British Columbia, Canada hires 417 U.S. health-care workers in one-year recruitment blitz

Quebec: wait, we have a healthcare system?

Instructions unclear: expanding TFW program instead.

A friend of mine worked at eHealth Ontario during Fords initial hiring freeze. She informed me that while regular full time positions were frozen, we retained and greatly used our ability to hire foreign consultants. The work still got done (poorly because of lack of scaling capability) but at a premium because instead of paying local talent a local wage, we paid for US based contractors and consultants. The next year a lot of people in admin and higher up positions had their job titles changed to more convoluted ones that arent industry standard to make it more difficult to do competitive salary comparisons for those that actually stayed working with the government.

We also have a loud opposition who will hate everything about this

They increased their healthcare workforce by less than .5% and they called that a hiring blitz. I’m pretty sure Ontario has done at least that much lol.

Unheard of? It's like going between the British Isles..

F***, I'd strap both my large dogs on my back and walk there tonight if they'd take me. I'm a professor, not a healthcare worker, and would absolutely jump at the chance to leave this dumpster fire of a country...

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Renting yes, but household income should be well above $200k to buy a house in Victoria, even more in Vancouver. Gets significantly cheaper the further inland or north you go though

It's worth noting a lot of the positions being filled are in smaller towns, and arguably more affordable areas, especially when compared with the greater Vancouver area.

My husband and I are both RNs, one kid, one cat, own our home and live very comfortably about an hour outside Vancouver.

It's outrageous in urban pockets. It's not outrageous throughout. Wages for RN's can range from 40-60 / hr.

At 90k a year you'll probably take home ~60k after tax and the minimum you'd spend a year on rent in Vancouver/Victoria for a decent place is 20-25k. You'd be fine depending on your other expenses.

Outside of the largest cities, yes! And condos and townhomes are accessible even in parts of the largest cities if you have the down payment.

Are you a clinical biomedical engineer?

And have to deal with Sacramento, Spokane and Eugene? No thanks.  We'll piecemeal it thanks. 

We desperately need doctors

The government of Alberta has attacked the medical and education professions. Straight up hostile toward them.

Government of Alberta is run by a redneck, Trump Supporter.

It is but are you ready for the winter?

Last I looked at it, your better bet might be Manitoba or Saskatchewan. Still affordable and generally somewhat lower requirements.

yeah, but then you're living in alberta

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html

Neither am I but can do a mean enema.

the fact America shrunk in population for the first time in ages in 2025 and we are clearly undergoing brain drain and labor shortages should concern people I think.

Well house prices would depend entirely on where they're moving from, and where they're moving to, wouldn't it?

Less fascism though.

Citizens can go out on the street without being murdered by the gestapo up here, though.

I'm from BC and can confirm that most healthcare workers make a pretty solid living here

Good luck with your garbage fire

Family member needed life saving surgery, waited a few days (and that's because they needed to wait for a specialist to be available). Partner had a medical condition that was painful but not dangerous, waited 8 months. Our system is definitely strained, but it is prioritizing the people who need help first.

Sounds like they could use more healthcare workers. Perhaps 417 more.

It a not uncommon problem getting certain non-urgent healthcare in Canada especially something complicated or expensive like surgery or an MRI. And if you're a multi-millionaire and willing to pay privately for anything you need then yes you might get faster healthcare in the US in those situations. For the 99% of us who can't do that I'd much rather Canada's healthcare system than the US.

You don't wait if it's required. It's just triaged appropriately

Dad got diagnosed with cancer. Got surgery in three weeks. I got diagnosis with cancer. Got surgery in two months, and the only reason I had to wait so long was because it was in the middle of Covid. Only had to pay for parking. 

"Private healthcare is better" MFs love the convenience of not having to wait in line behind the poors. US healthcare is faster because anybody who can't afford treatment just dies.

We have privatized healthcare here too. Just like the US. And if you were really in trouble for an operation in Canada. You would be in the hospital tomorrow!

I've still never met anyone who has waited more than 2 months for surgery. The articles you read obviously are going to focus on the absolutely extreme cases.

Yes, it’s almost as if a shortage that could create a wait is why Canada are poaching health professionals to bring down those times… Plus your comment is classic right-wing trolling anyway. People who need urgent surgery get urgent surgery, without going bankrupt.

Ah yes, so scary! Clearly you don’t know anything about medicine

Luckily, my mom did not wait a year for an emergent cholecystectomy. And they only had to pay for parking!

Depends where. And for what.

You mean, 30 minutes? Because I have totally seen a 30 minute surgery. ER diagnosed a large gal stone had left the bladder and got stuck. On-call surgeon met with, gave options, got consent for surgery. Left to prepare to remove the gal bladder. 1 hour later the patient was awake, less a gal bladder. On a Saturday evening. 1 year. 🤣

And? In the US, you will likely *also* end up waiting a year as you get the joy of being referred from a gp to a specialist (which takes months), having to endure all of the non-surgical interventions they recommend regardless of how ineffectual they prove to be just to *maybe* get insurance to approve of the advanced imaging that could have accurately diagnosed the problem in the first place, then being referred to a surgeon when someone looks at the CT or MRI for more than 4 seconds, and then finally having to fight the insurance company to approve of the operation you very clearly need due to the "throw shit at a wall and see what sticks" approach the office is forced to use for CPT codes. And, as you go through that bullshit, your wallet is being raped in real time to the tune of thousands of dollars. Want to know how I know, champ? Because *I* had to play that game a few times. I have used both the American and Canadian healthcare systems for years. If I was forced to choose one over the other, I would choose the Canadian system every goddamn time and I would do so without hesitation.

This seems like a step toward addressing that problem

As opposed to never getting it because you don't want to pay the copay to detect the issue, landing in a hospital assuming you don't die, getting emergency care, and assuming you survive going bankrupt and dying? Also I never understood the claim American healthcare was faster. Seeing a specialist here is a 6+ month waiting list minimum in my experience. So what time are we saving?

Keeping that Fox News drivel on max volume, eh? I waited _6 months_ for a f****** endoscopy here in the wonderful USA. F*** off with your uninformed bullshit.

Ironically, I received a referall to a specialist at the first of february...I called to schedule - ok - see you in October...we will put you a wait list for cancelations. The US isnt much better friendo....except we also have shitty billing and shitty pricing

The concept of "triage" exists here too. Who'da thunk it?

I would think if they'd wanted to get into healthcare, they'd be in healthcare, and Canada wouldn't have to be looking abroad right now.