The Ontario government is investing $812,600 to connect up to 2,750 additional residents in the Brantford-Brant-Norfolk region to primary health care, as part of a larger effort under the province’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan.
The funding supports the Grand River Community Health Centre, which plans to expand its existing clinical teams to attach more patients to publicly funded family doctors or primary care teams.
This effort is part of a broader strategy aimed at connecting 300,000 people across Ontario to primary care services this year.
“This new funding will attach up to 2,750 new people to a primary health provider or health team,” said Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma. “It is a great step forward in ensuring access to needed health care.”
The Grand River Community Health Centre’s initiative was selected following a provincial call for proposals that focused on communities with high numbers of unattached residents, particularly those on the Health Care Connect waitlist.
According to provincial guidelines, selected teams demonstrated a clear ability to expand care and showed readiness to achieve substantial progress within a year.
Lynda Kohler, Executive Director of the Grand River Community Health Centre, expressed gratitude for the investment.
“This support is necessary to build a primary care system that ensures all community residents have access to the care they need,” said Kohler.
The funding is part of the province’s larger Primary Care Action Plan, which includes $235 million in 2025-26 to support over 130 new and expanded interprofessional primary care teams.
These teams typically include family physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists, and other health professionals working collaboratively.
The Primary Care Action Plan is supported by the Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, and is designed to implement a system-wide transformation by 2029.
The recently passed Primary Care Act, 2025 establishes primary care as the foundation of Ontario’s healthcare system and outlines six objectives to guide future implementation.
In 2024, the Ontario government invested $110 million to connect 328,000 residents to primary care through new and existing teams.
