Ontario invests $6M into Waterloo primary care
- Ontario said April 27 it will spend more than $6 million in Waterloo Region to expand primary care and attach 17,444 residents. - Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris said the money will flow through Community Healthcaring KW, Woolwich Community Health Centre and KW4 Ontario Health Team. - The funding sits inside Ontario’s plan to connect every resident to primary care by 2029. (ontario.ca)
Ontario announced April 27 that it will spend more than $6 million to expand primary care in Waterloo Region and connect 17,444 more residents to providers. (cbc.ca) (kitchener.citynews.ca) Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris made the announcement at Community Healthcaring KW in Kitchener. He said the funding is intended to help residents get a family doctor or primary care team this year. (cbc.ca) (kitchener.citynews.ca) The money will be distributed through Community Healthcaring KW, Woolwich Community Health Centre and the KW4 Ontario Health Team network, which represents more than 40 local initiatives. CBC reported the broader regional distribution will cover 124 health-care centres and initiatives based on submitted proposals. (cbc.ca) (kitchener.citynews.ca) Benjamin Hesch, chief executive of the Woolwich Community Health Centre, said nearly 80,000 people in Waterloo Region are without a primary care provider. He said the expansion will help teams reach patients who need extra help getting care. (cbc.ca) CityNews reported the local rollout includes plans to expand service in Woolwich and Wellesley and to open a clinic in Wilmot. Harris also said Low German-speaking Mennonite residents in Woolwich, Wilmot and Wellesley could benefit from the added capacity. (kitchener.citynews.ca) The Waterloo announcement is one piece of Ontario’s Primary Care Action Plan, launched in January 2025 with a goal of connecting every Ontarian to a publicly funded primary care clinician or team by 2029. The province says the 2026 budget adds $325 million, bringing the four-year plan to $3.4 billion. (ontario.ca) (news.ontario.ca) Ontario says it has already attached about 330,000 people to ongoing primary care, above its 2025-26 target of 300,000. The province also says it has reduced the Health Care Connect wait-list, as measured from January 1, 2025, by more than 87 per cent. (ontario.ca) (news.ontario.ca) For Waterloo Region, the province’s pitch is straightforward: move thousands of residents from no regular provider to a consistent point of care, and do it through existing local teams rather than a single new clinic. The next test is whether the new slots actually reduce the region’s large pool of unattached patients. (cbc.ca) (ontario.ca)
