2026 Agenda

We are seeing challenges in recruitment and retention of healthcare workers in every jurisdiction in Canada. The gap between supply and demand for talent in healthcare is larger than in any other industry in Canada.

This supply challenge means we must all find innovative ways to shrink the gap. The stakes are too high. The good news is we are now seeing some innovative solutions bear fruit over the past couple of years.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• What new approaches to HHR have been implemented (a federal and provincial update)
• Where we are seeing some of these benefits, what were the lessons learned, and how pivoting to those lessons led to new approach
• How have we changed strategies by demographics to break legacy strategies
• What has been the impact on the federal and provincial strategy, and what are the next steps

In healthcare, change doesn’t wait for the night shift to end. From digital transformation and new care models to workforce redesign, healthcare organizations operate in a state of constant motion. In this session, Greg and Matt from EY explore how leaders can successfully manage and sustain change in a 24/7 environment.

Drawing on lessons from health systems across Canada, they’ll share practical strategies for engaging employees at every level, minimizing disruption, and building cultures of adaptability and trust. The discussion will highlight how HR leaders can align communication, leadership behaviours, and data-driven insights to support continuous improvement — even amid competing priorities and operational pressures.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Learn how to communicate and reinforce change effectively across a diverse, around-the-clock workforce
• Explore tools and leadership practices that help teams adapt to ongoing transformation without burnout or disengagement
• Discover how to embed accountability, data insights, and culture alignment to make change initiatives stick long after launch

Canadian healthcare organizations are navigating unprecedented workforce shortages and an aging leadership cohort, creating urgent pressure to secure talent and ensure leadership continuity. Hiring alone is not enough. Building resilient leadership pipelines and preparing future leaders requires intentional strategies that go beyond recruitment.
This panel brings together senior leaders from Canada’s leading healthcare institutions to share practical and equitable approaches for developing internal talent and strengthening leadership pipelines. Panelists will explore how organizations can identify high-potential leaders early, invest in growth opportunities, and take a more holistic approach to longer-term planning to future-proof their organizations.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Discussing the challenges healthcare organizations face in developing internal leadership pipelines.
• Gaining insights into how senior healthcare leaders are addressing today’s challenges.
• Exploring succession planning strategies to address skills gaps and create strong pipelines of future leaders.

The health and benefits industry faces a persistent paradox: despite substantial annual investment and notable advances in digital health technologies, many products and services still fall short of producing lasting improvements in health outcomes.

At the same time, while the data is clear that employees, particularly younger generations, have high expectations for their health benefits and are making decisions about their employment based on this, many Canadians report a growing sense of detachment from their care experiences.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Explore how clinically informed, strategically integrated health and benefits programs can improve access to care, strengthen personalization, and support better health results for employees.
• Examine how these gains influence organizational performance and create opportunities for financial return on investment that extend beyond absenteeism and productivity.
• We will then engage in a live discussion with Newfoundland & Labrador Health Services highlighting how the nature and complexity of health care requires unique approaches to the health of the sector’s employees and how a flexible, integrated and tailored value proposition is fit for purpose.

Health systems across Canada are under tremendous pressure to deploy staff more effectively, expand scopes of practice, and ensure the right expertise is available at the right time. In this session, Annette Elliott Rose, Chief Nurse Executive & Vice President of Clinical Performance & Professional Practice at Nova Scotia Health, will share how her organization is transforming workforce planning to meet today’s challenges while building long-term system resilience.

Drawing on real-world experience across a large provincial system, Annette will explore how Nova Scotia Health is redesigning staffing models, advancing professional practice, leveraging data for smarter decision-making, and optimizing talent through skill mix, team-based care, and new models of deployment. She will highlight the strategic choices that have helped stabilize the workforce, expand clinical capacity, and improve patient outcomes—even in the face of shortages and rising acuity.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Understand how to move from reactive scheduling and vacancy management to long-term, system-level planning grounded in capability, scope, and population need
• Learn how Nova Scotia Health is aligning nursing, allied health, and support roles to maximize expertise, reduce bottlenecks, and improve care delivery
• See how real-time data, forecasting, and workforce analytics are informing staffing models, recruitment priorities, and capacity planning

Workplace violence in healthcare has reached a critical tipping point—impacting staff about well-being, retention, organizational culture, and the overall quality of care. As Canada’s largest academic health sciences centre, University Health Network (UHN) has taken a proactive, system-level approach to addressing this challenge through prevention, early intervention, data-driven decision-making, and a renewed focus on psychological and physical safety.

In this session, Mark Spencer, Executive Vice President of People & Culture at UHN, will share how the organization is redesigning workplace violence prevention across all sites through stronger risk assessment frameworks, staff safety training, upgraded reporting systems, cross-functional collaboration with clinical operations, and a culture shift toward accountability and respect. Mark will highlight both the wins and the lessons learned from implementing UHN’s multi-year Safer Workplace Strategy, including investments in security modernization, behaviour-alert systems, leadership capability building, and frontline engagement.

