Let’s look at the history of medical schools. The Liberals and the NDP have voted against every single measure we’ve taken to increase medical seats in this province. Budget 2022 was the largest expansion in medical seats in over 10 years, and you voted against it. Budget 2023: again, another increase in medical seats, and guess what? They voted against it.

Budget 2024: a new medical school at York University that will be specifically for family medicine. I urge both of you, the NDP and the Liberals, to get on board, support budget 2024 and see access to more family medicine in this province.

Thank you to the member for that question. Let’s talk about what we were doing on Friday: We were announcing a new medical school for York University. Alongside my colleagues and the mayor from Vaughan, we made an exciting, historic announcement.

Let’s talk about our government’s record in medical seat expansion in this province—three new medical schools in Ontario: a new Scarborough U of T campus, the new TMU medical school and now the York University medical school.

Mr. Speaker, while the opposition votes against every single medical seat expansion that we bring to the table, followed by the Liberal government, who cut medical seats while they were in power, this government, under the leadership of this Premier, will ensure that we have access to primary care in this province.

Again, to the opposition—I urge you to vote with us to ensure that we open this new medical school and increase the number of medical seats in Ontario.

Unlike the opposition, who will vote against this, this government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is ensuring that we have more access to medical seats in this province.

Thank you to the member from Eglinton–Lawrence for this important question.

Our government recognizes that in order to build up our health care system, we need to ensure that students pursuing medical studies have access to world-class post-secondary education. As part of that effort, we need to ensure that we have the capacity to train doctors locally—and this government is delivering. In 2022 alone, we added 160 undergraduate spaces and 295 postgraduate medical seats to be implemented over the next five years—the largest expansion of Ontario’s medical school system in over a decade. As outlined in budget 2023, we are building on that expansion by investing $33 million over three years to add another 100 undergraduate seats and 154 postgraduate seats, beginning in 2024, prioritizing Ontario students. This means that by 2028, Ontario will have the capacity to train 1,212 undergraduate medical students and 1,637 postgraduate students annually.

I can assure you that the future of medical education in Ontario is bright.

Thank you, once again, to the member for raising this important issue. Ontario has incredible researcher potential, and we are working to realize this potential through investments in important research organizations like the Ontario Health Data Platform Intellectual Property Committee. Through groups such as this one, we are ensuring that researchers are able to access invaluable de-identified data to support the work of our health care sector.

This government is proud to stand behind investments like this one and will continue to work with all post-secondary institutions and research organizations across the province to ensure we continue to increase Ontario’s research and innovation capabilities to help build health care capacity and create more jobs, opportunity and growth for our economy.

It’s also exciting to look across to the other corner to see the new U of T biomedical research centre. Stay tuned for more.