Premier Blaine Higgs says he wants to understand if bilingual requirements for health-care jobs in the province are impairing recruitment efforts.
During Tuesday’s question period in the legislative assembly, Higgs raised the possibility of providing language training to new graduates to try and entice more newly trained nurses to stay in the province. He said neighboruing Maritime provinces don’t have the same “barriers to employment.”
“Maybe now, Mr. Speaker, the time is such that we look at our health-care system in its entirety and say what are the barriers that keep people from staying and working and living in new Brunswick? … in all cases Mr. Speaker, and that includes ability to speak both official languages,” Higgs said.
“We need to understand, Mr. Speaker, do we need to train for the language after they graduate and they’re able to work in order to keep people here?”
Further clarifying his comments with reporters on Thursday, Higgs said he’s looking to understand what role bilingual requirements play in recruitment and retention issues.
“If people feel they can’t come to New Brunswick when we have a shortage of people in both Vitalité and Horizon, in the case of health services, and they can’t come here because they think ‘well I don’t speak both official languages, so I rule out New Brunswick,’ I want to know.”
“And we all should want to know and not be afraid to look and not turn it into an emotional issue. Let’s just look at the facts and say how good can we be.”
The Official Languages Act requires that all New Brunswickers be able to access government services in the official language of their choice, including health care. Higgs says he wants to ensure those rights are respected but is focused on trying to solve long-running issues within the health-care system.
Liberal interim leader Roger Melanson has criticized Higgs for his comments, saying in Wednesday’s question period that he is stepping on the legacy of past PC premiers such as Richard Hatfield and Bernard Lord who understood and respected the Official Languages Act.
“It’s not a barrier at all, it should be embraced, it should be encouraged,” Melanson said.
“You need to be able to speak the language before being hired.”
In order to address human resource shortages in the health-care system, Melanson says pay should be increased and incentive packages offered to attract graduates from inside and outside the province.
“There are people in New Brunswick that want to stay in New Brunswick, but they’re being attracted by other jurisdictions, by other provinces,” Melanson said.
“We can’t lose these people.”
The debate has intensified as ongoing nursing shortages in the Moncton area have dominated question period during the spring sitting and led to discussions on combining some services between Moncton’s French and English hospitals to ease pressure on both.
President of the New Brunswick Nurses Union Paula Doucet has said combining some services over the summer would cut down on the number of nurses working double shifts and allow them to take vacations.
Higgs says options are being discussed by the regional health authorities, the union and government officials as to what shape those changes could take.
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“I don’t know what it would look like at the end of the day, but I guess if we had two departments next to each other and neither of them were busy and you say, you know if we work together we could have another service provided in this community … that would make sense to me.”
Higgs said he’s not looking to violate New Brunswickers’ rights under the Official Languages Act.
“There’s no desire or interest in changing that obligation, the desire is to ensure we collectively produce the best health-care outcomes,” Higgs said.
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