Nearly 130 job offers made during Sask. recruitment mission to Philippines

The Saskatchewan government says its recruiting trip to the Philippines to find health-care workers resulted in nearly 130 job offers being made.

In a media release Wednesday, the government said the Saskatchewan Health Authority offered 128 conditional offers to qualified Filipino registered nurses and one to a continuing care aide.

“They really want to come here and be able to start to have the opportunity to make a very good wage and own a home,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said Tuesday afternoon.

“It was interesting when, in one of the sessions, they asked the 200 people in there, ‘How many families own their own home?’ Not one hand went up. ‘You have that opportunity in Saskatchewan. You can earn a wage that you can buy a home and that could be your home and your children’s home.’

“This is making a significant impact in their lives and they’re also sending money back to the Philippines to be able to help out their families there as well … One gentleman said this is them winning the lottery. That’s how important it is for them to come to Saskatchewan.”

The recruiting mission was part of the provincial government’s Health Human Resources Action Plan, the aim of which is to add 1,000 employees to the province’s health-care workforce over several years.

In her report Tuesday, Saskatchewan’s auditor said the SHA has to do more to address a shortage of health-care workers in the province.

Tara Clemett said there are expected to be 2,200 staff shortages in hard-to-recruit positions over the next five years, including 840 continuing care assistants, 520 registered nurses and 180 medical lab technicians.

During the trip, the SHA was to interview health-care workers interested in moving to Saskatchewan. There also were 10 workshops and information sessions during which possible recruits were to learn about the licensing and regulatory process, immigration process, relocation supports and other information.

In total, the government said, more than 1,200 people attended the information sessions. The government said the SHA extended 128 conditional offers to registered nurses, some of whom have friends and relatives already living in Saskatchewan.

The potential recruits will be sent to locations around the province.

“I had one young Filipino gentleman come up and he said, ‘I’m going to Strasbourg. Where’s that? Is there snow there?’ ” Merriman said. “They’re very excited about the snow, which was fascinating.

“(The jobs) are all across the province. We’re mainly focusing on stabilizing rural and remote areas. That’s our primary focus because if those aren’t operational, then everything flows into the city. Then we have backups (at hospitals in the city).”

Merriman said moving into Saskatchewan’s workforce “won’t be a big leap” for the Filipino nurses, given they’ve already received training in advanced medical facilities in that country.

However, they still will have to undergo some training after arriving to learn the Canadian system. That’s why members of the delegation also met with education officials to discuss the creation of what the release called “more streamlined and efficient training pathways” between Saskatchewan’s post-secondary institutions and those in the Philippines.

To that end, Saskatchewan Polytechnic has opened a Manila-based office and has signed Memorandum of Understanding agreements with nine Philippine State Universities.

“(The bridging program) was something that we were working on with them to see if we can streamline that process so that when they do come across and they do choose Saskatchewan, they can integrate into the system very quickly,” Merriman said.