BC MLA hints at new legislation to clear barriers for qualified healthcare workers

A BC NDP MLA has hinted at new legislation that could be tabled in the coming weeks in regards to clearing barriers for qualified healthcare workers that are new to BC.

Earlier this month, Ravi Parmar, BC NDP MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca, sat down with NowMedia to discuss the NDP’s response to claims made by the leader of the BC Conservative Party in regards to rehiring unvaccinated healthcare workers and how the NDP is handling a healthcare system that has been in crisis for years.

NowMedia pointed to the challenges that rural, remote and northern communities were seeing in attracting and securing healthcare workers and asked what was being done to get more healthcare workers into those communities.

Most recently, the provincial government announced a $7.5 million investment to “stabilize” emergency care in Merritt, Oliver and Salmon Arm, which have been plagued with emergency department closures for years.

“What do we say to those people,” NowMedia asked, referring to the NDP government’s reluctance to tap into a contentious resource of nurses and doctors who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Parmar said he wasn’t in the position to speak on behalf of someone like Dr. Henry, who he said guided BC through the pandemic and continues to do so in regards to the COVID-19 response.

“What I will share and what Dr. Henry certainly (has) spoken about over the course of the last number of weeks and months and since the pandemic is the importance of getting the vaccine and how the vaccine protects people, especially those that are vulnerable,” he said.

Instead, Parmar said that the NDP provincial government was hiring more doctors and nurses in “record numbers” and working to clear the way for more internationally trained healthcare workers’ credentials to be recognized in BC.

“In the last year alone, (we’ve hired) 6,500 new nurses, 700 new doctors in our community. Again the health scientists like Dr. Henry make decisions with regards to vaccine mandates and the whole host of decisions that have been made (..) since the beginning of this pandemic,” he said.

“We had a responsive science based approach that led not only Canada, but we have a lot of challenges with our healthcare system. That's why we are redoubling our efforts. We're investing more dollars into health care. We're hiring new doctors and nurses in communities all across the province.”

Earlier this year, the BC government was running a campaign in the UK in an attempt to attract doctors and nurses to the province.

Billboards featuring the BC Government website were set up near hospitals in London, promising high salaries and fast licensing for internationally trained staff.

Parmar is also BC’s Parliamentary Secretary for International Credentials and says he has been tasked by the Premier to create new ways to remove “obstacles, barriers and challenges” that qualified newcomers in BC are facing to get them working in BC’s healthcare system.

NowMedia asked where the NDP government was at with removing those barriers and getting people into careers that they were trained for.

Parmar said they were making “a lot of progress” and that he was proud of the efforts of the provincial government and social service agencies across the province.

He said that’s why the government introduced the International Credential Recognition Act in October 2023 with the goal of removing the prerequisite for Canadian work experience.

Parmar also hinted at the potential for new or expanded legislation to be tabled in the coming weeks.

“I've got some exciting news to share with people across the province in the coming weeks about the work that we're doing to bring that legislation into force,” he said, adding that there was a need to speed up the process and the Act is expected to come into effect this year.

“We're going to, again, end discriminatory practices like Canadian work experience. We're going to lower costs. We're going to hold our regulatory bodies accountable.”

To view the full interview click here.