Newcomers who are health care workers face employment obstacles in Sask.

There may be doctors and nurses already in Saskatchewan who can’t work because their international credentials aren’t recognized — some arriving on recent humanitarian flights from Ukraine.

“In Ukraine I was a nurse. I worked with new babies, newborn babies, and I want the same job because I know my job very well. My experience is 16 years,” Khrysthyna Kruzhkova said.

Kruzhkova can’t work as a nurse in Saskatchewan because her international diploma isn’t recognized here. Jamie Eng graduated from Campbell Collegiate in Regina. He went to medical school in Poland and has been waiting for years for a residency position in Saskatchewan.

“Applying for residency you invest money and time which is something I did for five years and I can’t go on. It costs too much money,” Eng said.

The provincial government has assembled a team to guide internationally trained medical professionals through the credential recognition process. There will also be grants to cover some of the expenses.

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“That is going to work directly with people in those circumstances to get them into the labour force and to get their credentials recognized. We will have people working with them directly,” Minister of Immigration and Career Training Jeremy Harrison said.

The government also wants professional regulatory groups to consider what can be done.

“The government will have the authority to actually mandate and change rules that regulators have in place. We don’t want to have to do that. We have to work with regulators to work to get to where we need to be. This isn’t about changing standards but if we need to, if we need to, we will as a government step in,” Harrison said.

The government is starting with medical professionals because that is where the labour need is most acute. From there, it plans to turn attention to other regulated professions to help clear hurdles for newcomers seeking employment.