Doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador walked off the job Monday night, closing offices and cancelling elective surgeries.

Talks between the province and the association representing the 930 physicians broke down about 10 hours before the midnight deadline. No further talks are planned.

The province's doctors are the lowest paid in the country. They want the same pay as doctors elsewhere in Atlantic Canada, but the province says it doesn't have the money.

"The provincial government is far more interested in the short-term balance sheet than the long-term future of health care," said Dr. John Haggie, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association.

Every doctor in the province was expected to close his or her office on Tuesday morning, and turn away every patient who doesn't qualify for emergency care.

Haggie said an emergency "safety net" will be set up, maintaining urgent care services such as cancer, obstetrics, psychiatric and palliative treatments.

Newfoundland Health Minister Gerald Smith warned doctors Monday they were "placing the lives of the people of this province at risk."

The finance minister says the government has offered the doctors a five per cent per year increase over three years.

The NLMA said general practitioners and specialists in Newfoundland earn anywhere from 20 per cent to 50 per cent less than their Maritime colleagues.

In Saskatchewan, the government has brought in health care workers from other provinces to deal with a strike by hospital pharmacists, physical therapists, psychologists and others.

No formal talks have been going on but Premier Lorne Calvert says his government is "nowhere near" to legislating an end to the strike. "That will be a last resort," he said.

Some of the workers have been off the job for two weeks. They want a 34 per cent wage increase over three years. The province says it can't afford that. It's offering 21 per cent over five years.