Ontario pledges $235M for primary care, and $14B for a hospital
- Canada Healthwatch
- Jun 27
- 1 min read
Ontario’s family doctor crisis has left 2.5 million people without a provider. But most of this week’s health spending won’t fix that.
Canada Healthwatch, the Weekly Dose
June 26, 2025
This week, Ontario dropped two very different health funding announcements: one for primary care, the other for a massive new hospital. One will help 300,000 people, per the government. The other is projected to open six years from now.
What happened: The Ford government announced $235 million (over three years) to launch or expand 130 care teams across the province and connect about 12 per cent of those without a provider to care by the end of the year.
Days later, Premier Ford unveiled a $14 billion spend on Mississauga’s Peter Gilgan Hospital. The project is being billed as the future largest teaching hospital in Canada, and will only serve women and children.
The two announcements signal where Ontario’s health dollars are flowing, and where they’re not. Critics have accused the Ford government of underspending its health dollars while primary care languishes. $235 million over three years is less than $5 per Ontarian per year.
Dr. Jane Philpott, chair of Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, welcomed the new funding. But even if the government manages to attach 300,000 people to care, millions more will remain in limbo.
More funding details are expected in the fall. But for now, the province’s biggest cheque will go to a hospital that will open years from now, not the part of the system that millions can’t access in the here and now.
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