SELKIRK—The Manitoba government is significantly expanding its Health Human Resource Action Plan, nearly doubling its total investment to approximately $400 million with a number of new incentives and initiatives as part of ongoing efforts to hire 2,000 health-care providers and improve care for patients across the province, Health Minister Audrey Gordon announced here today.

“The Health Human Resource Action Plan has significantly aided our government’s efforts to address global staffing challenges being felt here in Manitoba, making it easier to retain, train and recruit health-care professionals,” said Gordon. “We are building on that momentum with new and expanded incentives to further strengthen our health-care system workforce and enhance patient care for all Manitobans.”

The action plan, initially announced in November 2022, is being expanded to include a number of new incentives and supports for physicians, nurses and allied health staff. Developed in consultation and collaboration with labour unions, Doctors Manitoba, system leaders and front-line staff, these new incentives continue to focus on the three pillars of the action plan: retention, training and recruitment.

These new initiatives include:

• more opportunities for paramedics in rural and northern Manitoba to grow in their careers;
• practice-ready assessments for physicians;
• supports for internationally educated nurses; and
• a renewed focus on system and staff wellness including recruitment of a chief wellness officer.

“These new incentives and increased opportunities for members of our allied health workforce strengthen our efforts to retain, recruit and train highly skilled health-care workers right here in Manitoba,” said Helen Clark, chief operating officer of emergency response services and chief allied health officer, Shared Health. “They also ensure that Manitoba is – and will remain – an attractive and competitive location for health-care workers from across Canada.”

New incentives will be rolled out in the coming months and follow the successful implementation of a number of similar initiatives announced over the past nine months for Manitoba’s nursing workforce, as well as efforts to position Manitoba as a destination of choice for health-care workers from across the country and around the world, the minister noted. More than 300 internationally educated nurses from the Philippines have now accepted offers of employment to work at various sites throughout Manitoba and are beginning to work through immigration and licensing processes.

The action plan supplements incentives and initiatives contained within various health-care system collective agreements.

“Our government remains committed to improving the health-care system for those working in it and for Manitobans who rely on it,” said Gordon. “We will continue to work with physicians and staff from all levels of the health-care system towards a shared goal of a stronger workforce that provides safe patient, client, and resident care closer to home for all Manitobans.”

The Manitoba government is also providing more than $3.6 million through a new $10-million Labour Market Fund to add health-care training seats at three post-secondary institutions.

“Our government is committed to healing health care, and these additional seats will help us to meet the labour needs of our health-care system to ensure more Manitobans have access to the care they need, when they need it,” said Advanced Education and Training Minister Sarah Guillemard. “This investment complements other recent initiatives to increase the number of health-care professionals working in our province in support of our Health Human Resource Action Plan including recruiting more than 300 internationally educated nurses to practise in Manitoba and increasing nursing education in Manitoba by adding 400 seats across multiple institutions.”

More than $2 million is being provided to Assiniboine Community College to support training of an additional 70 licensed practical nurses in Brandon and Winnipeg, Guillemard noted. Licensed practical nurses are regulated health-care professionals who receive two years of training to provide care in a variety of health-care settings.

The University of Manitoba will receive $1.2 million to support a 20-seat expansion in the 2024-25 bachelor of respiratory therapy program. The addition of 20 seats will bring the total seat capacity in the program to 40 seats. Ten seats will be reserved for Indigenous and northern applicants, Guillemard said.