labour shortage

Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist

CHANDLER – The Quebec government’s plan to gradually eliminate independent healthcare workers could lead to reduced services in the Gaspé Peninsula.

The Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centres (CISSS) is developing a plan in the event that the 200 agency workers who work for the organization are no longer present in October 2026, the deadline for ensuring the transition (away from agency workers) in the region.

The increasingly restrictive rules that will apply in the coming months raise concerns about the availability of resources to fill uncovered shifts. “If people from agencies are less interested in coming to the region, we could have needs that remain unmet and that would put us at a greater risk. That’s why we are looking at a critical services plan and being able to identify people in our organization to maintain these critical services. That would mean that other services would have to be slowed down to maintain critical services. It’s a plan. We want to prepare for the worst. We don’t want to be forced to deploy it, but we have to think about it to maintain 24/7 services,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Pelletier.

Before getting to that point, the CISSS will attempt to recruit agency staff, particularly with the new working conditions established in recent collective agreements.

“We will solicit them to see if they would be interested in becoming employees of the CISSS de la Gaspésie. Some are in the region, but there are some in urban centres. It’s a big life choice to say that we’re moving to another region. We’re going to submit the new conditions to them. We’re able to show them what’s available now and they’ll be able to compare what they do in their agencies. They’ll understand that the network is becoming interesting in terms of money,” believes the CEO. So far, one or two people have chosen to work for the CISSS on their own.

Although about 80 international nurses will eventually join the workforce, the CISSS will not make any net gains. “We still have a large turnover of people retiring and we have many who are not very far from retirement. We’re in the process of making these projections. We hope the gap will be positive. It will all depend on the number of people we can retain from outside nurses,” says Mr. Pelletier, who also hopes that some individuals will delay their retirement.

The CISSS is registered for a third international cohort expected next spring. According to Mr. Pelletier, about twenty new candidates could move to the region.