Brockville joins regional effort to recruit healthcare workers amid shortages

In response to a growing healthcare worker shortage, Brockville has agreed to collaborate with neighbouring municipalities on a joint party agreement aimed at recruiting much-needed medical professionals to the region.

At their meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Brockville City Council heard a staff report from City Manager Sandra MacDonald to consider a Joint Party Agreement with the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville (UCLG), the Town of Gananoque and the Town of Prescott. This agreement addresses the ongoing shortage of healthcare professionals in the region and will establish a shared approach to recruiting physicians and other healthcare workers, ensuring residents have improved access to essential medical services.

This report follows a Nov. 12, 2024 presentation to council by George Smitherman and Sherri Fournier Hudson of Health Workforce Innovations Inc. Their proposal focused on combating the shortage of physicians and healthcare workers in the Leeds and Grenville area. The two key priorities are to:

• Coordinate efforts across healthcare sectors, including primary care, hospitals, long-term care, and community services.
• Developing a sustainable and comprehensive Health Human Resources Plan to ensure long-term stability in medical staffing.

The new Joint Party Agreement brought before the council formalizes the agreement of commitment between Brockville, Gananoque, Prescott, and the UCLG to jointly fund healthcare recruitment services by implementing a contract with Health Workforce Innovations Inc. to actively recruit healthcare professionals for the region. This would begin as a one-year initial term, with the option to extend the agreement based on progress.

In terms of recruitment, the Health Workforce Innovations Inc. recruitment firm will focus on targeting family doctors, specialists, nurses, personal support workers (PSWs), and other allied health professionals to fill gaps in local healthcare services. The base compensation paid towards Health Workforce Innovations Inc. would be $14,000 monthly for their recruitment services. 

MacDonald shared that with the insight from Health Workforce Innovations, the municipalities are currently aiming to bring 10 doctors to the area. Mayor Matt Wren added, “When you look at the vacancies that currently exist, and you look out over the next five years in Leeds and Grenville, I believe the number of physicians that would be needed over the next few years is in the neighbourhood of 25 for the county.”

The report details, “When an individual has been secured, the cost will be shared 50 per cent by the municipality in which the healthcare recruit is employed or establishes their practice/service, with the remaining balance being distributed among the remaining partners to the agreements.”

Based on population census data, Brockville’s share of costs is 21.25 per cent in reference to the other municipal partners.

MacDonald explained to council, “This program is a little bit different from other areas because this program is actually going to be reaching out offshore to doctors and bringing them into Ontario specifically, and then working with [the Ministry of Immigration] on having their credentials certified on this side of Ontario.”

She continued, “They want to grow these people locally and give them a whole place and a home to work,  as opposed to a lot of other programs that bring in incentives for five years. You’ll see that the doctors are given a grant, perhaps for $20,000 a year, to stay, but once the grant runs out, they move to another location. It will be more of a homecoming, if you will, instead of just dropping a doctor in place for a period of time.”

Councillor Earle shared his support for the motion after recounting his recent 38-hour stint waiting in the emergency department over the Christmas holidays.

“I certainly recognize the need for doctors, and I’m glad to see that it’s a one-year contract. Some interesting things are going on in other places, as well as ours and certainly us paying the bill and walking away is probably not the right option, because we need more than one doctor, as in most places, there’s a supply shortage.”

Councillor Deery expressed his concern over the idea of local municipalities taking on provincial responsibilities and costs.

“I’m supportive of this, I just fear that when we continue to do this over and over again, and if we’re not in good communications with the province and we don’t make them aware that this isn’t really our responsibility, what will change in the province so that we don’t have to do this anymore? But again, that’s maybe a conversation for another day.”

When called to a vote, the motion to enter into the one-year agreement was carried unanimously by all councillors.