I work in one of the less central provinces (so not Ontario or Quebec), and felt like sharing my experience being in an administrative role here, and talk about why they have trouble recruiting or keeping employees.
Before I start this rant, I want to make clear that our health care system, in all provinces of Canada, is something to be treasured. Having unconditional medical coverage in case something happens that does not have to be maintained by a private plan that comes from an employer is NOT what I'm complaining about. This is purely about the “employee” point of view here.
First of all, provinces out of the Central provinces have pretty crappy public transport, save for a few urban centres maybe. Where I am specifically, having a car is not a convenient option, it's a job requirement. Yet, they do not have parking available for employees. There are some less than good options far away, or pay for the hospital parking… Which was sold to some company from the private sector. Not far from 10$ a day. No option for monthly passes or anything. Parking represents around a $1 a month pay decrease, until they have more parking places for employees (could be a 2 or 3 year wait at this point). To be clear, after training is done, this job could easily be done from home, but they're not that open to the idea, or are trying to say I need to be perfect to work from home. On top of all this, arriving 20 minutes early at work might as well be late, because there can be a lineup at the parking, which can take 20 minutes or more.
Second, requirements for the job are just mind numbing. It's that kind of job where you need to reach this or that metric or else we'll lay you off or refuse you before the probation is done (which they say they will extend continuously up to a year, imagine that). Getting tough cases to deal with that require research? Tough luck. Sure, my coworkers are understanding and helpful, but the big boss, which gets to work from home all the time (imagine that!) could decide I'm not good enough at any time. Good times.
I could go on and mention that when I worked in another department, I was verbally abused, insulted and screamed at (by a co-worker, in case you're wondering) or the management of the health network that do big gestures to say they're listening and care about employees, but then ignore questions sent in by workers, leaving them unanswered for 3 months running now. I'm also not even talking about the nursing staff who seem to have it worse than we do, with long work shifts and other problems… But yeah, this is my rant. 2 main points that seem not even that tough to deal with. Mostly parking, why are we expected to pay to go to work?!