SASKATOON, Sask. — The Saskatchewan NDP has called out the provincial government for spending millions of dollars on travel nurses to fill persistent staffing shortages in the health-care system. Meanwhile, front-line workers in the province struggle with stagnant wages and insecure employment.
Associate shadow minister for health Keith Jorgenson told SaskToday that the province could get better value for taxpayers’ money by investing in permanent nursing positions, improving working conditions and addressing the staffing problems driving the reliance on temporary workers.
Jorgenson said the Opposition cannot calculate exactly how much the province could save by reducing its reliance on travel nurses because the government is not transparent about how the province’s health-care system operates.
“The people of Saskatchewan can see that they're not getting good value for money when we're paying, you know, for one nursing position upwards of $30,000 a month,” said Jorgenson, adding that the cost of bringing in temporary nursing staff raises serious questions about how public money is being spent.
He pointed to the contrast between what travel nurses are paid and the difficulties Saskatchewan-based health-care workers face in securing stable employment and fair compensation. Many front-line workers have gone without a raise for more than three years, while some struggle to afford necessities and are forced to turn to food banks.
Jorgenson said it makes little sense for the health-care system to pay significantly more for temporary staff while workers willing to serve their own communities face barriers to obtaining permanent positions. He argued the problem isn't simply a shortage of nurses, but a failure to create employment opportunities that attract and retain workers.
“We have people who are willing to fill those jobs, and they're complaining that they can't get a full-time contract,” said Jorgenson, who added that part-time and short-term contracts can make it difficult for nurses to relocate, purchase homes and establish long-term roots in rural and remote Saskatchewan communities where staffing shortages are particularly acute.
Jorgenson said the NDP, if elected to form government, would pursue permanent staffing solutions by negotiating fair agreements with health-care unions and converting temporary and part-time positions into full-time jobs.
“We would sign fair contracts with all of the health care unions that have standing contracts. We would combine part-time temporary positions into full-time positions so people had, you know, attractive jobs that they were willing to relocate for,” said Jorgenson, adding that front-line workers must be treated with respect and given opportunities to raise concerns about their working conditions.
The Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood MLA said that reducing travel nurse spending should not come at the expense of patient care. He acknowledged that travel nurses would remain necessary to address occasional vacancies and short-term staffing emergencies, but argued that the province should prioritize permanent recruitment and retention.
“The first thing that you could do to reduce the use of travel nurses is, again, combine those temporary part-time contracts that the [Saskatchewan Health Authority] is famous for offering and posting into permanent full-time jobs,” said Jorgenson, who also proposed that the SHA establish its own pool of travel nurses to deploy wherever staffing gaps emerge, rather than relying so heavily on private companies.
Jorgenson said an internally managed pool could provide the flexibility needed to cover vacancies while reducing the amount of public money paid to outside agencies. He noted that the provincial auditor had also suggested an employer-managed travel nurse pool as a potential way to improve the system.
Building a healthy workforce
The SHA said in a statement that it values employees who continue to deliver high-quality health-care services to the people of Saskatchewan daily and uses contracted travel nurses only when there are prolonged vacancies at a facility or program that cannot be filled by current staff.
“This is a last resort short-term measure taken to ensure health care services are not interrupted. The SHA remains committed to phasing out reliance on contract staff,” the SHA said in its statement about hiring contract-based travel nurses.
The SHA said it has reduced spending on contract travel nurses by $44.8 million between the 2023-24 and 2025-26 fiscal years. The SHA added that since June 2023, it has reduced vacancies in hard-to-recruit permanent positions by 49 per cent, while nursing vacancies have declined by 68 per cent, including a 79 per cent reduction in rural and northern communities.
“The SHA continues to work with the Government of Saskatchewan to build and support a healthy, stable nursing workforce through the Healthcare Human Resources Action Plan and, more recently, the Patients First Health Care Plan by adding more full-time positions, increasing training seats, strengthening recruitment efforts and reducing barriers for internationally educated nurses,” the SHA said.
