Toronto, ON – Ontario’s doctors have a new four-year Physician Services Agreement with the provincial government that boosts compensation and introduces long-awaited pay for administrative work performed by family physicians. Both the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the Ministry of Health say the deal is designed to improve access to care, strengthen recruitment, and stabilize Ontario’s primary health system.
An arbitrator awarded Ontario doctors a nearly 10 per cent compensation increase for the first year of the agreement earlier this year. The latest decision grants an additional 7.3 per cent increase over the remaining three years, along with targeted top-ups for specific groups, including doctors at children’s hospitals.
The agreement also includes significant investments to incentivize physicians to take on new patients and improve after-hours care, addressing the growing need for primary care access in Ontario.
OMA President Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman welcomed the deal, calling it a turning point for family medicine. “We had a lot of people who were questioning or hesitating really committing to setting up a full family practice, and now seeing this model, we’re hoping that they will see that this is something that is financially viable,” said Abdurrahman. “Compensation has been lagging, and because of that, we were getting people who were not setting up practice because they said, ‘This isn’t financially viable. I can’t run an office. How am I going to pay all my staff if I’m not adequately compensated?’”
A key feature of the updated Family Health Organization model is dedicated pay for administrative work — a long-standing demand of family physicians who have argued that unpaid paperwork has contributed to burnout and physician shortages. The OMA says the new model will provide better compensation for managing complex patients and help recruit and retain doctors, particularly in underserved communities.
The Ministry of Health also noted that Ontario leads Canada in primary care attachment rates but acknowledged the challenge of the estimated 2.5 million residents who remain without a family doctor. As part of the agreement, Ontario has committed to continuing programs that stabilize physician staffing in rural emergency departments and direct additional funding toward underserved regions.