Thank you to the member from Brampton West for raising this important issue and for your advocacy on the new TMU medical school.

I am proud to say that, in 2022, we added 160 undergraduate spaces and 295 postgrad spaces over the next five years to train doctors, which is more than Ontario has seen in over a decade. In budget 2023, we were able to build on our government’s unprecedented medical seat expansion by adding an additional 100 undergraduate and 154 postgraduate seats. That is 709 new medical seats announced in just one year.

Unlike the previous Liberal government and the official opposition, our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford and the Minister of Health, have rolled up our sleeves and got it done. We didn’t just talk about needing more doctors; we are ensuring that we will have more doctors. Our government is building Ontario’s health care system to be stronger, more resilient and better than before.

We have taken a pragmatic approach to ensure that every medical seat expansion increases medical seats in all regions of Ontario. By training more students in key communities, we will keep up with providing quality health care to the growing population and improving distribution and retention of physicians across the province.

To the member from Brampton, I share your excitement about the new Toronto Metropolitan University medical school in Brampton, and I cannot wait for the first cohort to be welcomed. Speaker, it’s worth repeating that Brampton isn’t the only medical school announced by this government. Because of the work done by Premier Ford, we were able to transform the northern Ontario medical school to a stand-alone institution and create the Scarborough Academy of Medicine under the University of Toronto.

We aren’t just training doctors for humans. We’re also training more vets, thanks to the collaboration between Guelph and Lakehead University.

Speaker, our government continues to make record investments to build up our health care infrastructure. We’re ensuring that we have the trained professionals needed to care for all Ontarians, including the furry and feathered ones.