July 17th Weekly Update

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Our government is working hard to deliver on items that matter to Ontarians. In this edition of the Weekly Update, you can also find the latest news on what the province is doing to:

  • Deliver Fast and More Reliable Transit in the GTA 
  • Bolster the Nursing Workforce in Ontario
  • Improve the Lives of Seniors

 

Delivering Fast and Reliable Transit in the GTA

The Ontario government has officially broken ground at Pape Station, marking the start of construction to build a new interchange station connecting the Ontario Line with the TTC’s Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth). The new subway line will deliver better, faster and more reliable transit throughout the Greater Toronto Area, relieving gridlock on roads and the existing transit network.

Construction at Pape Station is now underway with work to build the foundations required for excavations that will ultimately connect the two subway lines. The new station will serve tens of thousands of commuters every day, facilitating more than 9,000 transfers during the morning rush hour alone and reducing crowding on Line 1 (Yonge-University) by 15 per cent and Line 2 by over 20 per cent.

Once complete, the 15.6-kilometre Ontario Line will have 15 stations, running from Exhibition Place through the downtown core and connecting to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The line will offer more than 40 connections to other subway, bus, streetcar and regional train services, bringing 227,500 more people within walking distance of transit and reducing daily car trips by at least 28,000.

 

Bolstering the Nursing Workforce 
The Ontario government is continuing to build a stronger, more resilient health care workforce by investing $10 million to help more than 1,000 nurses upskill their training to provide emergency department care. This will help bolster, stabilize and maintain the nursing workforce in emergency departments across the province, especially in rural and remote hospitals, to connect more people to critical care close to home.

Since its launch last year, over 400 nurses from 72 rural and remote hospitals received this upskill training. Today’s investment enhances the program this year to allow more than 1,000 nurses working in small, rural and remote emergency departments across the province to access four crucial training and education programs:

  • Virtual Training Modules to deliver high-quality, interactive sessions for general ED orientation, core competency skills and more. Over the last year, 847 sessions were attended by nurses from 72 small, rural, and remote hospitals.
  • Immersion Programs that provide multi-day, in-person, skills training to educate new emergency department nurses in small, rural, and remote hospitals. Over the last year, 53 nurses from 26 small, rural, and remote hospitals attended three Immersion Programs and were able to get hands-on upskilling.
  • Specialty Training Fund to provide training education grants to support nurses to complete training courses for core ED nursing skills. Last year over 2,600 courses were funded to break financial barriers for nurses to upskill.
  • Establishment of Regional Educator Program that will increase access to important continuing education and training resources for ED nurses in their region.

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.

The Emergency Department Nursing Education, Retention and Workforce Program is furthering nursing skills in the emergency department to better meet the needs of communities. The program enables access to education, particularly for nurses in small hospitals that do not have ready access to emergency department nurse education and those in remote areas who would otherwise have to travel long distances. Access to the program supports the retention and recruitment of emergency department nurses.

 

Ontario Expanding Seniors Active Living Centres

The Ontario government is expanding access to services and activities for seniors through a call for proposals for new Seniors Active Living Centres (SALC) programs. These programs provide social, cultural, learning, and recreational opportunities for seniors to stay fit, healthy and connected in their communities.

Due to the overwhelming success of the more than 300 Seniors Active Living Centres being delivered by municipalities, new changes to the Seniors Active Living Centres Act, 2017 came into effect June 1, 2024 that enable more types of organizations to deliver Seniors Active Living Centre programs.

The call for proposals is now open to eligible organizations until September 12, 2024, at 5 p.m. In addition to municipalities, other local and community-based organizations such as Legions, Lion’s Clubs, and recreational clubs, are now welcome to apply.

This expansion is in addition to the more than $15 million announced last month to support all current SALC programs across the province, an increase of approximately $1 million from last year. This will result in a majority of SALC programs getting a maintenance and operating funding increase from $42,700 to up to $50,000. Organizations that deliver SALC programming contribute 20 per cent of the cost of delivering the program, with the province providing the remaining 80 per cent.

The Ministry is conducting information webinars for those interested in submitting a call for proposal. If you would like to learn more about the program and how to complete and submit your application, please register for one of the dates below:

 

My constituency office is open Monday to Friday from 10AM to 4PM.
If you have any questions or concerns we’re readily available to assist you. 
You can also reach us by phone at (416) 781-2395
or by email at robin.martin@pc.ola.org.

Warmest Wishes, 
Robin Martin, MPP
Eglinton-Lawrence

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