Ontario to boost rural, northern primary and emergency care in agreement with OMA

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones stands in the Ontario legislature in Toronto on Oct. 21, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario is introducing a new program to stabilize physician staffing in rural emergency departments and putting more money toward helping people in underserved communities get access to primary care.

The new commitments come out of negotiations between the government and the Ontario Medical Association for a new Physician Services Agreement.

Those talks are ongoing for the bulk of the four-year agreement, but last fall an arbitrator issued a decision for the first year of that deal and awarded doctors a nearly 10 per cent compensation increase.

Part of that was for specific “targeted investments” to increase access to primary care, and the two sides have now come to an agreement on where that targeted funding will go.

A statement from Health Minister Sylvia Jones does not list any dollar amounts, but says there will be “significant investments” in the Rural and Northern Physician Group Agreement primary care model. It helps recruit doctors to those communities by standardizing compensation rates and provides funding for office overhead costs.

“Today’s strategic investments build on our government’s progress to protect Ontario health care to ensure everyone has reliable access to care, no matter where they live,” said Jones in the statement.

“By investing in emergency department staffing and strengthening rural and northern health care, we are making significant strides to conveniently connect Ontario families, especially those in rural and northern communities, to the care they need, where and when they need it.”

As well, there will be a new program called the Rural Emergency Medicine Coverage Investment Fund, which is meant to ensure appropriate doctor staffing levels year-round. It replaces a now-expired program that incentivized doctors to fill those shifts in rural and northern ERs.

The Temporary Locum Program paid doctors a bonus to fill emergency department shifts — with most of those physicians coming from other, more urban parts of the province — to help hospitals in more isolated areas on a locum, or temporary, basis.

Ontario first established it as a temporary program during the COVID-19 pandemic, but amid broader physician staffing challenges the rural and northern hospitals had come to rely on it. It expired at the end of March and hospitals were concerned about the state of limbo, but the government says the new program is retroactive to April 1.

The new targeted investments also include programs to ensure access to doctors in Kenora and Sioux Lookout.

The Ontario Medical Association said the funding will help stabilize health services across the province.

“Communities, both large and small, deserve access to timely and high-quality emergency care,” CEO Kimberly Moran wrote in a statement.

“This new award lays the foundation for long-term recruitment and retention strategies, while addressing urgent issues like income stabilization for early-career physicians and support for underserviced areas.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press