Health authorities across Canada face staffing shortages, but one regional health authority in Dauphin, Man., faces the added challenge of having the oldest health-care workforce in the country.

The average age of health-care workers at the Parkland Regional Health Authority is 47, compared with an average age of 44 provincially, and 42 across Canada, according to figures from a national survey done using information from 2004.

In addition to having older employees, the region also has the oldest population in the province, with 20 per cent of its residents over the age of 65.

"For us, it's not only the fact that we've got an old population to serve, we've got a smaller population to provide the service as well, and a greying population that's providing the service," authority CEO Andre Remillard said Wednesday.

Remillard said the health authority recently hired a disability manager to help its employees return from leave to work sooner with modified duties.

In order to deal with its own impending labour shortage, the authority also hired a human resources recruitment manager last year.

Remillard would also like to see more training and schooling opportunities in rural areas, since many young people currently move away to larger centres for post-secondary education and training.

"In rural Manitoba, I think one of the big issues for us is our kids that are graduating from high school ... [they] have got to go to larger centres for their post-secondary education," he said.

"For us I think that means they are relocating, they are establishing new households, they're meeting new friends and sometimes meeting new life partners."