From Crisis to Coverage: How Toronto’s Staffy Health is Strengthening Canada’s Health System

Canada’s healthcare system is facing an urgent and well-documented workforce crisis. As of late 2024, more than 78,600 positions remain unfilled, according to Statistics Canada, with no sign of immediate relief. Family physicians, nurses, and homecare workers are in short supply, while millions of Canadians report difficulty accessing even basic care. It’s a system under stress—and one that demands bold, scalable solutions.

Enter Staffy Health, a Toronto-based technology company led by CEO Peter Faist, that is tackling the problem head-on. At its core, Staffy is a digital platform connecting healthcare institutions and homecare providers with qualified, credentialed professionals—on demand. But unlike traditional staffing agencies, Staffy does it without the markup or inflexibility that has historically burdened hospitals and long-term care facilities.

By offering real-time workforce access, and removing costly intermediaries, Staffy is helping organizations eliminate agency reliance, improve shift coverage, and lower overall staffing costs. It’s not just a tech solution—it’s a strategic shift in how Canadian healthcare systems find, verify, and manage their frontline workers.

“Our healthcare system can’t afford inefficiencies any longer,” says Faist. “We built Staffy to deliver quality care more sustainably—matching the needs of institutions and families with a workforce that’s ready, verified, and fairly compensated.”

Hospitals and long-term care facilities across the country have already adopted Staffy to fill urgent gaps and reduce their dependence on legacy staffing agencies. The platform also includes a credentialing management system, which Staffy plans to roll out nationally—a move that could simplify and streamline compliance, mobility, and verification for thousands of healthcare professionals.

And it’s not just institutional healthcare that benefits. Staffy has recently expanded into homecare and private care, allowing agencies and families to scale up support quickly—an increasingly vital service as Canada’s population ages and more care shifts outside of hospital walls.

This work is timely and essential. A new federal study from Health Canada estimates that Canada will need tens of thousands more healthcare workers in the coming years, including 23,000 additional family physicians. Already, more than five million Canadian adults struggle to access primary care. These shortages aren’t just numbers—they’re lived realities for Canadians who are lining up in the snow to get on waitlists, or going without care altogether.

By building a more efficient, flexible workforce infrastructure, Staffy is showing how Canadian innovation can bridge the staffing gap—without compromising care.

“Every Canadian deserves timely, quality healthcare,” says Faist. “That starts with ensuring the right professionals are in the right place, at the right time. That’s the future we’re building toward.”

—

This article is part of CCI’s new “By Canadian Innovators” series, which showcases how members of the Council of Canadian Innovators work with homegrown companies to fuel their growth and make Canada more prosperous. Each story in this series highlights the unique contributions of these companies to building a more prosperous, innovation-driven economy. To learn more about the companies CCI works with to build a more prosperous Canada, visit our member directory.