Newfoundland and Labrador health officials are facing a staffing crunch after a temporary nurse agency refused to let its nurses continue to work in the province for another employer.
Toronto-based Canadian Health Labs had two contracts to send registered nurses from other parts of Canada to hospitals and nursing homes in Newfoundland that were left severely short-handed because of the pandemic.
Under a mutual non-poaching clause in the contracts, CHL cannot hire away local workers and, in return, nurses that the agency sent to Newfoundland cannot be employed by local health authorities for a year after the end of a contract, unless the company gives permission in writing.
Six nurses and three other people with first-hand knowledge have told The Globe and Mail that CHL has refused to release interested nurses from the clause.
Four nurses interviewed by The Globe said they would have been willing to stay in Newfoundland and take a pay cut to work for the public system but were not allowed to by CFL.
In response to questions from The Globe, CHL e-mailed a short written statement stating that, “CHL’s contracts contain standard business terms.”
At the time that one contract expired on Tuesday, CHL provided 31 registered nurses to Newfoundland’s Central Health region, an area that includes Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor, two of the province’s largest towns.
Yvette Coffey, the president of Registered Nurses’ Union Newfoundland & Labrador, said the expiry of the Central contract and the province’s inability to retain CHL’s nurses will have an impact on care. Her union members in Central have not been informed what steps officials will take to remedy the loss of those 31 RNs.
“If they don’t have any relief, they’re either going to have to close services, or they’re not going to get any summer holidays,” she said in an interview.
She added that the nurses CHL has sent to the province since 2022 have become acquainted with local hospital protocols, and that some of them received further training in areas such as trauma nursing or pediatric life support at Newfoundland’s expense. “All that training and expertise is now gone.”
When CHL’s other major contract, signed with the Western Health region, concluded at the end of February, the 20 nurses the agency had in place couldn’t stay. Western Memorial Regional Hospital, in Corner Brook, imposed mandatory overtime on the remaining nurses, who initially had to work shifts of more than 20 hours.
In a Facebook Messenger group among themselves, nurses at the Corner Brook hospital regularly shared calls for volunteers to work extra hours. “We are short 2 rns tonight!” said an April 10 post. “Short 5 this morning SOS,” an April 12 message said.
Newfoundland Opposition calls on RCMP to intervene in private nursing deals
CHL is not the only temporary nursing agency with such contractual clauses with Newfoundland. However, its decision not to release the nurses is having the largest impact because it had been providing the bulk of travel nurses to the province.
Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services would not give specific details when asked about the effect of the contracts’ expiration and CHL’s refusal to release the nurses.
CHL’s contracts with the province are now under review by Newfoundland’s Auditor-General after a February Globe investigation raised questions about the agency’s high prices and billing practices. Health Minister Tom Osborne has said that paying for temporary nurses, also known as travel nurses, is a “necessary evil” that he wants to end as promptly as possible.
The six nurses who spoke to The Globe said they attempted to continue working in Newfoundland, initially with another agency, Teal, but were told at the last minute that there was no consent from CHL.
Savannah Davidson was among the four who said they wanted to continue practising nursing in the province but could not. “We fell in love with Newfoundland. I have a partner here now and we want to make this our home. And now we’re being stopped,” she said.
CHL still has one contract in Newfoundland, ending in August, to provide five ER nurses to the Eastern Health region.
The no-poaching clauses also appear in CHL’s agreements in New Brunswick, where the agency is supplying more than 40 nurses to the Vitalité Health Network. The conditions of that deal are even more restrictive: Nurses sent by CHL cannot work for Vitalité for two years after the contract ends in 2026.
In an e-mail, Vitalité said it has stepped up recruitment efforts and “we are in a good position to gradually end the use of agencies by the winter of 2026.”
CHL’s contracts in New Brunswick are also being reviewed by that province’s Auditor-General.
Tu Thanh Ha
Kelly Grant