Canada’s health workforce is in crisis. The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic amplified pre-existing challenges in the health care system leading to widespread staffing shortages as well as exhaustion and burnout among health care professionals. Over the course of seven meetings, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health (the Committee) conducted a study on Canada’s health workforce to determine how the crisis can be addressed, with a focus on the retention and recruitment of health care providers. The Committee received testimony from national and regional health profession organizations, educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, individual health care professionals and other health workforce stakeholders.

Through oral and written testimony, witnesses outlined the extent of the workforce crisis in Canada’s health care system. The testimony highlighted how longstanding issues with lack of supply of health professionals and mental health issues among health professionals currently in the workforce were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Witnesses stated that resolving this crisis will involve both short- and long-term solutions and that the federal government should play a role in rebuilding this essential sector. Witnesses suggested a variety of solutions for revitalizing Canada’s health workforce. These suggestions included recruiting and training internationally trained heath care workers, pan-Canadian licensure, improving data collection and implementing innovative models of health care delivery as well as various supports and financial incentives for health care workers.

This report summarizes the Committee’s findings and provides twenty recommendations that outline the ways in which the federal government can collaborate with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples and health care stakeholders to address this pressing issue. Some of the initiatives recommended include: increasing the number of residency positions, particularly for family medicine and international medical graduates; improving upon and expanding pathways to licensure for international physicians; establishing pan-Canadian licensure for health professionals; developing a Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy to improve Canada’s collection, access, sharing and use of health data; and implementing a Pan-Canadian Mental Health Strategy for health care workers.