I’m proud to rise today to speak in support of this motion to address the doctor shortage crisis in Ontario by providing more administrative support, freeing up Ontario’s doctors to take on tens of thousands more patients.

Currently, 73,000 people in the Niagara region do not have a family doctor, a sharp increase from 53,000 in 2023. This is not sustainable. What’s worse, this number is expected to explode to over 140,000 in Niagara by 2026. Welland has around four family physicians per 10,000 people, the lowest ratio in the region. Port Colborne has a population of about 20,000; roughly 10,000—half of them—are without a family doctor and rely on the urgent care centre, which is slated to close, as their primary point of health care.

Dr. Ahmed, a family physician from Niagara, spoke with the media recently and said, “I looked at the numbers ... and I was saddened but not shocked.” Several factors are driving the increasing shortage, she said, and they include an increased administrative burden “that has been foisted upon us by the powers that be,” as well as compensation that is not keeping up with inflation, “so physicians are struggling to keep their doors open.” Ahmed said family doctors spend an average of 19 hours per week, more than two full days’ work, in Niagara on administrative work.

Speaker, this government should support our common-sense motion to invest in administrative staff and integrated care options, which would unlock more time for doctors to care for thousands of patients in Niagara and across Ontario who are desperate for a family doctor right now.

I’m very proud to rise in support of the opposition motion brought forward by NDP leader Marit Stiles. The fact is there are 2.2 million people in Ontario who do not have family doctors; about 32,000 where I live.

The Ontario College of Family Physicians talks about an exodus of physicians from family medicine. Some are retiring in their seventies and eighties, some are dying because of their age, but many of them are leaving the practice, and they’re predicting about 65% will leave in the next five years.

The Ontario Medical Association, when they were in Queen’s Park meeting with all of us from all parties, very clearly said that physicians who are in family practice are telling students, “Don’t get into this field. The administrative burden is too much. It is too much.” Some 2.2 million Ontarians without a family doctor—these doctors are spending 19 hours a week doing paperwork. You think of a 40-hour work week, that’s half your work week doing paperwork.

How do you solve this? You follow up what we’re doing in this opposition day motion. You provide more people doing administration work to help the doctors. It gets them out of the backrooms and the offices where they’re typing and working on forms that are mandatory, and doing actual medical work. The result of that is equal to 2,000 new doctors—2,000 new doctors out of thin air. That’s two million more patients being seen. Perhaps when you do that, when you make it a job people would like to do, to actually do medical work, people who are in the medical field will want to become family practitioners as well.

This is an amazing idea, a great idea, a supportable idea. We look forward to the Conservatives joining us for many more of our good ideas.