The Ontario government is continuing to deliver on its commitment to protect Ontario’s health-care system by investing $30 million to expand the province’s primary care health-care workforce. This new funding will upskill over 1,400 registered nurses for primary care, create 170 primary care nurse practitioner education seats and add up to 150 physician assistant education seats as part of the government’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan to connect everyone in Ontario to primary care by 2029.
“Our government is continuing to take bold action to further protect Ontario’s world-class health-care workforce now and for years to come,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By increasing the number of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, while upskilling registered nurses, we are taking one more step towards our goal of ensuring everyone can connect to primary care.”
This funding includes an additional $909,335 investment in Ottawa that will add 9 health-care workers to local primary care teams as part of Ontario’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan. This expansion will create more nurse practitioners in Ontario working in primary care, enabling faster and easier access for families across the province.
Marie Eve Sylvestre, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa. stated, “At a time when more than 250,000 people in the Ottawa region are facing daily life without a family doctor or nurse practitioner, we applaud Minister Sylvia Jones’ sustained investments to support the work of the University of Ottawa and its health care partners to protect and grow access to primary care in Eastern Ontario. In addition to training more nurse practitioners, the University of Ottawa has also implemented a local recruitment strategy to train more physicians from our region, and we are developing a groundbreaking new interdisciplinary primary care hub centred around new teaching clinics funded by Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan. In keeping with these major investments in healthcare priorities, the University’s new Advanced Medical Research Centre, which is slated to open late 2026, will ensure healthcare in our region continues to be powered by transformational, world-class research.”
“Our government is making targeted investments to strengthen Ontario’s health-care workforce and improve access to care in our communities,” said George Darouze, MPP for Carleton. “By funding nine new nurse practitioner seats at the University of Ottawa, we’re helping train more highly skilled professionals who will play a critical role in delivering high-quality, patient-centred care where it’s needed most.”
“Today’s investment builds on our government’s critical work to protect Ontario’s health-care workforce today, and into the future,” said Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security. “This new upskilling program and seat expansions will ensure that Ontario continues to have highly skilled workers to connect more people across the province to compassionate health care, close to home.”
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.