invest in nurses,
‍not corporate profits  

Canada has spent more than $1.5 billion on for-profit nursing agencies in the last fiscal year. Health care is about people, not profit. Join nurses across the country in telling our politicians that for-profit corporate health care staffing agencies are not the solution to Canada’s nurse shortage crisis. Let’s demand sustainable public health care solutions that put patients before profit, and invest in full-time nursing positions.
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Why it matters

Health care in Canada is at a crossroads. The recent rise of for-profit nursing agencies is exacerbating staffing shortages rather than solving them. These agencies charge exorbitant rates, drain public funds and create a system where health care delivery is driven by profit margins, not patient needs.

Draining of Public Health Care resources

Provinces and territories have collectively spent more than $1.5 billion in just one fiscal year on nurse staffing agencies. Every province is diverting critical resources away from strengthening our public health care system.

Skyrocketing Costs

For-profit health care staffing agencies charge up to six times the hourly rate of a regular nurse, pushing health care budgets to the brink. While a private nurse staffing agencies can charge up to $300 per hour, a full-time publicly employed nurse typically earns between $27 to $54 per hour.

Band-aid fix

Using nursing agencies is a temporary fix that fails to address the root causes of the nursing shortage. Instead, it threatens the sustainability of our public health care system by draining resources and failing to provide stable, consistent care to those who need it most. As a result, permanent staff are stretched thin, often picking up the pieces after agency shifts end, leading to greater burnout and turnover. This creates a vicious cycle where more full-time nurses leave, pushing health care facilities to rely even more heavily on costly agency staffing.

Why it matters

Health care in Canada is at a crossroads. The recent rise of for-profit nursing agencies is exacerbating staffing shortages rather than solving them. These agencies charge exorbitant rates, drain public funds and create a system where health care delivery is driven by profit margins, not patient needs.

Draining of Public Health Care resources

Provinces and territories have collectively spent more than $1.5 billion in just one fiscal year on nurse staffing agencies. Every province is diverting critical resources away from strengthening our public health care system.

Skyrocketing Costs

For-profit health care staffing agencies charge up to six times the hourly rate of a regular nurse, pushing health care budgets to the brink. While a private nurse staffing agencies can charge up to $300 per hour, a full-time publicly employed nurse typically earns between $27 to $54 per hour.

Band-aid fix

Using nursing agencies is a temporary fix that fails to address the root causes of the nursing shortage. Instead, it threatens the sustainability of our public health care system by draining resources and failing to provide stable, consistent care to those who need it most. As a result, permanent staff are stretched thin, often picking up the pieces after agency shifts end, leading to greater burnout and turnover. This creates a vicious cycle where more full-time nurses leave, pushing health care facilities to rely even more heavily on costly agency staffing.

take action

Health care is a right, not a commodity. It’s time to voice our opposition to the privatization of health care staffing in Canada. Your MP and provincial minister of health needs to hear from you. Click below to send a message expressing your concern about for-profit nursing agencies and demanding investment in a public health care system that serves all people in Canada equitably. Together, we can ensure that our health care system prioritizes care over profit.

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News

See the latest stories on for-profit, staffing agencies draining our public health care system.

Public system spent at least $1.5-billion on private nurses last year, study finds

Canadian hospitals and nursing homes paid at least $1.5-billion in the past fiscal year – a six-fold increase since 2020 – to for-profit staffing agencies, according to a new report that lays bare the scale of a staffing crisis inside the public-health care system.

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Opinion | For-profit nursing agencies a $1 billion Band-Aid gone wrong in Ontario

For most Canadians, the ongoing health staffing crisis is marked by overrun ERs, long wait times and dwindling access to care. For for-profit nursing agencies, it’s been an economic boom to the tune of billions.

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CBC's the Current | Why more nurses work for private agencies — at public cost

A new report says at least $1.5 billion in public funds was paid to for-profit agencies supplying nurses to the public system last year. We hear why nurses are choosing to work for private agencies — and what it all means for the staffing crisis in the health-care system.

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For-profit nursing: a billion-dollar Band-Aid gone wrong

For most Canadians, the ongoing health staffing crisis is marked by overrun emergency rooms, long wait times and dwindling access to care.For the for-profit nursing agencies, it’s been an economic boom to the tune of billions.

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Opening the black box: Unpacking the use of nursing agencies in Canada examined the current landscape on the use of agencies across Canada and provides an understanding of the impact agencies have on health human resources planning, privatization of the public health care system, and retention and recruitment of the nursing workforce.

The report unveiled a sharp increase in spending on for-profit agencies and a concerning lack of regulations and transparency over how these companies operate.

Opening the black box outlines key recommendations to address this costly trend, including:

  • Governments must immediately begin working towards phasing out the use of private for-profit nurse staffing agencies in Canada.
  • Governments and employers must take immediate action to solve the nursing shortage crisis.
  • Until private nursing agencies can be completely phased out, actions must be taken to implement regulations and oversight.
Read the full Report