Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
Saskatchewan’s Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive (RRRI) program is expanding to three more towns: Edam, Battleford and Hudson Bay, extending the eligibility to a total of 73 communities. Positions in Wakaw became eligible under the program in April of this year for certain permanent full-time positions.
The incentive of up to $50,000 for a three-year return-in-service is offered to new, permanent full-time employees in nine high-priority health occupations in rural and remote communities experiencing or at risk of service disruptions due to staffing challenges. These high-priority positions include Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, Nurse Practitioners, Combined Lab and X-Ray Technicians, Licensed Practical Nurses, Medical Laboratory Technologists, Medical Radiation Technologists, Continuing Care Assistants, and Medical Laboratory Assistants.
“The Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive Program has been very successful in attracting highly sought-after health care workers such as nurses, medical technicians and continuing care assistants, to the rural communities throughout the province where they are most needed,” Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr said. “Our government remains committed to improving access to high-quality care, close to home, for all Saskatchewan residents.”
The Government reports that over 500 hard-to-recruit positions have been filled as a direct result of the RRRI program, which is key to stabilizing and strengthening health care services in rural and northern communities.
“The expansion of this incentive to three more rural communities supports our ongoing efforts to continue stabilizing local health care services across the province,” Saskatchewan Health Authority Vice President of Integrated Northern Health Julia Pemberton said. “By investing in our health care teams, we can ensure residents of Saskatchewan have seamless access to safe, equitable care as close to home as possible.”
To be eligible for the incentive, an individual, fully licensed in their profession before obtaining employment, must begin employment in a permanent, full-time (PFT) position (1.0 FTE). Due to the three-year return-in-service criteria, temporary positions like the Nurse Practitioner positions for Wakaw and Duck Lake, posted earlier this month, cannot benefit from the incentive. However, since Rosthern is also included as an eligible community, the Nurse Practitioner position posted on November 30, 2025, could benefit.
The Provincial Auditor, Tara Clemett, released Volume 2 of her 2025 report on December 9th, noting that the Saskatchewan Health Authority still needs to undertake assessment and further analysis to determine which facility locations across the province experience the most significant shortages of hard-to-recruit positions and consider associated root causes revealed by staff exit surveys to help guide retention strategies. That information, the Auditor notes, would help with implementing appropriate targeted plans and allow the Authority to adjust its strategies where necessary.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority centralized the collection of staff exit surveys but has yet to analyze the survey results to consider changes to its retention strategies. Up to September 2025, the Authority indicated it concentrated on gathering sufficient exit survey data for analysis and expected to prioritize this data analysis in the fall of 2025 to help inform its retention strategies. Staff exit surveys can provide an organization with valuable information, Clemett noted, about where it can improve. Lack of analysis of staff exit surveys limits the Authority’s ability to assess the effectiveness of and adjust its recruitment and retention efforts for hard-to-recruit positions.
Another point the Auditor identified that still needs addressing is the development of performance measure targets in its First Nations and Métis recruitment and retention plan, which can help determine whether its actions increase Indigenous representation at the Authority.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority implemented a First Nations and Métis recruitment and retention plan with key actions for increasing Indigenous representation within its workforce and identified performance measures, but has not developed targets for each measure. As of August 2025, only one measure was assigned a target. Lack of targets for all performance measures limits the SHA’s ability to assess whether its First Nations and Métis recruitment and retention plan successfully contributes toward a diverse workforce and ultimately helps to fill hard-to-recruit positions.
Indigenous staff actually working in the SHA as of June 2025 was 5.15 percent compared to the target amount of 15.2 percent. However, as for percentages of Indigenous staff working in the north, rural areas, Saskatoon, or Regina, there are no set targets, nor are there targets for the length of employment for Indigenous people working at the Authority.
“Successful recruitment and retention of key staff is a significant factor toward providing quality healthcare service and meeting staffing demand. Staffing deficiencies in healthcare can have serious consequences, including patient death.”
In a further critique of the SHAs meeting of the 2022 recommendations, Clemett noted that while the Authority maintains a vacancy dashboard … “it had yet to begin forecasting in which facility locations it expects to have the most significant shortages of hard-to-recruit positions.”
Overall, the Auditor found that the SHA had a chronic vacancy rate for hard-to-fill positions close to its target of 5 percent in June 2022, 2023, and 2024. However, by June 2025, the Authority reduced its chronic vacancies in these positions, showing that its recruitment and retention strategies are working.
The complete report is available at auditor.sk.ca › publications › public-reports
