All aspects of the local economy, from health care to municipalities and businesses, need to work together in order to solve a worker shortage in the southeast area, Weyburn's business community heard Wednesday.

The Weyburn Chamber of Commerce held its final breakfast meeting before summer with guest speaker Cal Tant, the CEO of the Sun Country Health Region.

In light of the recent announcement to close maternity services at the Weyburn General Hospital due to shortages of health care workers, along with a shortage in other areas of health care in the southeast, Tant spoke about their campaign of recruiting and retention that should help fill local vacancies not only in health, but in other professions such as the service industry, the oilpatch and construction.

The strategy, developed by staff, management and board members of the Sun Country Health Region, includes helping to find a job for the spouse of a prospective health care worker - and this involves cooperation amongst companies and municipalities, as well as being able to sell southeast Saskatchewan as a desirable location to come and work.

"We started talking to people throughout the region, like (Chamber manager) Jeff Richards and Debra Button as the mayor, and other mayors and reeves; we wanted to talk to people about recruitment, because it's all one issue. What do we do to get people to southeast Saskatchewan?" said Tant.

They talked to people about the positives and negatives of working in the southeast, and found many of the negative aspects were perception-based, not actual negatives.

"You can change people's perception, you can market, you can advertise," he said, adding the health region then developed their sales strategy by putting out recruiting ads with the theme "Everything Under the Sun" - playing on the fact the southeast is one of the sunniest places in North America.

Since the ads have gone out through national media outlets like Maclean's magazine, "we've been getting a lot of calls," said Tant, adding Sask Health has also been doing a lot of advertising for the province's health sector in Alberta, particularly Calgary and Edmonton.

"We're not throwing money away; these are tax dollars, and we're filling a need. The big point I'd like to make is we're all in this together. I've talked to Jeff (Richards) and Debra (Button) and Dylan (Clarke of SEREDA) as well as other chambers and groups throughout southeast Saskatchewan," said Tant.

In talking to staff and community representatives, he said one thing they were told is that in former days when a new person arrived in a town, the community made sure the family was welcomed - and this is a strategy that needs to revived again as they try to bring families here to fill job vacancies.

Part of the health region's efforts is an updated web site that will make it easier to apply for a position, and Tant said this should be up and running by the end of June. In the meantime, with the cooperation of chambers, towns, cities and businesses, they are hoping to set up a clearinghouse of sorts or establish some way to connect up the spouse of an applicant to other job opportunities in the southeast. For example, if someone applies for a position as a nurse or lab tech and their husband has experience in the oil field or in construction, then his name could be passed on to companies looking for someone of his experience.

Part of the recruitment strategy will include sending representatives, including health care professionals, to places like the southwestern United States and England, where they can explain in person the benefits and attraction of working in southeast Saskatchewan.

Tant was asked by Carole Schlosser what could be done about waiting lists for students who want to get into health care training, but can't because the waiting lists are so long.

"That has been a source of anxiety for me, as I believe we have to increase our numbers in the education system. We have had this problem for decades; about 30 per cent of the work force will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years. I've only been able to talk to the Health Minister once about this, but we need to increase the seats (at medical schools) and attach a hook to each one of the students, as our tax dollars are paying for the tuition," said Tant.

Another audience member pointed out that one local applicant is frustrated because she can only find casual part-time work in the health region and not full-time jobs, and then she keeps hearing about all these jobs that are available.

"They're not good jobs. We have to do a better job of promoting that to our graduating classes," Tant was told, to which he replied that he and the head of personnel Don Ehman and other department heads would work to guarantee full-time work if they could. Tant said the jobs may not all be hours at a single facility like the hospital or Tatagwa View, but may be spread around a couple facilities to help fill the available vacancies.

Tant also noted that retention is as important as recruiting, saying, "Why spend all that money if you're not going to keep them here?"

He said he has volunteered to sit on a sub-committee for Sask Health to tackle the issue of retaining employees once they do move here.