Ontario is all set to include internationally trained nurses in its hospital by March 31, owing to the latest covid-19 surge. Due to labour shortages in the province, a collaborated program is initiated with the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) to link these nurses to hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities (where there is high demand for such workers) in the region.
Christine Elliott, Ontario’s Health Minister, says that CNO has received more than 1,200 applications till now who are showing interest in this program. They will be working under the supervision of a registered nurse or doctor while they complete their licence in Ontario.
Ontario is sending about 300 trained nurses to 50 high demand hospitals and is expecting 6,000 more healthcare workers in these hospitals by the end of March. Canadian provinces have been hit hard by the new Omicron variant of covid-19 because of which IRCC has increased the vacancy for nurses and other healthcare workers in its Economic Immigration Programs.
With the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program OINP, Ontario nominates around 8,000 candidates for permanent residence every year under three categories: Human Capital Category, Employer Job Offer Category, and Business Category. In the recent nominations and draws, the province’s main focus was on the healthcare sector.
As per the latest Express Entry draw held on January 12, the Human Capital Priorities stream of Ontario’s PNP program has targeted 18 occupations (which includes trained nurses such as licensed practical nurses, registered and psychiatric nurses, opticians, and medical laboratory technologists) where workers are in high demand to fill vacant positions.
A day before that, six Expression of Interest (EOI) draws were held through Ontario’s Employer Job Offer streams for Foreign Workers, International Students and In-Demand Skills. In that too, the main aim was to recruit healthcare workers like patient service associates, nurse aides, orderlies, and home support workers.
The provincial labour minister, Immigration Minister Monte McNaughton is turning to immigrants and temporary foreign workers to overcome the lack of qualified applicants in the country. This will also cater to the high demand for trained nurses and other healthcare workers, especially during the already existing labour shortages because of the pandemic.
There were over 20,000 internationally trained nurses registered and eligible to practice in the province in 2020, which represented 12.2% of Ontario’s nursing workforce, experiencing a rise of around 2% from 2010, when it was only 10.3%.
In 2021, Ontario committed in its ‘Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Build Ontario’ to invest $342 million over the next five years towards high demand recruitment initiatives for the health care system. It aims to add over 8,000 personal support workers and over 5,000 new and skilled nurses, making a total of more than 13,000 workers to Ontario’s health care system.
