FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 January 2026
QUEEN’S PARK – Dr. Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Critic for Primary Care, has issued the following statement regarding Minister Sylvia Jones’ lackluster announcement on primary care:
Today, Health Minister Sylvia Jones delivered a one-year status report on the Primary Care Action Plan – an update as brief as the progress her government has made, and one that starkly contrasts with recent findings from the Auditor General.
The only real claim she could make was to assert that 75% of Health Care Connect (HCC) registrants have been matched with a primary care physician – a mere fraction of the millions of Ontarians without a family doctor.
Sylvia Jones’ fixation with HCC reveals how misguided her efforts remain, considering Ontario Health Teams and physicians have widely criticized the program as being inaccessible and not fit for purpose. The numbers make this clear: only 11% of Ontarians who need a family doctor are enrolled with it, and just 7% of physicians are accepting patients from the program.
This update brings little relief to over 2 million Ontarians who do not have a family doctor and offers no support to the many primary care teams who have been denied funding in the past year, or received a fraction of what they requested.
Ontario continues to have the fourth-lowest number of physicians on a per-person basis across Canada and the second-lowest spending on healthcare – facts which are unchanged after one year of the primary care action plan.
Just one month ago, the Auditor General revealed what real progress on primary care should look like. Now it’s time for Doug Ford and Sylvia Jones to act on those recommendations – including reforming HCC, dramatically increasing funding, and establishing real metrics to deliver a family doctor to everyone.