Summary#

Bill 67, the Temporary Nursing Agency Licensing and Regulation Act, 2023, would create a new Act requiring temporary nursing agencies to be licensed. Its stated goal is to license and regulate agencies that arrange temporary nursing work, including some digital platforms. The bill creates a Registrar position under the Minister of Health; it does not create a new independent agency.

• A person or organization could not operate a temporary nursing agency without a licence. The Registrar must issue or renew one if the application is complete and the required plans and compliance assurances meet the bill’s tests.
• Applicants must provide plans for checking nurses’ credentials and monitoring them, and for complying with licence conditions. Licences last two years and cannot be transferred.
• Licensees must use consistent, predictable fees, must not use dynamic pricing tied to short-term staffing demands (with a limited exception for holiday increases set at least a month ahead), and must not charge an unconscionable price. The bill does not set a general maximum fee.
• Licensees must follow rules on assignments and recruitment, disclose nurse lists to clients or prospective clients on request, make client contracts public, and publish yearly expenses, revenues and profits within 90 days of the end of each fiscal year.
• The Registrar may appoint inspectors, who may inspect agencies under rules set by regulation. Any person may complain under rules set by regulation. The Minister may make regulations on inspections, complaints and other matters.
• Breaking the Act or regulations is an offence. Maximum fines are $50,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a corporation; a nurse who knowingly works for an agency that has not published its licence faces a maximum $5,000 fine. The bill says it would start six months after Royal Assent.

What it means for you#

• Temporary nursing agencies and platforms: You would need a licence to operate. The definition covers temporary help agencies that employ nurses for temporary assignments and organizations that use a platform, app or marketplace to offer temporary assignments.
• Nurses: You could not knowingly work for an agency unless it had published its licence. Agencies must not recruit nurses away from their existing positions or use restrictive practices such as certain non-compete clauses. A nurse who knowingly works for an agency that has not published its licence could face a fine of up to $5,000.
• Clients, including organizations that hire temporary nurses: You could not knowingly use an agency unless you had confirmed that it published its licence. You could request a list of the agency’s nurses, and its contracts with clients would be public. The bill also bars assigning a nurse to a client if the nurse currently works, or worked in the previous six months, for that client.
• The public: Agency financial information and client contracts would be available publicly. The bill does not directly change nursing services, nurse registration rules or patients’ eligibility for care.

Money#

No cost estimate is provided in the supplied material.

• Agencies would have to prepare plans, meet licence conditions, and publish contracts and financial information. The bill does not state what compliance would cost them.
• The bill creates Registrar and inspection functions, but does not say how many staff would be needed or what public administration would cost.
• Fines could be imposed after conviction; the bill does not estimate fine revenue.

What is unclear#

• The bill leaves important terms such as “consistent and predictable fees” and “recruiting nurses away” undefined. It describes an “unconscionable price” as including a grossly excessive price charged when a client faces significant pressure or severely limited recruitment options, but does not give a formula or threshold.
• The bill does not set application timelines, appeal rights, or detailed decision rules. It leaves inspection and complaint procedures, and inspectors’ powers, to regulations.
• It does not specify how often inspections would occur or how the Registrar would check whether an agency’s plans work in practice.
• The bill does not explain how the new licensing rules would interact with existing oversight of nursing agencies or how the costs of the Registrar and inspections would be funded.
• Passage is uncertain; the supplied material does not give a current status or any regulations.

Case for#

• A licensing requirement could give clients and nurses a way to check that an agency has met stated requirements before using its services.
• Requiring plans for credential checks, professional liability protection, infection control training and monitoring could support safer assignments.
• Predictable-fee rules and the ban on unconscionable prices could limit sharp price increases when clients have few nursing recruitment options.
• Public contracts and financial reporting could make agency pricing and finances more transparent.

Case against#

• The bill relies on broad terms such as “predictable” and “recruiting nurses away,” without giving clear tests. This could make it hard for agencies, nurses and clients to know what is allowed.
• The bill does not set a fee cap or a detailed process for investigating complaints and enforcing the rules. Its effect on prices and compliance may therefore depend on later regulations and enforcement choices.
• The six-month restriction on assigning nurses to a former client employer could limit some staffing arrangements, even though the bill does not explain how the restriction would affect existing contracts.
• The bill creates licensing and inspection duties without a cost estimate or a stated funding plan.