B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
A national tracking system for health-care workers — with information on what training they have, where they're located and what their career plans are — would make a "significant difference" in addressing future staffing challenges, the president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) says.
Speaking to CTV's Your Morning on Thursday, Dr. Katharine Smart said the health-care system is facing a serious human resources "crisis," which she says is largely due to a lack of planning.
With much of staffing data siloed across the country, Smart said having a national "lens" on who is needed in the system, and where, would help in future planning.
"Part of the reason we are where we are today is we have not planned well, and now all of a sudden we're caught with no redundancy in the system," she said.
This lack of planning, along with "huge attrition" among nurses and physicians, has created a "distressing workplace environment for people," Smart added
The CMA included the idea of a national health human resource strategy as part of a series of proposed solutions, released Wednesday, to address the current health-care "crisis."
The proposals from the CMA come as the latest job numbers from Statistics Canada, released on Aug. 5, show the number of people working in health care and social assistance declined for the second straight month in July, falling by 22,000. However, employment in the industry changed little compared to the same month last year.
There were also 143,400 job vacancies in health care and social assistance in May, up 20 per cent from May 2021, according to StatCan.
While some provinces have announced efforts recently to try and bring more health-care staff into the system, including internationally trained nurses, Smart said another challenge is trying to retain people who are often working in poor conditions.
"So I think if we don't get serious about understanding and addressing the health human resource crisis, we're going to continue to see a deterioration of the quality of care in our country and we're going to continue to lose people from the system, and that's not something that we can afford to have happen," she said.
Watch the full interview with Dr. Katharine Smart at the top of the article. With files from The Canadian Press.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.