In 2023, healthcare in a quiet corner of western Canada was facing a dire situation.
The rural Alberta town of Stettler, home to 12,000 residents, saw its number of family doctors plummet by half as physicians retired or relocated. This created a serious healthcare vacuum.
Patients with manageable conditions, lacking a dedicated family physician, were forced to overload Stettler’s emergency room. The situation grew so critical that the ER sometimes had to close, leaving residents with no choice but to travel 50 miles to the nearest city for urgent medical attention.
The community’s alarm was evident when approximately 450 people attended an urgent meeting at the local hockey arena.
Dean Lovell, who spearheaded the physician recruitment efforts, remembers the summer meeting: “There was no ice in the arena,” he quipped, “but it was clear we were a community in crisis.”
Remarkably, Stettler has since welcomed seven new doctors, bringing its physician count back to normal. Now, every resident can access a family doctor.
Stettler’s success story, however, is a rare exception. It highlights a critical flaw in Canada’s once-revered healthcare system: a severe shortage of family doctors. This crisis forces communities nationwide to go to extraordinary lengths to attract medical professionals.
A 2025 survey by OurCare, a prominent research group, revealed that a startling one in four Canadian adults didn’t have a family doctor. Even when including nurse practitioners or community health centers, one in five still lacked basic primary care. Across Canada, people face agonizing waits of months, sometimes even years, to secure a family doctor.
Dr. Tara Kiran, who spearheaded the survey, put it plainly: “Canada’s primary care system is in a crisis when one in five people don’t have access to the front door of the very foundation of health care.”
“This is a massive problem,” Dr. Kiran emphasized, “especially in a country like ours, where access to healthcare based on need, not ability to pay, is a fundamental value.”
The current reality is a fierce competition, with wealthier communities able to outbid others for scarce medical talent.
Stettler town and county invested almost 400,000 Canadian dollars (about $300,000 USD) to secure their seven new doctors. Most of this funding was allocated to significant signing bonuses, ranging from 50,000 to 70,000 Canadian dollars ($37,000 to $51,000 USD) per physician.
“It’s almost like recruiting a hockey player,” remarked Gord Lawlor, Stettler’s mayor.
However, the competition isn’t always fair. Larry Clarke, the county government leader, shared how Stettler nearly secured two doctors, only to lose one at the last minute to British Columbia, which offered a recruitment package seven times higher than Stettler’s.
“We simply cannot compete at that level,” Mayor Lawlor stated.
These aggressive recruitment campaigns create a “zero-sum” battle, pitting towns and even provinces against each other. The impact extends globally, particularly to developing nations in West Africa, which have become a significant source of new physicians for Canada. Notably, all seven of Stettler’s recent doctor recruits are from West Africa.
The desperation is so acute that last autumn, Canada’s two largest provinces engaged in a public dispute. Ontario actively tried to poach doctors from Quebec while they were in the midst of salary negotiations.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford publicly promised a “red carpet” welcome, even inviting Quebec doctors to call his personal cellphone. Quebec Premier François Legault swiftly condemned this, calling the offer “totally unacceptable” and stating it was “not time for the provinces to shoot each other in the back.”
While the pandemic accelerated many family doctors’ early retirements, the shortage is rooted in deeper issues. Primary care has become less appealing due to mounting administrative tasks, the challenges of caring for an aging population, and comparatively lower pay than specialized fields.
For years, Canadian provinces have also restricted the number of publicly funded medical student positions to control healthcare costs. Consequently, Canada has become heavily reliant on foreign-trained doctors to bridge the gap. Currently, 27 percent of all Canadian physicians, and an even higher 32 percent of family doctors, were educated internationally. This reliance has resulted in Canada having poorer access to primary care compared to many other affluent nations, including the United States.
This cutthroat competition has been dubbed a “Hunger Games” for family physicians, with some affluent Ontario municipalities offering staggering signing bonuses of 100,000 Canadian dollars ($73,000 USD), alongside enticing perks like a free car for a year and golf club memberships, to lure doctors.
