Health care, tax cuts and Highway 401 tunnel focus of Ontario campaign trail

The main Ontario party leaders have now laid out their plans on how to get primary care to millions of people without a family doctor.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles promised to connect every Ontarian to a family doctor or nurse practitioner if her party wins the election by focusing on building up the team-based primary care model at a cost of $4 billion.

“It’s a major shift that will make it easier and faster to get the care that you need,” Stiles said Friday at a campaign stop in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

If elected, Stiles said her party would add 3,500 doctors to the primary care system over the next four years. She said 350 of those doctors would be in northern Ontario.

She would also establish a “northern command centre” to manage workforce capacity.

The plan would add 380 new primary care teams of doctors, nurse practitioners and other health-care professionals across the province. The NDP said they would also infuse the system with cash in order to recruit and retain doctors.

The Ontario Medical Association and the Ontario College of Family Physicians say 2.5 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor and that number will climb to 4.4 million by next year.

The NDP’s plan is similar to the Progressive Conservative plan, but bigger in scope.

In the two days before the writ dropped, then-premier Doug Ford made more than $7 billion in announcements, including $1.4 billion in new money to beef up primary care in addition to $400 million previously committed to that plan.

The conservatives do not agree with primary care data the two physician groups have provided, preferring to cite a Canadian Institute for Health Information report that said 90 per cent of Ontarians have a regular health-care provider.

Under the Tories’ plan, two million patients will be connected to primary care by 2029 and everyone in the province will have a family doctor or primary care team.

Ford appointed Jane Philpott, a former federal Liberal health minister, as head of the provincial primary care action team to implement that plan.

“We’re sparing no expense,” Ford said at a campaign stop in Toronto’s east end on Friday. “We’re going to make sure we connect every single person in Ontario to a family physician.”

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie also reiterated her pledge to get everyone a family doctor within four years at a stop in Thunder Bay, Ont.

“Do you know there are 28,000 people here in the Thunder Bay area that don’t have access to a family doctor?” Crombie said.

“That’s absurd and that has to change.”

The Liberals have said they will hire 3,100 doctors to solve the primary care crisis at a cost of $3.1 billion.

The Green Party has yet to announce its health-care plans, but Leader Mike Schreiner said they would hire more nurses, doctors and personal support workers in every region of Ontario. The party would plan to have every Ontarian linked to a primary care provider within three to five years and stop health-care privatization.

In other pledges, Mike Schreiner said if his party forms government, it would cut income taxes for those earning less than $65,000 annually and raise taxes on those in the top tax bracket.

Ford also reiterated his promise from last fall to build a massive tunnel for traffic and transit underneath Highway 401. The proposed tunnel would stretch from Mississauga in the west to Markham in the east.

Ford said they are still waiting for the completion of a feasibility study, but he promised to build it regardless. He refused to answer questions about how much the tunnel would cost.

The snap election Ford called will be held Feb. 27, more than a year before the next fixed election date. He has said he needs a fresh mandate to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently paused a plan to impose hefty tariffs on Canadian goods until early March.

Stiles, Crombie and Schreiner have all said the election is unnecessary, a waste of money and nothing short of a power grab by Ford while he’s ahead in the polls.

Elections Ontario has said the budget for the election is $189 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2025.

Liam Casey and Allison Jones, The Canadian Press