St. Stephen council has approved incentive packages for certain health-care professionals who provide service commitments to the community.

The Medical Professional Recruitment Policy was passed during the March regular council meeting on Wednesday evening.

The policy adds a line item to the budget for $100,000 to cover the following incentives:

• New family physicians: $125,000 for a five-year commitment
• Establish family physicians (out-of-province): $75,000 for a five-year commitment
• Specialist/ER physician: $75,000 for a five-year commitment at the Charlotte County Hospital
• International medical graduates: up to $125,000 for a five-year commitment
• Nurse practitioners: $10,000, with two $5,000 payments
• Recruitment consultants: $25,000 limit on the fee for a recruitment consultant out of the incentive paid by the town

Health care is not a municipal responsibility, which Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Renaud made clear in his report to council.

“The responsibility for the health care crisis we are now dealing with lies solely with the New Brunswick government and every resident, business and organization needs to hold the province accountable for resolving this issue,” Renaud wrote.

During the committee-of-the-whole meeting earlier in March, Renaud said he tried to be very blunt in his position that the municipality should not have to do this.

“We need to do it in order to compete in the market, but we need to continue to put pressure on the provincial government to fix the health-care system so that municipalities can stop spending taxpayer money that should be going to roads, sidewalks and programming,” he added.

Each amount would be spread out in annual installments of up to $25,000, allowing for the $100,000 to travel further and not exceed the budget should more than one medical professional come at once.

With files from the Local Journalism Initiative/The Courier.