Making Sure Every Canadian Has Access to a Family Doctor or Primary Health Team

August 23, 2021

Canadians are proud to have one of the best health care systems in the world — a universal, public system that proved to be invaluable during our fight against COVID-19.

A re-elected Liberal government will continue to work with provinces and territories to build a stronger health care system for everyone. We will:

• Invest $10B to eliminate waitlists — that’s $6B in new funding on top of $4B already committed in budget 2021;
• Invest $3B to hire 7,500 family doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners over four years; and
• Expand virtual health care services to give you flexibility.

And, to recruit more health professionals in rural and remote regions, we will:

• Increase student loan forgiveness for an expanded list of health professionals (to include dentists, pharmacists, social workers, mental health practitioners and more) who choose to work in rural communities, and
• Create a tax incentive to make it easier to set up a health practice in these communities.

This means $14B in new investments, on top of the $9B over 5 years that a re-elected government will commit to deliver better care for Canada’s seniors.