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A grassroots initiative is working to attract American health-care workers to Canada, and the founder says it’s already succeeding.
Tod Maffin told CBC News he recognized the need for qualified health professionals across the country, and his initiative aims to help match them with jobs north of the border.
Maffin, a former CBC host, current author and a community advocate in British Columbia, calls the project the Canadian Healthcare Infusion.
“The health-care infusion is basically a volunteer-run community,” Maffin said.
“In most cases, it’s just a very simple website based on a template that my wife and I did a couple of months ago, and a Discord community, which is essentially kind of like a glorified chat room that lets locals chat with people who are, for instance, American health-care workers.”
The number of people in Newfoundland and Labrador without a family doctor has been increasing. In a November 2024 statement, the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association reported that number was 163,000 people without a family doctor at the time.
Registered nurses also say they’re overworked and their hospitals and clinics understaffed.
Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services said it’s attempting to move away from travel nurse agencies, but has postings for 224 nurse jobs and 143 physicians, many of which are family doctors.
The previous Liberal provincial government offered incentives, bonuses and higher pay for some positions, and focused on recruitment from outside of Canada, including doctors from Ireland and nurses from India.
Melanie Ball joined Maffin’s project to attract American health-care workers to Newfoundland and Labrador. (Submitted by Melanie Ball)
Maffin believes there’s room for his project to help.
“There’s lots of parts of the system to recruit health-care workers into our public system in Canada, and Newfoundland, and B.C. and so on,” he said.
“But one thing that those systems were missing was a way for a nurse, you know, an ER nurse in Florida to ask someone on the ground, another mom, will my trans kid feel safe in high school? Or to say ‘don’t worry, the weather will be fine.'”
Maffin said his program is working, and seeing early success in his home province already.
“I think we were up to 30 health-care workers that have now moved from the U.S. to Vancouver Island, most of them in and around our community and the Nanaimo area,” he said.
“We’ve got new nurses, doctors, social workers, counselors. It works not because it’s trying to replace anything, but because it’s trying to plug into a system that’s missing one component.”
Volunteers across the country have signed onto the program. Newfoundland and Labrador’s chapter launched in January.
Co-founder Melanie Ball said it’s really easy to take part, and points people to the organization’s website for details.
“We would like people to talk about their communities, talk about what it’s like to live here, talk about why American health-care workers should consider coming to Newfoundland,” she said.
“It really is about community helping community. And I really feel that that’s a strong part of living in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Tod Maffin hopes his program will help recruit more American health-care workers to Canada. (CBC)
Ball said other local volunteers have signed up to answer questions from potential new health-care workers. A few who made the move to the province have also decided to help.
“It’s just come on the server, see what people are talking about, add your stories, add your advice and well, hopefully we’ll get a bunch of people very much interested in coming here to live with us and join our communities,” she said.
Maffin thinks the success he’s seeing in British Columbia can happen in Newfoundland and Labrador, as long as people are ready to join the project.
“If you have ever said the phrase, ‘I wish someone would do something about this,’ this is your opportunity to be that person,” he said. “The templates are there. There are videos I made on how to get your discords started. The whole kit is ready for your community.”
Maffin said it’s great to see Newfoundland and Labrador with its own chapter, adding the goal now is to get one going specifically for Labrador.
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