Use of temporary foreign workers soars in Canadian health care
The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada’s health-care sector has soared over the past two decades, rising by nearly 1,700 per cent between 2000 and 2022, as the country struggles with labour shortages that have intensified since the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic, according to new Statistics Canada data released Tuesday.
In 2000, some 3,200 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) were working in the health-care sector. By 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, the number was almost 18 times larger at 57,500.
“To address the labour shortage in the health-care sector, the Canadian government has been actively recruiting internationally trained health-care workers,” the report said.
