How would a Maritime ban on travel nurses work?

PEI's nurses union president Kim Sear said at the recent health PEI AGM that she wants to see a ban on travel nurses from private agencies going between maritime provinces. This sharp increase over the last five and a half years since COVID on the use of private for profit is really it's just escalating and the cost is escalating it's it's not sustainable. Sears says a good chunk of agency nurses in PEI come from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Many RNs work in areas like ICUs and Emerges, and often do the work at two or three times the cost. She says that money should be invested in local nursing. I think if we can just start small in the Maritimes. And then what it'll do is I believe that a lot of those nurses that are currently just going across the bridge to work will ultimately take positions in the provinces that they're working in. Sears says another option is creating a pool within PEI, where nurses could have expenses covered to go to other areas of the province on their off days, for more money, but less than private agencies would cost. She says some areas of the healthcare system depend on travel nurses right now, so you can't get rid of them overnight, but a longer term plan to wean off them is needed. HealthPEI says the latest numbers show it's spent about $44 million on agency staffing in the fiscal year of 2025-2026. Health Minister Corey Deagle says he supports the idea of a region-wide ban. I think we have to start somewhere as we can't continue to spend this amount of money on travel nurses. Not only is the issue money, but it's demoralizing for nurses that are working on the front lines to have someone next to them being paid a significant amount more of money than they're being paid. Deagle says progress is being made. Overall, I think we're going to start seeing that number slowly start to go down. It's just taking time to catch up. As you reduce staff, it takes time to see that actually show up in the expenditures. Deagle says another idea is setting up an Atlantic pool where nurses can still travel but without paying private agencies to supply them. He also sent a letter to Atlantic health ministers asking to meet in the near future and discuss ways to reduce the reliance on travel nurses. Connor Lamont, CBC News, Charlottetown.