Premier Doug Ford met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Queen’s Park on Tuesday to discuss the current pressures on the health care system, as well as housing, labour market shortages, immigration, and other shared priorities.
The premier and prime minister spoke about the current state of health care in Ontario and across the country, and the strains on health systems that have been heightened by the pandemic. They agreed on the importance of continuing to work closely as governments, as well as with our partners on the front line, to implement innovative solutions to problems that have been decades in the making.
The premier raised the need for the federal government to work together with provinces on ensuring the long-term sustainability and accessibility of high-quality health care services for all Canadians and asked for a First Minister’s meeting to be held as soon as possible.
The leaders discussed solutions to tackle the housing crisis, including Ontario’s progress on building 1.5 million homes over 10 years. Recent actions taken include giving municipalities the tools to speed up housing construction and leveraging surplus provincial lands. They agreed that all three levels of government must work together to do what they can to get more homes built faster.
The two leaders also discussed Ontario’s desire to welcome more economic and skilled immigrants to the province and the premier raised that removing barriers to immigration would significantly help Ontario respond to current labour and workforce shortages, including in the health care sector.
The premier and prime minster also discussed the recent passage of the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, and the economic growth resulting from the production of electric vehicles (EV) and batteries in Ontario. Ontario is making incredible strides toward becoming a reliable global supplier of responsibly sourced critical materials and building an end-to-end EV supply chain in the province. Both leaders agreed to continue to discuss critical minerals and collaborate on ways to support Ontario’s auto-manufacturing sector and the hardworking men and women who make it the success that it is.
Both leaders agreed to continue working together on delivering for the people of Ontario.