Released on March 28, 2025
Innovative Saskatchewan-Based Solutions to Recruit, Train, Incentivize, Retain and Enhance Competitiveness
The 2025-26 Budget invests $156.1 million in the Health Human Resources (HHR) Action Plan to deliver on government commitments to strengthen Saskatchewan's health care system.
Since the launch of the HHR Action Plan in September 2022, more than $460 million has now been invested in initiatives guided by the plan's four pillars to accelerate the hiring and growth of health care professionals in Saskatchewan.
The HHR Action Plan is the result of ongoing support, collaboration, and partnerships between multiple ministries, health employers, health partner agencies, post-secondary institutions, and professional regulators.
More information on the 2025-26 Budget, including HHR Action Plan initiatives, is available at saskatchewan.ca/budget.
Recruit
The Ministry of Health will receive $88.6 million in 2025-26 as part of the $156.1 million overall government investment to continue building on the success of HHR Action Plan initiatives.
This includes previously committed funding of $10.7 million to support ongoing work on established recruitment initiatives such as the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program, and recruitment of internationally educated health care workers. These funds will also advance hiring of physician assistants and clinical assistants, and support the Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency.
"Continued investment into our ambitious HHR Action Plan ensures Saskatchewan remains an attractive place for health care professionals to live, work and build a career," Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said. "I am pleased to see steady progress being made on multiple initiatives to recruit, train, incentivize and retain more health professionals, strengthen health care teams and deliver improved patient care to residents in communities across the province."
Since September 2022, Saskatchewan has seen impressive recruitment results, with 488 physicians establishing practice in the province, which includes 38 from outside the country. These efforts resulted in 243 family physicians and 245 specialists establishing their practices in the province.
Nearly 1,880 nursing graduates from in-and out-of-province were hired between April 2023 and December 2024, and more than 400 internationally educated healthcare professionals from the Philippines are working in communities across the province.
Train
Training plays a pivotal role in shaping a dynamic health care workforce and is integral to realizing the goals of the HHR Action Plan. Since December 2022, Saskatchewan has invested approximately $170 million to support over 900 new health care training seats in 33 programs.
"A rewarding health care career begins with high-quality education and training," Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said. "This significant investment in training supports our post-secondary institutions in helping build a capable, compassionate workforce that is ready to meet the needs of Saskatchewan citizens."
In 2025-26, the Government of Saskatchewan is delivering $81.3 million in operating, programming and capital funding to support health care training in areas of critical need to the province.
Approximately $35.3 million will support the continued expansion of health care training seats and add 60 new seats for registered nursing, nurse practitioner, registered psychiatric nursing and medical radiologic technology programs.
Over $17 million will continue the development of four new training programs that will accept students in fall 2025 (physician assistant) and fall 2026 (speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy).
An investment of $17.1 million will enable the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine to expand family medicine and specialty residency seats, add more full-time academic physician positions, expand family medicine enhanced skills programs to regional sites and support operations. Medical residency seats have been increased to 150 seats. The province continues to fund eight undergraduate medical education seats that were part of previous expansions over the last two years, for a total of 108 undergraduate seats each year.
This year's budget also delivers $1.5 million for clinical placement coordination and clinical oversight to support health training seat expansion in the post-secondary sector.
Incentives
A range of attractive incentive programs, such as the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive has directly benefited over 50 communities across the province with more than 400 hard-to-recruit positions successfully filled.
The 2025-26 Health budget provides a total of $13 million for incentive programs, including the Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive, Rural Physician Incentive Program and incentives for specialists. This includes new funding of $1 million to support recruitment of specialist physicians in high demand for recruitment areas experiencing shortages, such as anesthesia, psychiatry, breast and interventional radiology, emergency medicine and targeted pediatric subspecialists.
"The incentive program has demonstrated real progress in attracting new in-demand health care workers to our warm and welcoming communities," Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr said. "Ongoing investments in this area will continue attracting specialists, physicians, registered nurses and other highly sought health care workers to provide high-quality health care services and improve patient access across the province."
Since the launch of the HHR Action Plan, the province has also disbursed over $2.5 million in bursaries, such as over 600 Final Clinical Placement Bursaries, nearly 150 paramedic bursaries and other scholarships and available grants to encourage students to pursue a health care career. For 2025-26, there will be additional Final Clinical Placement bursaries available, for a total of 300 bursaries. In addition, many graduates are eligible for the Graduate Retention Tax Credits and student loan forgiveness programs.
Retain
Retention of health care staff has been a key area of focus, with the goal of promoting the rewarding benefits of a career in health care.
The 2025-26 Health budget provides a total investment of $44.7 million for retention initiatives. This includes $33.8 million to continue supporting 250 new and enhanced permanent full-time positions in high-priority occupations to stabilize staffing in rural and northern areas. New funding of $4.9 million will support 65 new and enhanced permanent full-time registered nurse positions to stabilize nursing in 30 rural and northern locations.
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