Ontario shuts down one way of funding nurse practitioners as province misses deadline

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones speaks at a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

Ontario’s health minister is shutting down one avenue of publicly funding all nurse practitioners, as the province misses a federal deadline for ensuring their medically necessary services are covered.

The federal government gave provinces and territories until April 1 to ensure they are funding nurse practitioner services equivalent to what doctors provide, though penalties for noncompliance won’t kick in until April 2027.

Ontario does not yet have a plan in place, and while Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province will be in compliance with the Canada Health Act directive, she did not say when.

Nurse practitioners in Ontario work in a variety of settings, including hospitals and primary care, but they are unable to widely set up nurse practitioner-led clinics or establish independent practices in the public system.

Nurse practitioners have said they are looking for flexible funding models, such as those for family doctors, who can bill OHIP on a fee-for-service basis or who are paid per patient enrolled.

Jones said today she is not considering letting nurse practitioners bill OHIP directly for services through the use of billing codes, saying that would have to be negotiated with the Ontario Medical Association.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2026.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press