CNA Congratulatory Letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney
Press Release
April 30, 2025
Dear Prime Minister Carney,
On behalf of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and the nursing community across Canada, we extend our congratulations on the renewal of your government’s mandate in the 2025 federal election.
As you prepare to deliver on your commitments to Canadians, we urge you to make health care a central focus of your agenda. Our health system continues to face critical challenges—from persistent workforce shortages and limited access to care, to growing mental health needs and rising costs. Nurses across the country are ready to work with you to address these challenges and deliver meaningful results for the people of Canada.
Earlier this year, CNA released A Healthier Canada, Powered by Nurses: A Vision for 2025 and Beyond, a nurse-informed federal platform grounded in nurses’ experiences and evidence-based solutions. We are encouraged to see strong alignment between our priorities and those outlined in your party’s election platform, including:
⦁ Implementing national licensure for nurses and physicians to improve mobility and better optimize the nursing workforce where they are needed most;
⦁ Streamlining the recognition of internationally educated health professionals, accelerating their ability to contribute to the health system;
⦁ Investing in nursing education, continuing education, and leadership development;
⦁ Advancing Indigenous health and mental health services in collaboration with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities;
⦁ Launching a Public Health Care Innovation Task Force to drive system improvements, enhance data quality, and ensure accountability.
We respectfully request that a representative from the Canadian Nurses Association be included in the future Public Health Care Innovation Task Force, to ensure nursing expertise and experience is embedded in shaping future innovations. Across the country, nurse-led and team-based models of care are already demonstrating how to expand access, reduce costs, and improve outcomes. These models must be central to any strategy aiming to optimize the contributions of the health workforce and bend the cost curve of health expenditures.
We particularly commend your continued leadership on labour mobility for nurses—an issue you prioritized during your leadership campaign, and one that deeply resonates with the nursing profession. In a recent CNA survey of 1,798 nurses, 93% expressed strong support for enhanced labour mobility, recognizing its potential to reduce regulatory burdens, improve access to care, and ensure a more responsive workforce across Canada.
We also urge your government to elevate the role of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) of Canada to the Assistant Deputy Minister level, with appropriate budget allocation and resources. The CNO plays a vital role in advancing national nursing priorities—such as workforce planning, retention, and labour mobility—and is essential to strengthening Canada’s health system at a structural level.
With over 478,000 regulated nurses, along with thousands more nursing students and retired nurses across Canada, our profession represents a powerful, solutions-driven community committed to strengthening our public health system.
We respectfully request an early opportunity to meet with you and your Cabinet to discuss a shared implementation plan. From nurse practitioner role integration and workforce retention to workplace safety and digital health innovation, nurses offer proven, cost-effective solutions to our system’s challenges.
Prime Minister, we stand ready to support your government in delivering on its health and health workforce commitments and building a healthier and stronger Canada for all.
Respectfully,
Dr. Kimberly LeBlanc
President, Canadian Nurses Association
Dr. Valerie Grdisa
CEO, Canadian Nurses Association
CC. Office of the Minister of Health
IHT5
