Newfoundland and Labrador offering expat doctors $100,000 to come home to practise
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is offering up big money in an effort to entice doctors, nurses and paramedics working outside the province to move back home.
Doctors who were born, educated, trained or who had previous practices in the province are eligible for $100,000 if they agree to return to Newfoundland and Labrador to work for at least five years. Nurses and paramedics meeting the same criteria will qualify for a payment of at least $50,000 if they commit for three years, the government announced Tuesday.
"If they've got a connection, they're more likely to stay," Health Minister Tom Osborne told reporters.
"This is a recruitment incentive," Osborne added. "There are also retention issues that we're working on."
Like many provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador's health-care system is buckling under the weight of labour shortages. Emergency rooms in rural parts of the province have been intermittently closed throughout the summer and fall as the province struggles to find doctors to keep them open.
Polling from the province's medical association estimates that nearly a quarter of residents are without a family doctor.
The province calls the latest recruitment initiative Come Home 2022. The name comes from its Come Home Year 2022 tourism campaign launched last year to encourage those who have moved away to come home for a visit.
Though the main thrust of the campaign is to lure expatriate Newfoundland and Labrador health-care workers, there are incentives for professionals without connections to the province. Doctors in that group can qualify for $50,000 if they agree to the five-year commitment, while nurses and paramedics can get up to $30,000 for three years, depending on their credentials, Osborne said.
"It is in addition to any other incentive," he said. "We've done this to make us the most competitive."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.