Social Policy in Ontario

Healthcare in Ontario – The Next Chapter

Posted on June 5, 2025 in Health Delivery System

Source: Fasken.com — Authors: Aniket Bhatt, Laurie M. Turner

Fasken.com – Health Bulletin
March 5, 2025.   Laurie M. Turner, Aniket Bhatt

On Thursday, February 27th, 2025, the Progressive Conservative (“PC”) party won its third majority government in the Province of Ontario. Given that the Ontario 2024 Budget allocated $85 billion to healthcare, it is not surprising that healthcare was a focus of the platforms of each of the four major political parties in this election. The purpose of this bulletin is to summarize the PC’s healthcare platform as set out in its platform document, released earlier this year in anticipation of the recent provincial election.

Generally, the platform emphasizes improving access to essential services, addressing workforce shortages, and investing in critical health infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the province’s population. The PC’s health-related commitments as part of the 2025 election reflect many of the commitments made by the party in the last provincial election in 2022 (which were covered by our June 1, 2022 bulletin).

Connecting Ontarians to Primary Care

• Investment of $1.8 billion over four years to implement the Ontario Primary Care Action Plan.
• The overall goal of the Plan is to ensure that all Ontarians have access to a family physician or primary care team. To do so, the Plan aims to connect two million Ontarians with a publicly funded family doctor or primary care team within a four-year period.

Training and Hiring More Health-Care Workers

• Opening two new medical schools at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University to increase the number of medical professionals in Ontario.
• Proposed regulatory changes to require at least 95% of all undergraduate medical school seats be allocated to Ontario residents.
• Proposed regulatory changes to permit health-care workers from other provinces to start working in Ontario immediately.
• Investment of $88 million to expand the Learn and Stay Grant. The Grant establishes grants for students studying in “priority” programs in underserved and growing communities in Northern, Southwestern and Eastern Ontario. The priority programs include diploma, undergraduate, masters and postgraduate programs, with a strong focus on nursing.

Addressing Immediate Health-Care Needs

• Continued investment of $743 million to create 5,590 new training opportunities, upskill nurses, and stabilize emergency department staffing.
• Addition of 3,000 new nursing school seats to strengthen the workforce.

Convenient and Connected Care

• Investment of $66 million in community surgical and diagnostic centers to reduce wait times and increase surgery volumes, expanding services like MRIs, CT scans, and GI Endoscopy for an additional 160,000 patients (combined) annually. Read more about these community surgical and diagnostic centres in our January 2023, March 2023 and June 2023 bulletins.

Mental Health Support

• Implementing the $3.8 billion Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System (the “Roadmap to Wellness”). The Roadmap to Wellness was introduced in 2020 and focuses on building the province’s mental health and additions services.

Building Hospitals and Long-Term Care

• Continuing on its plan to build or upgrade 50 hospitals across Ontario. The total amount allocated for this plan is $50 billion.
• Delivering on its commitment to provide 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds by 2028.

For more information about the party’s healthcare platform, visit the Ontario PC Party website.

For more information or to discuss a particular matter please contact us.  https://www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2025/03/healthcare-in-ontario-the-next-chapter?utm_source=concep&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%5bBulletin%5d+Healthcare+in+Ontario+%e2%80%93+The+Next+Chapter_03%2f05%2f2025#contact-the-authors

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Tags: budget, Health

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