Both the Vitalité and Horizon Health networks spent close to $57 million on travel nurses between April and August.
Travel nurses are hired through private agencies for short-term placements, and are paid significantly more than regular nurses.
New Brunswick hospitals have been using them to fill gaps in staffing since 2022.
“This is taxpayer money. It should be spent here in our province and right now,” New Brunswick Nurses Union President Paula Doucet said on Tuesday.
Doucet would rather see that money invested in training and retention intiatives for New Brunswick nurses.
“There’s more than $56 million being siphoned out of our coffers and being paid to private for-profit companies in Ontario and B.C.,” she said.
She’s calling on the province to set a target to end the use of travel nurses by the end of 2025.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Bruce Fitch told reporters the use of travel measures was a necessary interim measure to ensure patients were cared for.
Fitch said the amount spent on travel nurses was concerning and the he “wanted to see a New Brunswick without travel nurses.”
He mentioned various measures the province was using to recruit nurses, such as an increased number of seats in nursing programs and more international recruitment.
On Monday, Nova Scotia introduced a policy to limit the use of travel nurses.
Measures include forbidding graduates of Nova Scotia nursing schools from working as a travel nurse in that province for a year after graduation, as well setting a maximum limit of 180 days of employment for travel nurses.
After those 180 days, travel nurses would need to wait at least a year before being able to take on another travel nurse contract in the province .
In April, Quebec passed a bill that limited the conditions of employment for travel nurses, with the ultimate goal of phasing it out completely by the end of 2025.
Doucet said she applauded both these measures and wanted to see specific measures like these put in place in New Brunswick.
Fitch was unable to provide details on what measures would be taken to phase out the use of travel nurses, or set a target for ending their use.
“We want to do the analysis, we want to do the work that needs to be done to ensure that it’s accurate,” Fitch said.
Green Party health critic Megan Mitton said she was “extremely concerned” about the use of travel nurses in the province.
“It’s really frustrating and disappointing and demoralizing for the nurses and health-care workers who are facing this difficult situation and being undermined by this further privatization of the health-care system,” she said.
She pointed out that New Brunswick was the only province in Atlantic Canada without a retention bonus for nurses.
“Nurses here are waiting for some sign that the government cares about them, values them, and wants to retain them.” she said.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt said while she understands there was a need for a “band-aid solution” the government should have prioritized retention.
“I think about that $58 million and what that could have done, invested in the working conditions, the education and support for the nurses that we have.”
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