Health leaders across Atlantic Canada are taking decisive action to tackle one of the healthcare system's most expensive problems: travel nurses.
Prince Edward Island Health Minister Cory Deagle announced Thursday that the three Maritime provinces are developing plans for a regional public travel-nurse agency, an ambitious move designed to wean the system off costly private nursing contracts that are draining provincial budgets.
"I don't think any province can afford to keep paying these astronomical prices," Deagle told reporters. "Right now, we don't have any other option, we don't have enough nurses to fill the positions we have. But we've got to find a way to manage the cost."
The numbers tell a stark story. P.E.I. alone spent approximately $28.5 million on travel nurses in the 2024-25 fiscal year—money that could be redirected toward permanent staffing, training, and infrastructure if the system wasn't dependent on private agencies charging premium rates.
The Cost of Frustration on the Front Lines
Beyond the financial burden, reliance on travel nurses creates tension within hospitals and care facilities. Staff nurses working alongside travel agency employees often earn significantly less for the same work, creating morale issues and frustration that ripples through healthcare teams already stretched thin.
"We need them right now," Deagle acknowledged, "but we're not going to use private companies going forward."
The proposed Maritime model would allow nurses to travel and work across the three provinces while remaining part of a public system. To make it work, all three provinces would need to agree to stop contracting with private agencies entirely—a coordinated approach that would eliminate the financial incentive for nurses to leave the public system.
Learning from Quebec's Success
Other provinces have already proven this approach works. Quebec passed legislation in 2023 specifically aimed at ending dependence on private nursing agencies. The result? Thousands of healthcare workers moved into the public system. More recently, New Brunswick introduced its own legislation to cancel a multimillion-dollar contract with a travel-nurse staffing agency.
The proposed Atlantic strategy would go further by standardizing licensing requirements across jurisdictions, similar to how the Atlantic Physician Register allows doctors to practise across all four Atlantic provinces without additional licensing hurdles. Standard wages and practices would also be aligned regionally.
What's Next? The Challenge Ahead
While the concept is still in early development stages with no formal timeline announced, Deagle made clear that healthcare systems across the Maritimes will continue relying on travel nurses in the immediate term. Seasonal pressures—such as summer staff vacations—and persistent staffing gaps mean the system has no choice but to keep using agencies for now.
Specialized positions present particular challenges. Intensive care units, for example, require highly trained staff that are difficult to recruit locally. Those gaps force hospitals to turn to agency workers, driving up costs even further.
"Due to over-capacity issues, we're actually going to be spending more money on travel nurses this year," Deagle admitted.
The initiative reflects a broader recognition across Canadian healthcare that private staffing agencies, while temporarily solving immediate labour shortages, ultimately create unsustainable financial and workplace culture problems. By building a public alternative, Atlantic Canada's provinces hope to retain talent, reduce costs, and create a more stable healthcare workforce for the years ahead.
This article is based on reporting from CBC Health. Read the original story at CBC News.