing good progress."
Sears said some areas of the health-care system currently depend on travel nurses, so their use can't immediately stop.
But, she said, a long-term plan is needed.
"You can be well meaning and want the cost to go down and the reliance to go down, but without a concrete plan or deliverables, it's just not going to happen," Sears said.
"These companies β¦ quite frankly took advantage of the human resource crisis."
Lucas McInnis is a journalist at CBC Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at lucas.mcinnis@cbc.ca.
