New momentum to ease labour mobility rules worries some Manitoba health-care leaders [Video]

Federal party leaders and provincial governments are trying to make it easier for workers to seamlessly move between provinces as a response to U.S. tariffs, but some health-care leaders in Manitoba aren’t enthusiastic.

“It just worries me that nurses are going to take this as an opportunity to strike out and look for greener pastures,” Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said.

There’s renewed interest in eliminating interprovincial barriers that restrict workers’ mobility, now seen as a way to bolster an economy hurting from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Provincial governments in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have introduced legislation or written letters to support worker movement. 

Jackson, however, worries about potential consequences. 

She’s spent years sounding the alarm about overworked nurses fleeing the public health-care system to quit the profession, work for private agencies or move to other jurisdictions.

With no notable change to nurses’ working conditions since …