In a territory-wide effort to recruit and keep nurses, the Department of Health and Social Services announced retention packages and signing bonuses for Yukon government nurses Thursday.

The $6-million package comes after more than a year of contentious negotiations between the government and the union representing its nurses.

It also comes during a nationwide labour shortage in health care that’s made it difficult to hold enough doctors and nurses in the territory.

Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told the legislative assembly in October that the vacancy rate for community nursing in the territory exceeds 40 per cent.

“These new bonuses will help retain our valued nurses and make the Yukon more competitive in recruiting and retaining nurses in a very challenging labour market,” McPhee said in a news release.

Included in the package is an immediate bonus of $15,000 for the territory’s registered nurses (RNs) and nurse practitioners (NPs), and $8,000 for licensed practical nurses (LPNs).

Those payments will be repeated in a retention bonus package in April 2023.

To incentivize professionals to work in the Yukon, signing bonuses will be offered to new RNs and NPs ($7,500) as well as LPNs ($4,500).

And nursing graduates who come work for the government will have their exam fees reimbursed. The government already reimburses licensing fees for new nursing graduates it hires. 

There will also be $10,000 bonuses for Primary Care Nurses and Primary Care Nurses in Charge working in the communities. 

All these bonuses will be offered over the next two years, according to Thursday’s release.

The package does not apply to nurses not employed by the government, like those working for the Yukon Hospital Corp.

Jerome Marburg, CEO of the Yukon Registered Nurses Association, said he couldn’t comment on the details of the new package.

He did say, “YRNA is delighted by anything that could bring long-term, stable health care workers in Yukon.”

He said recruitment and retention efforts are needed right now for the good of health care workers and Yukoners alike.

Thursday’s announcement was the result of long, grinding negotiations with the Yukon Employees’ Union (YEU), which represents government nurses.

Talks started back in fall of 2021, and they didn’t stop with Thursday’s announcement.

The union is still negotiating salaries for nurses and other government employees, like Emergency Medical Service workers and corrections staff. 

YEU president Steve Geick told the Star Thursday this new package was negotiated earlier after McPhee forced the union’s hand.

“The reason that this got dealt with the way it did was because McPhee leaked it in the house (legislature), which brought it into the public, which should never have happened,” he said Thursday.

During question period on Oct. 18, McPhee was asked how many extra shifts hospital nurses were having to cover each week.

McPhee said she’d have to look up the numbers. She then mentioned that the government had “brought forward an extensive package” for nurse recruitment and retention, and that it was being discussed with the YEU.

The next day, the YEU issued a release criticizing the minister for what it termed negotiating in public.

The union said discussions over the package McPhee mentioned in the legislature had ended the day it was offered.

“Throwing together a ‘recruitment and retention package’ of one-off bonuses which are neither pensionable nor reflected in severance is an insult, and won’t solve the problem of short staffing,” YEU’s Oct. 19 release read.

“Other regions have done the work to enshrine higher pay in compensation packages, making the Yukon’s signing bonuses far less attractive a recruitment tool than the minister believes.”

The next week, McPhee told the legislature the release was full of inaccuracies, and Yukon Party MLAs grilled her in question period for “picking a public fight with nurses.”

Geick told the Star the union felt the matter “had to be dealt with” once the recruitment and retention package offer was discussed in the assembly and the media.

He said the union was concerned negotiations would continue in public if an agreement wasn’t reached quickly at the bargaining table.

Now that a deal’s been reached on a recruitment and retention package, Geick said he’s happy nurses will receive bonuses, but the union still wants wage increases for nurses and other government employees.

He said that’s “the real meat” of the talks, and those discussions will begin again Dec. 14.

He said bonuses don’t offer a permanent incentive for recruitment and retention, nor do they properly compensate government employees.

“Now it’s basically up to the employer to go back and see what kind of money they can get,” Geick said.

“They seemed to be able to get the $6 million for nursing pretty quick.

“So I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to extend the same type of increases to the rest of the Yukon government employees that in some instances have worked through the pandemic, as nurses have, short-handed.”

The Star asked McPhee for an interview or comment for this article. Her office said the news release was sufficient for information on the new package and the Minister is unable to discuss negotiations while they’re ongoing.