Tag Archives: Shortage

Around Christmastime, Wendle Beaton was trying to find cold medication for her adult son in Brampton, Ont. “In my neighbourhood there’s like 20 (pharmacies) within like a two-kilometre radius because I live in the most populous part of the city,” Beaton said. The 55-year-old artist went to three stores before …

The union representing workers in Quebec’s pre-hospital emergency care sector is calling for more financial resources to avert what it describes as a “catastrophic” breakdown in services. The president of the Fédération des employés du Préhospitalier du Québec (FPHQ) says emergency call centres are struggling with a staff shortage that …

After experiencing unusual, unexplained bleeding and two rounds of abnormal Pap tests, Wendy Yen is anxiously awaiting her latest results. But the 45-year-old Toronto resident learned it could be several months before she finds out, due to backlogs and processing delays at many Canadian laboratories. The labs screen samples for a …

A shortage of obstetricians in Lethbridge is being called a crisis, and it’s sparking concerns about patient safety.  By the end of November, just one permanent obstetrician-gynecologist will be left to serve the southern Alberta city of more than 100,000 people and its surrounding areas. There’s funding for eight obstetrician-gynecologists. But since June …

Michael Dunbar has spent the past year working as a medic at an industrial site near Kamloops, B.C., standing by his decision that cost him his job at B.C. Ambulance Service. He says he never disclosed his COVID-19 vaccination status to his employer, which led to his termination when immunization mandates went …

When Tiffany Robinson signed her daughter up for yellow school bus service this year, she expected the 12-year-old would have a reliable way to get to and from school each day, but that hasn’t been her experience.  A province-wide driver shortage means like many others in Alberta, since the school year …

Despite a provincial grant program to recruit new truck drivers, Alberta’s trucking industry is still struggling to fill thousands of vacant driver roles — and it’s in part due to challenges with insurance. Harjeet Singh, owner of Alberta Truck Training and Driver Education, says he thinks the driver shortage is …

When one of Sarah Bennett’s Great Danes suffered a minor injury while playing in the neighbourhood dog park last year, the vet told her it was nothing a few stitches wouldn’t fix. But nobody at the clinic was available to do it, so Bennett had to take care of the cut herself. “That is …

Darryl McCoy has tried to register his kids in swimming lessons at City of Calgary facilities at every opportunity over the last couple of years with little success.  “It’s been an absolute nightmare,” he said.  City pools were closed for good chunks of the pandemic, or limited their offerings, and now …

A housing shortage, large patient rosters, and a lack of support are some challenges for recruiters looking to attract doctors to rural areas of Nova Scotia. That challenge is underscored by a doctor shortage that’s left more than 100,000 Nova Scotians without a family doctor. Despite those challenges, Sacred Heart …