Latest agency nursing scoop shows how much we don't know about the practice

Now we know what at least one health care body is paying per hour to private for-profit staffing agencies. Jeremy Appel has an exclusive story for the Progress Report that we just published that reveals what Covenant Care is paying per hour for staffing agency registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and even health-care aides (HCAs).

Read more

Documents show Alberta’s Catholic healthcare body paying private staffing agencies nearly $110 an hour per nurse

Covenant Health is spending nearly $110 an hour per nurse to obtain registered nurses from private, for-profit staffing agencies, more than double the hourly wages of unionized nurses earning the highest possible hourly wage, according to figures provided by the province’s Catholic health-care body.

Read more

Top Progress Report Scoops of 2024: With your help we can report even bigger scoops in 2025

If you’re not a monthly patron to the Progress Report yet, we get it. Finances are tight, one red pepper is worth approximately $17 dollars and yet Galen Weston is still just walking through the streets mostly unmolested. 

Read more

Help Wanted: Director of Operations

Position: Director of Operations

Read more

One out of five agency nurses worked in Edmonton or Calgary, documents show

One out of every five contracts Alberta Health Services (AHS) awarded to private nursing agencies over the past two-and-a-half years sent contract nurses to health-care facilities in the Calgary and Edmonton areas, according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request.

Read more

Edmonton police chief says each new immigrant creates “more risk,” calls for immigration restrictions in podcast interview

Edmonton Police Service (EPS) Chief Dale McFee called for restrictions on immigration multiple times, saying that “when one more is added, there’s more risk,” in a recent podcast appearance. 

Read more

EXCLUSIVE: AHS projects to spend $330 million on agency nurses since 2022

Between April 2021 and April 2024 Alberta Health Services increased spending on private for-profit staffing agencies from just over $5 million a year to more than $154 million a year, an increase of roughly 3,000 per cent, according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request. 

Read more

Stephen Harper's back—and they're putting him in charge of AIMCo

The much rumoured appointment is finally real. Former prime minister Stephen Harper is now the chair of AIMCo. 

A man diametrically opposed to the concept of defined pension benefit plans for public sector workers is now the chair of an organization responsible for managing the investments of 375,000 Alberta pensioners. I don’t want to belabour the discussion around Stephen Harper too much but the man’s history is relevant. He built a political career campaigning against pensions. He refused to expand Canada Pension Plan benefits while Prime Minister and he pushed the age for receiving Old Age Security benefits from 65 to 67. 

Read more

How much are for-profit nursing agencies hollowing out public healthcare in Alberta? We don't know

The use of private for-profit nursing or staffing agencies is rising dramatically, warns a study from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU).

Read more

An Open Letter in Defence of David Pugliese

Former Conservative MP Chris Alexander’s allegation that David Pugliese has been a Russian and Soviet intelligence asset is ludicrous.

Read more

connect