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New Brunswick workers miss 12 days of work a year, more than the national average. Former chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, says healthier workplaces could ease pressure on the health system and the economy at the same time. Convincing employers is the hard part
When Dr. Jennifer Russell explains her new mission, listen closely. Names and concepts come at rapid-fire speed, punctuated occasionally with a hearty laugh as if to say, “I know it’s complex.” Since 2023, the former chief medical officer of health has worked as executive director of the University of New Brunswick’s Institute of Population Health. Russell was given carte blanche to build it as she saw fit, and she’s steering it towards research that will inform policy to keep New Brunswickers healthy. “This is what I eat, sleep and breathe,” she says.
Her most important pitch these days isn’t aimed at a health minister, though. It’s aimed at the people who sign the paycheques. New Brunswick workers miss about 12 days of work a year according to 2024 StatsCan data, one more than the Canadian average and 2.5 days more than workers in the country’s most populous province, Ontario. Russell believes employers who tackle the health reasons behind those empty desks, and behind the occupied ones where sick employees are just going through the motions, could ease pressure on the province’s health system and its economy at the same time.
Recent Manulife surveys found about 22 per cent of working time—46 to 48 days a year—is lost to health-related absences or reduced productivity.
When UNB wanted a leader with population health bona fides to guide research meant to put the university on the map, Russell was a logical choice. A one-time music student who still dabbles in swing vocals, she followed medical school with work in the military, addiction treatment and a Fredericton hospital. Russell valued working with patients, but too often found herself managing illnesses rather than addressing their root causes. “I thought if upstream policy can prevent that in the first place, then that’s what I want to do,” she says.
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