New Brunswick health network calls for regulation of nursing agencies after budget shortfall

The leaders of a New Brunswick health authority are calling on the federal government to regulate private nursing agencies, after incurring a $98-million budget shortfall they attribute mostly to what they say are unfair and costly contracts with a Toronto staffing company.The chair and vice-chair of the health authority, the Vitalité Health Network, which operates francophone hospitals across the province, said in an interview that their organization was facing the prospect of closing emergency departments and cutting dialysis services in 2022. That’s when it began doing business with the Toronto company, Canadian Health Labs, an upstart founded after COVID-19 struck.