New Brunswick’s Vitalité will continue using travel nurses beyond winter deadline

Travel nurses will continue to work in New Brunswick’s Vitalite Health Network.

New Brunswick’s Vitalité Health Network admits travel nurses will continue working within its facilities next month, beyond the deadline promised in 2024.

The health authority had initially said it would be able to completely phase out contract nurses by winter 2026, following the release of an auditor general’s report, which found pandemic-era agreements signed by Vitalité (as well as the Horizon Health Network and the Department of Social Development) “did not demonstrate value for money.”

Dr. France Desrosiers, president and CEO of Vitalité, said the process to end the contracts would “continue over the coming months.”

“Recruitment of nursing staff remains a key challenge,” said Desrosiers in a statement. “The number of graduates from the province’s post-secondary institutions is not sufficient to meet current needs.”

Desrosiers said the health authority had found success in recruiting internationally educated nurses, noting the requirement of a designated training period in order to complete the certification process.

Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses Union, said she wasn’t surprised to learn Vitalité would miss its February target, but hoped it would be achieved as soon as possible.

“The sooner the better, but I’m a realist,” said Doucet, in an interview. “I think if they can actually aim for the end of 2026 then that gives them the opportunity to really be aggressive with their recruitment, but also to look at the different initiatives that it might take to have more New Brunswick nurses into those facilities.”

Doucet said Vitalité could be doing more to offer French language training within facilities to anglophone nurses eligible to work.

“We know in some of the areas, in Campbellton, there are several Anglophone folks that would potentially put down roots there,” says Doucet. “Bathurst is the same thing.”

Vitalité, along with Horizon and the Department of Social Development, began making widespread use of travel nurse contracts in 2022 to fill staffing gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Horizon ended its travel nurse contracts in August 2024.

A few months earlier, New Brunswick Auditor General Paul Martin released a report saying the province’s travel nurse contracts signed over a two-year period were problematic and risky.

In part, the report found that in two contracts signed with Vitalité, Ontario-based Canadian Health Labs charged the health authority $18,043.42 a day (12 hours) for a team of five in-person staff members, including three registered nurses and two licensed practical nurses, as well as two virtual staff members – about $306/hour for each in-person staff member, according to the audit.

The report indicated New Brunswick registered nurses are paid between $36.41 and $46.13/hour.

Vitalité and Canada Health Labs are currently forging dueling breach of contract lawsuits in court.

In March, the New Brunswick government moved legislation to terminate the contract between Vitalité and Canadian Health Labs for travel nurse services. The provincial government did not have any comment when asked about Vitalité’s continued use of travel nurse contracts beyond February.

-With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown

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