Stettler, located two and a half hours northeast of Calgary, is a sprawling town in central Alberta, where most residents work in farming, oil, and manufacturing.
When Stettler lost half of its 14 doctors in 2023, many locals experienced the healthcare crisis that millions of other Canadians had already endured for years.
For Gail and Brian Peterson, both 72, living without a family physician for two years caused considerable distress. Mr. Peterson’s knee problems became complex to diagnose and treat, forcing him to rely on a physiotherapist due to the absence of a primary care doctor.
“The thought of not having a family doctor was always unsettling,” he admitted. “I constantly wondered, ‘What if something serious happened?'”
Fortunately, the couple now has a new physician, Dr. Sunday Asuke, who joined Stettler’s medical community last year after 15 years of practice in Nigeria.
“Without a family doctor, accessing crucial diagnostic tests becomes a major hurdle,” Dr. Asuke, 52, explained during a lunch break at the Heartland Medical Clinic.
Before the arrival of these new physicians, Stettler’s emergency room, much like countless others across the country, was overwhelmed by patients whose issues could have been managed by a family doctor.
Dr. Francois du Toit, a family physician in Stettler since 2005, described the dire consequences: “Diabetic patients without a doctor weren’t getting follow-ups and ended up in the ER. People with ischemic heart disease experienced severe events or strokes because they lacked consistent primary care.”
“There were moments of sheer desperation,” Dr. du Toit confessed, lamenting his inability to accept new patients despite their urgent need, simply because his schedule was already overflowing.
The few family doctors left in Stettler were grappling with immense burnout due to escalating demands, particularly from the emergency room, where they had to cover shifts. The ER, previously open 24/7, was forced to close for significant periods.
Alarmed by the deteriorating situation, community leaders sprang into action.
Dean Lovell, the driving force behind the recruitment initiative, founded “Stettler Needs Doctors,” a local group that sold hundreds of lawn signs to fund their campaign.
While the town and council substantially increased signing bonuses, they recognized this alone wouldn’t compete with richer areas. Their unique solution: a personalized concierge service.
Byron Geddes, an employee at the local chamber of commerce, was assigned full-time to attract prospective doctors and ensure their and their families’ smooth integration into the community.
“Doctors call me because I’m the go-to person for everything,” Mr. Geddes explained. From finding local churches to dealing with a midnight flat tire on the highway, he was their reliable point of contact.
Geddes and his team meticulously organized tours of Stettler for potential doctors and their families. They introduced them to local businesses, visited schools and churches, took children to the skate park and water slides, and arranged welcoming lunches with community leaders.
Dr. Ewura Kankam-Yeboah, 37, a physician from Ghana who moved to Stettler last year, recalled that during her family’s initial visit, her two young children were quite restless.
“I never once felt the need to apologize for being a mom,” Dr. Kankam-Yeboah shared. “Byron even took my eldest for ice cream, then to a library book sale where he bought him a book. That personal touch truly sealed the deal for us.”
Dr. Godwin Agbonkhese, 42, another new physician from Nigeria, received offers from five different Albertan communities. He ultimately chose Stettler, largely due to the exceptionally warm welcome he received.
“The recruitment team was a major deciding factor,” stated Dr. Agbonkhese, who moved from Nigeria with his wife, a nurse, and their four children.
News of Stettler’s welcoming approach had clearly spread within the network of Nigerian doctors looking to relocate to Canada; six of the seven new physicians are from Nigeria.
While pleased with the successful recruitment, Mr. Lovell expressed a deeper concern: Canada should train more of its own medical graduates and family doctors to avoid over-reliance on international physicians, especially from developing countries.
“It puts Nigeria in a terrible predicament,” Mr. Lovell noted. “They’re investing in training phenomenal doctors, only for them to leave for opportunities elsewhere in the world.”
