KINGSTON — The city is asking the provincial government to declare access to primary care a crisis in Ontario and act to address the issue in its upcoming budget.
The request was part of the city’s five-point “get back to the basics” budget pitch Monday afternoon.
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Addressing the ailing health-care system, support for small business and money for infrastructure top Kingston’s wish list for the upcoming provincial budget.
“Municipalities are resilient front-line administrators, partners, public health experts, housing developers, mental health and addictions advocates, health-care contributors, problem solvers, innovators and more,” Mayor Bryan Paterson said in a news release. “However, we can’t continue to take on responsibilities for other levels of government — to use limited municipal dollars into areas of provincial and federal jurisdictions like health care.”
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The pitch asked the provincial government to declare access to primary care a crisis in Ontario and act to fix the failing mental health and addictions continuum of care and lack of treatment, build resilient and strong downtowns to support our small businesses, invest in the necessary water and wastewater infrastructure to support provincial housing targets and commit to a new municipal social and fiscal relationship.
About 30,000 Kingston residents are without a family doctor, something described as a “critical tipping point for the community.”
“We know this is a big issue in Ontario because we’re seeing it in almost every community,” Paterson added. “So we’re asking the province to fund more medical school spaces, train more physicians, change the billing model to incentivize primary care practices, reduce duplication in the system, remove barriers to primary care practices, create more nurse practitioner-led clinics with more prescription capabilities.”
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At the same time, city councillors have been frustrated in the past couple of years by having to spend municipal money on programs and services that are provincial responsibilities.
On Tuesday, city council is to consider its latest effort to recruit more family doctors to the city and assist those already practising here.
Last month, city council passed a motion calling for a restructuring of the way municipalities are funded.
Absent from this year’s pitch was a direct request for more money for housing.
“Housing continues to be a critical priority for Kingston and the city has been fortunate to see some funding progress on this front with the recent announcement of $27.6 million from the Federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) and over $6 million for three projects under the federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI),” Paterson’s office said in a statement. “The city also surpassed its 2023 provincial housing starts targets — producing 1,131 housing starts in 2023, past our provincially set goal of 800. This means we will qualify for provincial funding under the Building Faster Fund.”
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