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On the heels of conflict between the Quebec government and the province’s doctors, some Quebec physicians are finding a new home in New Brunswick’s health-care system.
From October 2025 to June 2026, the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New Brunswick said it granted 47 licences and received 156 applications from Quebec physicians.
Nineteen of the physicians with licences were recruited to Vitalité Health Network.
Horizon Health Network did not provide the number of Quebec physicians recruited.
Spokesperson Kris McDavid said in an email that the network’s physician recruitment efforts are “more broadly focused” domestically and internationally, rather than province specific.
Vitalité Health Network says it has hired 19 doctors from Quebec since October.
However, the College of Physicians and Surgeons numbers suggest that since October, an additional 28 doctors have accepted offers to work in the province, outside of Vitalité.
The new Quebec physician additions came at the same time that former premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government was at odds with doctors, changing how physicians are compensated.
Family physicians and medical specialists were in conflict for many months over Bill 2, now Bill 19, legislation that tied a portion of doctors’ pay to collective performance targets.
Vitalité reaps benefits
Nine of the doctors from Vitalité have already started working in the network, with the rest coming in the next year or so.
Of the 19 physicians signed with the network, five are community-based family physicians, two are obstetrician-gynecologists and one is an anesthesiologist.
Edmundston, Moncton, Bathurst and Campbellton are among the four confirmed health zones benefiting from the 19 new Vitalité recruits.
Raphaël Albert, Vitalité‘s director of medical recruitment and retention, said the health network is very pleased with bringing in the Quebec doctors.
“This will definitely help give a better quality of care to our residents,” Albert said.
“We don’t only have primary care physicians that have signed offers with Vitalité. We have all types of different specialties and even some specialties that are really hard to recruit, like endocrinology or hemato-oncologists for cancer treatment.”
Quebec has always been a market for Vitalité and the network constantly interviews candidates from the province, Albert said.
Albert also drew parallels between the collaborative care model that New Brunswick has recently adopted with the model Quebec uses.
He said it’s ideal for recruitment, citing Quebec physicians doing their medical residency in group-based settings.
“It really makes it easier for our new physicians to start,” Albert said. “Start practising and start seeing patients because they are practising the way they’re used to and they have been trained to.”
Opposition reacts
Progressive Conservative health critic Bill Hogan welcomes the new additions.
Hogan noted that given the high demand and shortages of anesthesiologists across the country, Vitalite’s single addition to the province’s 151 anesthesiologists is great news.
“The more that we can get in New Brunswick, the better it is for our health system,” he said.
Hogan said the recent hires and number of pending applications is fantastic. He is hopeful about the impact they will have on health care for New Brunswickers.
Hogan is dually optimistic about the recruitment at Horizon.
CBC News requested an interview with the Department of Health, but did not receive one.
