Manitoba Develops Nurse-to-Patient Ratios as Saskatchewan Expands Nursing Recruitment
Manitoba is developing nurse-to-patient ratios to address nurse vacancy rates as high as 50% at some sites, while Saskatchewan has hired over 2,800 nursing graduates since 2023 and expanded nursing education seats. Both provinces are implementing recruitment and retention initiatives to strengthen their nursing workforces.
Manitoba is moving toward implementing nurse-to-patient ratios as part of a strategy to address significant staffing shortages and improve patient safety, while Saskatchewan is celebrating National Nursing Week and highlighting its efforts to grow its nursing workforce. The two provinces are tackling similar challenges of recruitment and retention through different approaches.
In Manitoba, nurse vacancy rates are as high as 50% at some sites, with provincial data showing vacancies ranging from 11.8% in the Winnipeg health region to 29.9% in Prairie Mountain and 26.9% in Northern Health. At some rural hospitals, including those in Dauphin and Thompson, more than half of nursing positions are vacant. The Prairie Mountain Health Region, which had a 28% vacancy rate recently, has spent nearly $17.75 million on agency nursing from April 1 to October 30, 2025, following expenditures of $28.6 million in 2023-24 and $25.1 million in 2022-23. In January 2025, the Health Minister ordered the region to reduce its spending on for-profit agency nurses by 15% by March 2026.
The province has been building a public-system travel nurse team to reduce reliance on private agencies, hiring 1,200 more nurses into the system, with close to 730 nurses joining the travel team. A union-represented committee spent 18 months developing a plan for nurse-to-patient ratios, which was presented to the Health Minister on December 22. Implementation planning is now underway, with the ratios being developed as part of a broader strategy to strengthen the nursing workforce.
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan is recognizing National Nursing Week from May 11 to 17, with the theme "The Power of Nurses to Transform Health." The province reports it has hired more than 2,800 nursing graduates since 2023 and notes that a recent Canadian Institute for Health Information report shows Saskatchewan ranks above the national average in several key indicators and has one of the largest nursing workforces per capita in the country.
Saskatchewan has launched the largest primary care nurse practitioner expansion in its provincial history. Since 2022, 330 first-year nursing student seats have been added across Registered Nursing, Registered Psychiatric Nursing, Licensed Practical Nursing, and Nurse Practitioner programs, bringing the total to nearly 1,400 seats in post-secondary institutions. The Ministry of Advanced Education has budgeted nearly $26 million this year to support nursing programs, including approximately $1.3 million for 26 new nurse practitioner training seats. Financial incentives, scholarships, and grants are available to nursing students who choose to work in the province.