November 28, 2025
The Hon. Marjorie Michel, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Health
Dear Minister Michel,
On behalf of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU), representing 250,000 frontline nurses and nursing students across the country, I urge you to act on a very troubling development in the United States.
The administration of President Trump is proposing to exclude nursing from the list of professional degrees, which, starting on July 1, 2026, would restrict the borrowing limit of nursing students enrolled in professional degree programs to far less than they would otherwise be entitled.
If this proposal moves ahead, it would discourage and disincentivize nurses from pursuing advanced degrees, thereby limiting the number of nurses who go on to become more skilled in their profession, including as nurse practitioners. Nursing is not the only profession that would be impacted by this proposal. Social work and audiology are other professions which would have a lower loan cap for students pursuing graduate education.
Within the context of a global health workforce shortage that we also experience in Canada, this proposal poses a threat to our fellow nurses and obstructs our common mission of empowering and supporting nurses to pursue further education and advance in their professional development.
We cannot accept the demoralization of nurses, regardless of where they work. Nurses in Canada are strongly supportive of our counterparts in the United States of America and stand in solidarity with them against this wrongheaded proposal.
As Canada’s Minister of Health, I request that you communicate with your counterpart in the United States, Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, expressing your opposition to this proposal and urging him to apply pressure on the U.S. Department of Education to change course.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Linda Silas, CFNU President