$78.5M funding to help train and retain health care workers in Canada: Mississauga announcement

Mississauga | Canada | Health | Politics |

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Published June 8, 2023 at 11:37 am

healthcare announcement mississauga
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

As Canada struggles with nurse and doctor shortages, three projects aim to train and retain more healthcare workers.

The Canadian government is putting $78.5 million toward three projects that will help to train and retain more healthcare workers, under the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program, federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos announced today (June 8) in Mississauga.

Duclos made the announcement on behalf of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough.

“It’s no secret that Canada’s healthcare system is under enormous strain,” said Duclos. “Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We see the signs of stress and sometimes distress every day across the country.”

Duclos added that the labour shortage is particularly prominent in the healthcare sector.

The three projects will help expand access to family health teams, especially in rural and remote communities, support healthcare workers and reduce surgical backlogs, increase support for mental health and substance use, especially for younger Canadians, and support better access to health data, Duclos said.

It’s also hoped that the projects, along with initiatives from the provinces and territories, will help streamline foreign credential recognition to bring on more healthcare professionals.

The three projects are:

  • $28.8 million for a Medical Council of Canada project to modernize the examination process for licensing physicians, develop a competency assessment framework for international medical graduates, and create a National Registry of Physicians.
  • $45.3 million for a project from the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine, the research arm of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. The project supports the training of health care practitioners—such as family physicians, physician assistants, family practice nurses, pharmacists, Indigenous traditional healers, midwives, and medical laboratory technologists—to practice team-based comprehensive primary care.
  • $4.4 million for the Canadian Alliance of Medical Laboratory Professionals Regulators project called Micro-Credentials and Work Integration Supports in the Medical Laboratory Technology Profession. This will help address labour shortages for medical laboratory technologists (MLTs) by helping science degree holders and internationally educated MLTs to enter the Canadian workforce.

“The projects funded today will help improve health care for Canadians by enhancing and aligning training for health care providers,” said Duclos. “We know that improved health worker supports lead to better health care for Canadians.”

For more information on the announcement, see the video here.

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