Ontario Expanding Learn and Stay Grant to Train More Family Doctors in Ontario

Our government is breaking down barriers for Ontario students to become family doctors by expanding the Learn and Stay grant to include family medicine.

We’re training more family doctors than ever before, helping them live, learn and stay in Ontario, and we’re helping Ontarians support and remain in their communities by prioritizing them for medical school seats in Ontario schools.

Starting in 2026, the government is investing an estimated $88 million over three yeas to expand Learn and Stay grants for 1,360 eligible undergraduate students that commit to practice family medicine with a full roster of patients once they graduate.

It is estimated the total investment will enable the connection of an additional 1.36 million people to primary care, and is the next step in our plan to connect every person to primary care, no matter where they live.

Since it was first introduced in 2023, the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant has helped nearly 7,500 students begin training in priority nursing, paramedicine and medical lab technology programs. Now, we’re taking the grant to the next level – supporting Ontario’s future family doctors so they can provide world-class health care to the people of Ontario.

Starting in fall 2026, new legislative and regulatory changes will, if passed, also require all Ontario medical schools to allocate at least 95 per cent of all undergraduate medical school seats to residents of Ontario, with the other five per cent reserved for students from the rest of Canada.

Our government is continuing to take bold and innovative action ensure Ontario has a strong physician workforce now and for years to come.

Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to support the province’s highly-skilled workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care where and when they need it, closer to home.