How Credential Recognition Could Transform Canada’s Workforce — If Workers Stay

But the apparent upfront success of British Columbia’s health-care reforms in 2025 is a striking example. It shows that when governments take steps to remove credentialing barriers, the results can be swift, significant, and meaningful for communities. 

Why credential recognition matters 

Credential recognition has long been one of the biggest stumbling blocks for newcomers. Qualified professionals arrive in Canada, yet face months or even years of assessments, exams, and “Canadian experience” requirements before they can contribute to their fields. This disconnect fuels underemployment, strains public systems, and wastes talent that Canada badly needs. 

Anecdotally, the challenges in achieving credential recognition isn’t always a lack of knowledge or insufficient overseas training. Sometimes it’s timing. I personally know doctors from abroad who moved to Canada after completing their studies and working for a few years. Often, this coincides with additional child caring obligations. It’s no secret that medical exams are tough – and passing them in another language while also caring for children who are adapting to a new country is no small feat.  

When provinces act to cut through this backlog, we see two things happen quickly: 

1. Recruitment accelerates — professionals who were previously deterred by opaque processes suddenly see a path forward. 
2. Communities benefit immediately — shortages in priority areas ease as internationally trained workers begin practising. 

Case study: British Columbia’s health-care pivot 

Earlier this year, British Columbia introduced reforms to simplify the path for U.S.-trained doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. These included: 

• An expedited credential recognition process for U.S.-trained nurses. 

• Bylaw changes allowing U.S. doctors to practise without additional exams or training. 

• Removal of redundant licensing requirements, such as the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada for certain international doctors. 

The impact was immediate. Since May, applications from U.S. health-care workers have doubled to more than 1,400. Over 140 professionals — doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and others — have already accepted job offers, with many more in the pipeline. In fact, more than 2,950 healthcare workers have expressed interest in moving to British Columbia via the BC Health Careers website.  

Perhaps most importantly, these professionals are not just heading to Vancouver. They are beginning to staff regional and rural communities that have long faced shortages: 

• In Kamloops, U.S. physician Dr. Olga Decker is now practising at Royal Inland Hospital. 

• In Nakusp, a town of just 1,600 people, U.S. nurse Nickol Dameron is set to begin work at Arrow Lakes Hospital this fall. 

For residents, these arrivals will hopefully help to address long wait times and rolling Emergency Department (and other hospital department) closures, leading to more stable services. For policymakers, they illustrate how removing credentialing obstacles translates into real, measurable change.  

The bigger question: will the healthcare workers stay in Canada? 

Recruitment is one piece of the puzzle. BC is attempting to promote recruitment by offering relocation assistance, reimbursing licensing fees, and creating bonuses for hard-to-fill rural roles. It’s also recruiting health care workers during a particularly turbulent time in US politics. Health care roles are disappearing in the US, particularly as regional and rural hospitals and care centres are closed, Medicaid is defunded, and women’s healthcare options are being walked back. 

But recruitment is only one piece of the puzzle, retention is the longer-term challenge. As noted in our earlier commentary on Canada’s immigration strategy, when newcomers are brought in without clear pathways to permanent residence in Canada, they may question whether Canada is a long-term option for them. We also discussed this in our recent piece covering whether category-based draws should be eliminated, noting that there are thousands of physicians and hundreds of surgeons who haven’t qualified for Canada’s healthcare draws. 

But outside of permanent residency alone, retention is a key issue in Canada’s immigration system. In 2023, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship noted that permanent residents have been leaving Canada in higher volumes than in the past in 2017 and 2019. The Leaky Bucket report also shows that onward migration tends to happen relatively quickly, peaking within the first five years.  

We’d argue that there’s a relatively high risk of this happening in BC’s healthcare strategy. It’s possible that workers will be drawn back to the US if there’s a change in the political situation, given that’s the major push factor for many of these workers at the moment. If that changes, the US may again seem more appealing, with its lower taxes, and potentially easier access to family and friends for those returning to their previous US location.  

True retention strategies require meaningful community integration, career pathways, and clear immigration pathways. It also likely requires improvements to infrastructure and meaningful measures that would address cost of living challenges in Canada to make staying more appealing.

As always, solutions here are truly complex and there’s not a cheap, band-aid fix that would solve the immigration retention challenges. The housing crisis is a major contributor to challenges in recruiting efforts in BC, for which there’s no fast and easy fix.  

Health care in Canada is also lagging in innovation and access. In fact, CD Howe’s reporting notes that our healthcare system ranks 9th out of 10 peer countries. So, retaining workers long term in a lagging system may also be challenging.