Health PEI spent $28.5 million on travel nurses in the 2024-25 fiscal year, triple the amount from the year before, according to the provincial auditor general's report. None of that spending was included in the provincial budget, and savings from vacant salaried nursing positions did not offset the cost.

Unbudgeted spending at this scale points to a structural gap in how PEI plans and funds its nursing workforce. Travel nurses are hired through private agencies at higher rates than salaried staff, and the nurses' union notes that the pay difference is affecting morale among permanent Island nurses who feel undervalued. The union president also raised a fiscal dimension that goes beyond the health system: money paid to travel nurses largely leaves the province rather than circulating in the local economy. Meanwhile, the auditor general has flagged that if travel nurses are a known operational necessity, the province needs to budget for them honestly rather than treating the expense as an unplanned variance year after year.

The auditor general's office is currently conducting a performance audit specifically on travel nurse use, expected to be completed by late fall 2025 or early spring 2026. That audit will be an important accountability moment for understanding whether Health PEI has a credible plan to reduce agency dependence or whether the current spending trajectory will continue. The open question from the union's perspective is whether any portion of these funds will be redirected toward retaining the permanent, locally-rooted nursing workforce, particularly in high-demand areas like 24/7 services and long-term care.

Source: CBC PEI reporting on travel nurse spending and union response