The P.E.I. government says it is working with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to reduce reliance on travel nurses.

Health Minister Cory Deagle said deputy ministers and health authorities across the Maritimes are developing a plan for a regional public travel-nurse agency, aimed at moving away from costly private contracts.

“I don’t think any province can afford to keep paying these astronomical prices. Right now, we don’t have any other option, we don’t have enough nurses to fill the positions we have,” Deagle told reporters Thursday.

“So we do need them but we’ve got to find a way to manage the cost … and create our own unit that the provinces would own. And if nurses wish to travel that’s fine — but they’d be part of that and we’re not going to use private companies.”

He added that relying on travel nurses also causes tension on the front lines because they are paid far more than the staff nurses working beside them. The province spent about $28.5 million on travel nurses in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Other regions have taken steps to reduce reliance on private nursing agencies. In Quebec, legislation adopted in 2023 aimed at ending dependence on agencies has led to thousands of health-care workers moving into the public system. More recently, the New Brunswick government introduced legislation to cancel a multimillion-dollar contract with a travel-nurse staffing agency.

Deagle said it is still too early to say exactly how the model would work, but it would require all three provinces to agree to stop using private nursing agencies.

“I think nurses would say, ‘OK, well, that opportunity isn’t there anymore to go make, perhaps sometimes almost double the wage, so I’ll have to work in the public system, or if I’d like to move around in the Maritimes, I can work within this Maritime unit,’” he said.

“The idea is to cut back and incentivize people to work in the public system, and not for private agencies, which costs government a significant amount of money.”

He added the provinces would work to standardize licensing so nurses could move more easily between jurisdictions, similar to how the Atlantic Physician Register allows doctors to practise across the four Atlantic provinces without additional licensing requirements.

As part of the proposed Maritime unit, standard practices and wages would also need to be aligned across the region, Deagle said.

While the idea is still in its early stages and no timeline has been set, Deagle said P.E.I.’s health-care system will continue to rely on travel nurses in the current fiscal year.

“Due to the over-capacity issues, I think we’re going to be spending more money on travel nurses,” he said.

Deagle said the demand is driven by both seasonal pressures such as staff vacations in the summer, and gaps in the system.

He pointed to the intensive care unit at Prince County Hospital, which relies heavily on travel nurses because of the specialized skills and training required. Those positions are harder to recruit for, forcing the system to turn to agency staff, Deagle said.

He added that as more beds are added in long-term care homes across the province, the demand for agency nurses can also increase. Many long-term care facilities, particularly in rural areas, rely on agency nurses to remain operational.