Health Care Hiring Boom Masks Broader Economic Stagnation
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
A surge in medical sector jobs in Ontario and Alberta is propping up national employment figures, even as experts question if the spending is reaching patients.
Canada's national job market is being sustained by a concentrated hiring boom within the health-care systems of Alberta and Ontario, according to reporting from CBC Toronto.
A report from Desjardins Group, utilizing Statistics Canada jobs data, reveals that these two provinces have added more than 100,000 health-care jobs since the start of the U.S. trade war. This growth is tied to significant budget increases; Desjardins analysis indicates that both Alberta and Ontario plan to spend over $8 billion more on health in 2026 compared to 2025. For context, Ontario's health budget last year was $91.5 billion, while Alberta's was $24 billion.
Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist at Desjardins, told CBC Toronto that without this specific hiring, Canada's overall employment would have been "broadly flat," suggesting that claims of a robust economy are "a little misguided." Labour Force Survey data confirms this trend: since March 2025, the health-care and social assistance sector added nearly 133,000 jobs—surpassing the 118,000 jobs added across all other sectors combined.
Despite the numbers, experts warn that job growth does not guarantee better patient care. Fiona Clement, director of the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Calgary's Cummings School of Medicine, suggested that growth could be fueled by administrative requirements, citing the fact that Alberta restructured its health authority into four distinct agencies. Clement added that College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta data shows no "meaningful growth" in the number of physicians. Additionally, Livio Di Matteo, a professor at Lakehead University, noted that hiring may be a response to upcoming retirements of nurses and physicians.