N.L. health authority seeking 170 rental units for internationally recruited workers

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is looking to get into the rental game and secure 170 housing units for health-care workers recruited to work across the province.

A request for quotation posted March 1 on Merx, the website the provincial government uses to issue calls for bids and tenders, is looking to lease housing units. The deadline for submissions is March 28.

"We will be welcoming new health-care professionals to the province as they become available starting in January 2024 and will continue to require these services in areas throughout the province as recruitment efforts continue," stated the request for supplier qualifications document.

It comes at a time of increased scrutiny over a bombshell Globe and Mail report that revealed the provincial government had spent $35.6 million on nurses from private agencies between April and August 2023. 

It revealed that taxpayers paid, on behalf of Toronto-based private nursing agency Canadian Health Labs, a range of nurses' expenses like cab rides, Walmart furniture, pet transportation and an air fryer. Those travel nurses were paid nearly double the cost of similar agencies in the country.

In total, the health authority is looking for 170 units: 50 units in eastern urban zones, 30 units in the eastern rural zone, 40 units in the central zone, 30 units in the western zone and 20 units in the Labrador zone.

"We expect the minimum number of units required per health zone as outlined below but these could change based on recruitment outcomes," stated the document.

It added the health authority isn't committing to leasing the listed units.

CBC News reached out to the health authority for an interview but spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary sent a statement instead, which reiterated the information contained in the request for supplier qualifications.

"N.L. Health Services is preparing to welcome international health-care professionals who will help to ensure we can continue to provide care to all residents of the province," Etchegary concluded.

The provincial government recently announced it had made job offers to 68 nurses after a recruitment trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It's part of a global strategy employed by the province to bring health-care professionals to Newfoundland and Labrador that has included recent recruitment trips to Ireland and India.

Premier Andrew Furey has called housing availability across the province an "acute crisis."

Registered Nurses' Union Newfoundland and Labrador president Yvette Coffey wrote that if these accommodations are for internationally recruited workers then they would likely be permanent workers — something she welcomed.

In an email to CBC News, Coffey said recruitment must be paired with "robust support" for recruitment efforts to succeed. Without support, internationally recruited health-care workers face challenges, as do health-care workers in general.