Let’s be clear: That was a forecast in 2022, and that is why our government is investing record amounts into our health care system, including $743 million in this year’s budget over the next three years to address immediate health care staffing needs. That’s on top of the 63,000 new nurses that have registered to work in Ontario since 2018. An additional 80,000 nurses will join the health care workforce by 2028, increasing the number of post-secondary education seats, as well, by 2,000 registered nurses and an extra 1,000 registered practical nurses.

Our government will continue to do what is required to ensure that we have the best publicly funded health care, when and where the people need it.

It’s important to remember where our health care system was when Minister Jones was sworn in as the Minister of Health in 2022. Ontario and the rest of the world was only beginning to recover from the global pandemic, a pandemic that showed the holes in Ontario’s health care system caused by over a decade of neglect by the Liberal government, propped up by the NDP.

Since Minister Jones was sworn in as the Minister of Health, our government has registered a record number of new nurses two years in a row, registering a total of 32,000 nurses in Ontario. Our government recognized that the status quo was no longer working for Ontarians, and that is why, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have taken action to build a more connected and convenient health care system.