Key Session Takeaways Include

• Learn how UHN developed a coordinated, organization-wide strategy that includes environmental safety, behavioural risk identification, incident response, and preventive interventions
• Understand how enhanced reporting tools, standardized definitions, and real-time dashboards enable better decision-making, faster escalation, and measurable improvements
• Explore UHN’s approach to frontline education—including de-escalation training, scenario-based practice, leader coaching, and programs that support staff after incidents.

Increasing societal tension and polarization are spilling into workplaces, leaving employees more vulnerable to psychological harm, harassment, and unsafe environments. For healthcare organizations, where stress and complexity are already high, these risks can be especially acute.

This session provides key guidance on how to combine legal tools, cultural initiatives, and strong leadership to build resilient, psychologically safe workplaces. Through practical strategies and actionable insights, participants will learn how to foster a culture of respect, inclusion, and accountability.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Identify key risk factors for workplace harassment and psychological harm
• Leverage civility, respect, and inclusion as protective factors for psychological safety
• Implement mitigation strategies to create respectful, inclusive, and psychologically safe workplaces
• Apply practical leadership techniques and accountability measures to sustain positive culture

What if the secret to great leadership is not a sharper lens, but a wider one? This conversation will challenge leaders’ perception of talent, culture, and themselves. Drawing on experienced organizational insights, this session will look at how clarity emerges from inquiry rather than control. Participants will leave questioning their ideas about what constitutes a “great” workplace and be motivated to lead from a flexible and human perspective. Because, in leadership, perspective is supple. It shifts.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Discover how widening your perspective — rather than narrowing focus — fosters stronger, more adaptive leadership
• Challenge traditional definitions of a “great workplace” and explore how flexibility, curiosity, and empathy drive performance
• Learn how openness and reflective questioning can create clarity, trust, and innovation within teams
• Leave inspired to lead with awareness, authenticity, and a mindset that evolves with your people and your organization

Healthcare systems across North America are navigating unprecedented pressure to modernize workforce models, strengthen leadership pipelines, and adapt to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. These shifts present meaningful opportunities for efficiency, capability building, and improved experiences. Yet, they also create uncertainty for leaders and caregivers who must navigate new technologies while sustaining high-quality outcomes.

This session offers a practical, research-informed roadmap for workforce transformation, grounded in real work underway at Intermountain Health, one of the largest integrated healthcare systems in the United States. Drawing from more than twenty years of experience in healthcare operations, HR, leadership development, and digital transformation, the presenter outlines strategies that combine workforce redesign, skills-based talent models, continuous improvement, and digital adoption. The session also integrates emerging findings from doctoral research on impostor syndrome in healthcare leadership and how AI-enabled development tools can strengthen leader confidence, reduce hesitation, and improve performance. 

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Identify the core elements of a future-ready workforce strategy, including skills-based planning, digital adoption, and clarity of organizational roles.
• Explain how AI-enabled development tools influence leader confidence and address impostor feelings within fast-moving healthcare environments.
• Apply practical transformation methods such as process redesign, continuous improvement, capability mapping, and coaching frameworks to modernize HR systems.

Canada’s healthcare system is experiencing a critical and sustained workforce shortage that domestic education pipelines alone cannot fill. At the same time, thousands of internationally trained healthcare professionals—including those in refugee or displaced contexts—are eager and qualified to contribute. Yet many face systemic barriers such as licensing delays, costly assessments, limited bridging opportunities, and the persistent “Canadian experience” requirement.

This forward-looking panel brings together leaders who are actively reshaping international recruitment and newcomer integration in Canada. Panelists will share real-world experiences—from innovative training pipelines in Kenyan refugee camps, to global mobility programs empowering displaced professionals, to regulatory modernization at the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO).

Together, they will explore what must change—policy, regulation, employer practices, and political will—to unlock this essential global talent pool and build long-term workforce sustainability across Canada’s healthcare systems.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Identifying and Addressing Systemic Barriers for Internationally Trained Professionals
• Building Sustainable and Ethical International Recruitment Pathways
• Policy, Regulatory, and Partnership Innovations Needed for System-Level Impact

What happens when you bring openness, humour, and data into a conversation that is left unspoken? At Horizon Health Network, we launched Menopause Works Here, becoming the first healthcare organization in Atlantic Canada to join the campaign. 

This initiative combined evidence, empathy, and energy to break stigma, support staff through all life stages, and drive measurable outcomes. Using insights from the 2023 Menopause and Work in Canada Report commissioned by the Menopause Foundation of Canada, this session will explore how a creative and inclusive launch, complete with 90s jams and celebration-style messaging, transformed belonging. Benefit utilization increased, staff feedback skyrocketed, and the initiative sparked new pathways for peer support and belonging. Learn how one simple, strategic idea can advance inclusion, retention, and wellbeing without a major budget line. 

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Understand the business case and workforce impact of menopause in the workplace through a healthcare HR lens
• Learn how Horizon’s Menopause Works Here launch achieved measurable engagement and benefits uptake
• Explore practical, low-cost strategies for building psychological safety and belonging through inclusive wellbeing programs
•  Gain inspiration and tools to bring similar initiatives to your own organization, backed by data, authenticity, and heart