Coordinate family doctor strategy
Petitioners ask Parliament to work with provinces and territories for a holistic, fair solution to the family doctor shortage. The government responds it is supporting workforce measures, credential recognition, and team-based primary care with provinces.
Why we would sign this petition
- Promotes a coordinated federal–provincial–territorial plan to address the family doctor shortage and improve access for those without a regular provider.
- Targets uneven physician distribution by encouraging policies to support rural recruitment and retention.
- Aims to reduce long clinic wait times through systemic solutions rather than ad hoc local fixes.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Health workforce is mainly a provincial responsibility; federal coordination may have limited authority to compel change.
- Costs and complexity of national solutions could be high, and reforms may take long to show results.
- More targeted local measures—such as clinic funding or incentives—might be more practical than a broad pan‑Canadian plan.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED Whereas: Statistics Canada cites that approximately 4.8 million Canadians do not have a regular doctor; Despite the number of physicians in Canada growing, the number of Canadians without a regular doctor remains stable; 92 per cent of physicians work in urban centres, while just 8 per cent work in rural areas; and, In Victoria and Sidney, B.C., average wait time for a walk-in clinic are 92 and 180 minutes respectively, We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada call upon the House of Commons in Parliament assembled to: Work with all the provinces and territories in Canada to come to a holistic and fair solution to Canada's family doctor shortage
Government response
Response by the Minister of Health Signed by Maggie Chi Primary care is the backbone of high-performing health care, serving as Canadians’ first point of contact with the system and playing a critical role in the delivery of health services. We understand that some Canadians still struggle to secure timely access to a regular primary care provider, whether it is from a doctor, nurse practitioner, or team. Pre-existing challenges facing the health workforce were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic where health care workers bore the brunt of the extreme pressures on the health system, leading to significant levels of stress and burnout, including among primary care providers. These persistent challenges are impacting the care that Canadians receive. While the responsibility for the management of the health workforce falls within provincial and territorial (PT) jurisdiction, the federal government understands that it has a key leadership role to play in supporting solutions to the challenges facing health systems across the country. We are committed to working with provincial and territorial governments to protect and strengthen the publicly funded health care system. On October 17, 2025, federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) Health Ministers met to discuss strengthening the health and well-being of Canadians. Ministers recognized the urgent need to grow and sustain Canada’s health workforce and committed to urgently advancing solutions and removing barriers by engaging with respective immigration counterparts to improve pathways for internationally educated health professionals, accelerating foreign credential recognition, and working with Canadian regulators to adopt mutual licence-recognition models to enhance labour mobility for physicians, nurses, and health professionals across Canada. Our new government is committed to enabling supportive, sustainable environments where health workers can thrive. Recognizing that the conditions of work are the conditions of care, we are advancing efforts focused on retention, workforce planning, and ethical recruitment. Through partnerships and convening, we are building consensus and mobilizing evidence to strengthen Canada’s health workforce and advance innovative models of primary care. For example, our Government is: Supporting the dissemination and implementation of the “Nursing Retention Toolkit: Improving the Working Lives of Nurses in Canada”. Funding Healthcare Excellence Canada, which recently launched its Care Forward initiative, including a Primary Care Access Improvement program. This program helps organizations optimize how primary care teams function so they can provide timely access to care for more people. Published a federal-provincial-territorial (FPT)-endorsed study of the education and training supply and demand for select health care professions, including family physicians, to identify the best pan-Canadian approaches to meet future health care demands for Canadians over the next decade. Funding Health Workforce Canada, which is leading pan-Canadian collaboration on improving health workforce data collection, analysis, and knowledge mobilization to inform planning. Convening key primary care partners, researchers, PTs, experts, and other government departments to drive data and evidence, build consensus, and enable knowledge mobilization on topics such as primary care delivery models, virtual care, nursing, and education and training. The Canada Health Act Services Policy, which comes into effect on April 1, 2026, will further encourage team-based care. The Policy clarifies that patients should not face charges for medically necessary services when provided by a regulated health care provider, if these same services are otherwise covered by a PT health insurance plan when provided by a physician. It recognizes the value of fully integrating nurse practitioners into the health care system and their critical role in responding to the primary care gap for people in Canada without access to a primary care provider. Our new Government is building on work carried out by the previous government that includes important budget commitments in 2023, 2024 and 2025. These commitments include investments that expand access to family health services, reduce backlogs, improve access to quality mental health care, and strengthen training opportunities and accelerate workforce integration for internationally-educated health professionals.