Maritime-wide nursing idea is a non-starter: unions

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New Brunswick News Politics The Issues Health care

N.B. president thinks P.E.I.’s new health minister’s idea is unworkable, and that he’s still learning about his file

Published Apr 27, 2026 • Last updated 4 days ago • 3 minute read

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P.E.I. Health Minister Cory Deagle is pictured in this file photo. POSTMEDIA ARCHIVESArticle content

Recent talk of a Maritime-wide public travel nurse agency from P.E.I.’s new health minister is being met with confusion from nurses’ unions in the region, who say they weren’t consulted about the idea and that it won’t work.

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The concept is to create a unit where nurses who already work in the Maritimes can pick up extra shifts in other provinces, rather than using private companies to supply the nurses, which is far more expensive.

New Brunswick, for example, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on travel nurses since the pandemic; Vitalité Health Network is still using them, while Horizon stopped last year. The provincial government is fighting one of the travel nurse providers it used, Canadian Health Labs, in court after it cancelled the contract between the two and introduced legislation designed to prevent the government from being sued.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.

Recently, P.E.I. Health Minister Cory Deagle told The Guardian that the deputy health ministers from each of the Maritime provinces have established a “working table and are working on a plan to reduce the number of travel nurses.”

“Ideally, we won’t use private companies anymore. We would have a Maritime unit that we can draw from, but each province would agree not to use travel nurses from private companies,” said Deagle.

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He didn’t respond to an interview request sent late last week; a statement was provided.

“These discussions remain at a very early stage. At this point, we won’t be providing any further public comment. Should there be meaningful developments, we will share updates as appropriate,” read the statement from spokesperson Autumn Tremere.

But based on comments from union leaders, the idea is dead on arrival.

New Brunswick’s newly signed nurses’ contract contains provisions for in-province travel nursing, noted New Brunswick Nurses’ Union (NBNU) president Paula Doucet.

“If there’s a critical staffing need in certain areas of the province, we have language now that allows the employer to do that call-out, and our nurses that do accept those critical call-outs get compensated at a higher rate of pay, and their mileage and their meals and their accommodations are all covered,” Doucet said, adding that she was “surprised” by Deagle’s idea.

“The logistics of it, I think, would be a complete nightmare, where it would involve different compensation models and seniority accruals, vacation time … I don’t think it’s a feasible idea. And again, if you want to have these conversations, then you need to absolutely include the nurses’ unions at these tables.”

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It’s likely that Deagle is still getting up to speed on his file and doesn’t understand the complexity of what he’s proposing, Doucet said.

“The … health minister from P.E.I. … he’s relatively new. Whether they had internal conversations there, and it was just one of those ideas that he’s floated out … the P.E.I. nurses’ union president wasn’t advised. (Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union president) Janet Hazelton didn’t know anything about it.”

Hazelton confirmed that she was caught off guard by Deagle’s comments – and apparently so was Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, who attended NSNU’s 50th annual general meeting soon after the idea went public.

“We hadn’t heard about it, and they actually asked the premier, who hadn’t heard about it either,” Hazelton said.

And while Hazleton agreed with Doucet that Deagle’s idea is a non-starter, she said that “something has to be done” about provinces’ use of private-sector travel nurses.

“We’re spending way too much money on travel nurses. We’re becoming far too dependent on this expensive resource. I also agree that we need to put a stop to them,” Hazelton said.

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But what about the idea itself?

“I don’t see how that would work, because all our contracts are different – my nurses make a different wage than New Brunswick nurses,” she said. “So I don’t know how logistically that that would work. I can’t see that happening.”

Later, Hazelton added: “I think there’s conversations worthy of being had, but I can’t see (a public travel nurse agency) that’s within the Maritimes only because we have different contracts, we have different dues rates, we have different pension plans, we have different (long-term disability) plans.”

Prince Edward Island Nurses’ Union president Kim Sears wasn’t available for an interview.

“I don’t want to speak for our union president on something like that,” said spokesperson Siobhan White.

“I will just say that we on Prince Edward Island are aware that the (use of) travel nurses is becoming more and more of an issue, and we would like to work with the (provincial) health authority for a solution. But we would like to make sure that the union and the province’s nurses are consulted on that.”

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