An appeals panel of the Council of the Colleges of Registered Nurses of Manitoba ruled unanimously Thursday that Rhona Sigua should be allowed to enroll in the provincial college of registered nurses. Not to do so, the board said in a decision obtained by CBC, would violate Canadian free trade laws, which the college must take into account under the Regulated Health Professions Act. Sigua, who studied in the Philippines, was denied enrollment in 2013 by the Manitoba college unless she upgraded her basic nursing education. She was told, however, that she needed more training than could be provided at the time in Manitoba by two programs open to international applicants. Sigua instead completed a Quebec-based upgrade program, passed professional nursing exams in Quebec and was licensed there in 2019 and, a year later, in Ontario. Sigua re-applied for registration in Manitoba in March 2021 as a job mobility applicant, as she was registered elsewhere in Canada. The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba denied her again, saying she had to take a clinical competency test first. Instead, Sigua filed her appeal, which was heard on July 26. The appeals panel, chaired by public representative and former Manitoba Law Society president Irene Hamilton, was of the view that the college’s refusal to license Sigua “could not stand,” a four-page written decision said. The decision quotes from free trade agreements that require signatories to certify people working in regulated occupations in one jurisdiction to work in another “without any requirement for any material additional training, experience, examinations or assessments” as part of the process. “It is the decision of the committee that these provisions apply to Ms. Sigua,” the decision reads. “Therefore, we allow her appeal and ask the CRNM to register Ms. Sigua as a registered nurse in Manitoba.”
“Stressful, expensive” appeal.
Winnipeg lawyer Evan Edwards, who represented Sigua, said the ruling could have far-reaching implications. “Ms. Sigua is pleased with the decision … which is significant for so many nurses seeking to work in Manitoba,” she said in an emailed statement. “She looks forward to returning to work as a registered nurse and having the opportunity to help ease the burden on the strained health care system,” Edwards said. But fighting the case has negatively affected her and others in similar positions, as well as the provincial health system, the lawyer said. “For her, this litigation was time-consuming, stressful, expensive and in her opinion, completely unnecessary. Additionally, while the college was fighting this case, the province was deprived of the much-needed services of some fully qualified registered nurses,” Edwards said. The decision also comes as the provincial health ministry is lifting barriers for nurses in similar positions to Sigua as Manitoba faces a nursing shortage that Health Minister Audrey Gordon called a “crisis” on Thursday. Gordon issued a compliance order forcing the nursing college to drop its requirement that internationally trained nurses already licensed in other Canadian jurisdictions be subject to further testing if they try a second time to get licensed in Manitoba. Health Minister Audrey Gordon issued a compliance order to ask the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba to remove a requirement that some say made it difficult for internationally trained nurses working outside the province to return. (Walther Bernal/CBC) The order contends that the college’s clinical competency assessment requirement — which Sigua was told she needed to resubmit but has since disputed — violates numerous domestic trade agreements and Manitoba’s Labor Mobility Act. Not all Canadian jurisdictions require the same clinical competency assessment. The appeals board’s decision said it was filed at Gordon’s behest on July 26, the day of Sigua’s hearing — but after it had deliberated and reached its decision on her case.
