Doctor orders: All provincial parties promise access to care for all Ontarians in coming years

The three major parties each say they have a plan to address gaps in family doctor service.

Feb. 9, 2025 Waterloo Region Record

Tories say about 90 per cent of Ontarians already have access to primary health care, but all three parties say they’ll improve it. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

The doctor will soon be in.

The three main political parties have released their plans to secure a family doctor for all Ontarians by 2029, spending up to $4 billion to do so.

The province has estimated some two million people in the province don’t have a doctor — though other estimates peg that much higher, at 2.5 million and rising to 4.4 million by 2026.

Here’s what the parties are proposing:

• PCs: Before the election, the PC government had promised $1.8 billion over four years to get two million Ontarians rostered with a family doctor or nurse practitioner by 2029. The Tories say about 90 per cent of Ontarians already have access to primary health care. They had also previously named Dr. Jane Philpott, who authored a book on primary care homes — with integrated teams of doctors, nurse practitioners and other specialized services working in one location, serving patients based on their postal code — to help reform the health care system.

Read more at the Waterloo Region Record