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Alberta Top Destination for Migrating Health Workers; B.C., Ontario Next: Report

Posted on: Thursday, 27 September 2007, 15:00 CDT

By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - A new report says Alberta is the destination of choice for many health-care workers seeking greener employment pastures in the country.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information says that between 1996 and 2001, Alberta attracted more health providers than any other province or territory, surpassing British Columbia as the number 1 spot for the first time in a decade.

The report found that Ontario and Prince Edward Island were the only other provinces that attracted more health-care workers than they lost over that five-year period.

Institute spokeswoman Francine Anne Roy says Canadians depend on the availability of a broad variety of health-care providers, so knowing where workers are moving is crucial to labour force planning.

The report also shows that from 1986 to 2001, most provinces lost more health-care workers to migration than they gained, with Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Saskatchewan reporting the greatest deficits.

There were almost 750,000 health-care providers in Canada in 2001, and their migration patterns reflect those of the Canadian workforce in general.

Occupational therapists, respiratory therapists and audiologists-speech language pathologists were the most likely to move from one place to another, while dentists, licensed practical nurses and medical laboratory technicians were the least likely to relocate.

A year-by-year analysis of physician migration using the Scott's Medical Database indicates that on average each year, 1.4 per cent of Canada's doctors move from one province or territory to another, while another five per cent move from one community to another within the same province.

The report also shows that rural physicians tend to be more mobile than their urban counterparts. Each year, rural areas of the country lose an average of 1.3 per cent of their doctors to urban areas.

The 1996-2001 census period saw an overall increase in the number of pharmacists, dentists and physiotherapists moving to rural or small-town Canada, while more physicians, medical laboratory technologists and dental assistants were leaving rural areas and small towns for cities.

"Just like the average Canadian, health-care workers migrate for different reasons, some personal and some professional," Dr. Roger Pitblado, author of the report, said in a release.

"It is important to track these movements, but it is also important to understand how these migration patterns relate to what is going on in neighbouring communities and in the rest of the country as a whole."

Source: Canadian Press

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