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PORT HAWKESBURY – Town officials here are hoping that a campaign to attract new general practitioners to the Strait of Canso region will bear fruit as a result of efforts launched this past winter, prior to the arrival of Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 social-distancing protocols.

In late January, the Town of Port Hawkesbury and Municipality of Richmond County joined forces with the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce (SACOC), the Cape Breton Partnership (CBP) and administrators of the Strait-Richmond Hospital in Evanston, St. Anne’s Community and Nursing Care Centre in Arichat and the Dr, Kingston Memorial Community Health Centre in L’Ardoise to launch South Cape Breton: Recruiting For Health.

The initiative took a step forward when local officials hosted six new doctors from around the world that are taking part in Nova Scotia’s Practice Ready Assessment Program (PRAP). The program ensures that international medical graduates that wish to practice family medicine in Nova Scotia have the appropriate clinical skills and knowledge to provide quality patient care.

During the first weekend of February, five Nigerian physicians and a sixth from the Czech Republic, all PRAP participants, were given tours of Port Hawkesbury’s schools, recreation facilities, trail systems and even the town waterfront.

The chair of South Cape Breton: Recruiting For Health, Trevor Boudreau, was a town councillor at the time of the physicians’ visit. Speaking to reporters following the subsequent town council meeting at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, he was pleased with the enthusiasm shown by the visiting doctors and their willingness to consider smaller communities in Cape Breton for their future practice.

“They really wanted to see the schools -- French Immersion was a big thing for five of the six visitors,” said Boudreau, a long-time local chiropractor with an office in Port Hawkesbury.

With local vice-principals offering tours of Port Hawkesbury’s school buildings, this portion of the visit also took the doctors to the various recreational facilities found at the SAERC high school site, including the Strait Area Pool, a 480-seat auditorium, and the town’s branch of the Eastern Counties Regional Library.

“They were amazed that the community can use these things – it’s not just the schools,” Boudreau enthused.

Boudreau’s comments came after Port Hawkesbury’s Deputy Mayor, Blaine MacQuarrie, expressed concern at the February public council session that Nova Scotia’s Department of Health and Wellness (DHW) and the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) are not communicating effectively enough with town officials, concerning a construction project related to local health care delivery.

MacQuarrie called on provincial officials to provide more updates about the overhaul of Public Health, Mental Health and Addiction Services offices on Reeves Street, as well as the adjacent offices of two family physicians and a branch of The Medicine Shoppe that is located within the same strip mall.

Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton and Chief Adminstrative Officer (CAO) Terry Doyle both told MacQuarrie they would push the DHW for answers on the health-centered construction initiative.