The provincial government is telling other provinces to back off and not poach our health care workers.

Health care recruiters from Saskatchewan are on the ground in Newfoundland and Labrador attempting to lure health care professionals away.

Provinces across the country are facing a shortage of health care professionals and this province has been recruiting in countries like Ireland, the UK and India to help fill vacancies.

But when it comes to poaching from other provinces, Health Minister Tom Osborne served notice on VOCM Open Line this morning that it works both ways.

He has reached out to the Health Minister in Saskatchewan, asking the province to reconsider its approach. As a result, Osborne says Newfoundland and Labrador is going to Saskatchewan “and we’re going there in force.” The reasons Osborne says are twofold, “we can’t let Saskatchewan coming to this province go unchecked,” and they want to “let every other province in Canada know ‘don’t come here, we won’t go on the ground in your province, but if you come here, we are going to go there, we have to.'”