Ontario Investing Over $1.8 Billion to Connect Every Person in Ontario to a Family Doctor and Primary Care Team

January 27, 2025

Beamsville – The Ontario government is investing $1.8 billion to connect two million more people to a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team within four years, which will achieve the government’s goal of connecting everyone in the province to a family doctor or primary care team. This investment includes $1.4 billion in new funding, alongside more than $400 million in already-approved funding for primary care.

“Access to primary care is a top priority for local residents in Niagara,” said Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West

“As the province builds two new medical schools – including medical school seats dedicated to training primary care doctors – our government is fulfilling our commitment to ensure that everyone who wants to have a primary care provider can access one.”

“Through our government’s record investments in primary care, we have been able to achieve the highest rate of access to regular health care providers in the country,” said Hon. Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

“With this historic, transformative investment, we can now achieve our goal of connecting every person in the province who wants a primary care provider.”

Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, will use the government’s historic investment to implement its action plan to build a primary care system that draws on best-in-class models from across the province and connects everyone to a family doctor or primary care team. Interprofessional primary care teams are made up of a family physician or nurse practitioner and other health care professionals such as nurses, physician assistants, social workers, dieticians and more.

“Together we will build a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient and connected for every single person in Ontario,” said Dr. Jane Philpott.

“In every community, your primary care team will be your front door to care, where you have a team of clinicians providing care you can access in a timely way, close to home.”

Since 2018, Ontario has added over 15,000 new physicians to its health-care workforce, including a ten percent increase in family doctors. Through the Your Health plan, Ontario invested $110 million in primary care teams across the province, helping to connect 328,000 more people to primary care close to home. Ontario has also opened two new medical schools, including faculties at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University, adding more than 260 undergraduate and 449 residency spots, an increase that will eventually amount to more than 500 undergraduate spots and 742 residency positions. This is the largest medical school expansion in over a decade.

As a next step, Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan will implement a broad series of initiatives in collaboration with primary care leaders and health system partners that will close the gap for the remaining ten percent of people in the province in need of primary care by 2029.

Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to grow the province’s highly skilled health care workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care closer to home for generations to come.