July 25th Weekly Update

Ontario Reducing Wait Times in Emergency Departments

The Ontario government is investing an additional $44 million this year in 165 high volume and smaller emergency departments to reduce wait times and provide people with faster and easier access to timely care close to home.

This funding is in addition to the $90 million Ontario invests each year to reward emergency departments that put in place innovative solutions to reduce ED wait times including hiring additional health care staff, accessing more transportation to help transfer medically stable patients out of emergency departments, and creating new beds.

Hospitals have the flexibility to decide how to spend this funding on local solutions that will help people receive care faster and reduce their length of stay in an emergency department. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this annual funding helped emergency departments connect people to care sooner by decreasing the average time spent in emergency departments by 12.2 per cent.

To continue building on this success, Ontario is investing an additional $29 million this year to 75 high volume emergency departments across the province to increase their capacity to help more patients and reduce the amount of time people have to wait to access care.

An additional $15 million will also expand the number of smaller hospitals now eligible to receive this funding. This will help support up to 90 hospitals across the province that provide emergency care to fewer than 30,000 patients a year, so they can hire and retain the staff they need to keep their emergency departments open.

This consistent and stable funding increase will also allow pediatric hospitals to make significant increases to staffing to ensure they have the people and resources needed to prevent backlogs and improve access to care.

“Our record investments are making it easier and faster for Ontarians of all ages to connect to the care they need closer to home,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Increasing our investments for pediatric services will ensure children and youth in Ontario can depend on a strong health care system that is there for them now and in the future.”

Some examples of the over 100 initiatives across the province include:

• hiring more pediatric surgical staff to increase the number of additional day surgeries and increase access to diagnostic imaging for children;
• increasing the number of people that can be seen, triaged and cared for on-site in emergency departments by investing in rapid access clinics that people can access instead of going to emergency departments during respiratory illness season;
• reducing wait times for children and youth to connect to mental health services in hospitals and community settings, including indigenous youth mental health programs and adding eight new youth wellness hubs to the 14 that are already operating in communities across Ontario to help fill the gap in youth addictions services and deliver a range of other services, such as vocational support, education services, housing and recreation and wellness;
• increasing access to both psychosocial supports for kids with cancer and eating disorder programs in hospitals and community settings, and expanding intensive live-in treatment programs for children with complex mental health issues; and
• implementing an immunization catch-up program for children and youth in Eastern Ontario with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Public Health.

This investment includes up to $45 million from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services for children’s rehabilitation services, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language services. The additional funding will also help providers hire and retain more staff to reduce wait times to give children and families more timely access to clinical assessments, early intervention and school-based rehabilitation for children with special needs.

The Ontario government is investing $2.6 million in four free training projects to help more than 300 newcomers, including displaced Afghans and Ukrainians, find meaningful jobs with local employers. Ontario welcomes more immigrants than any other province each year, and research has shown that helping internationally-trained newcomers work in the professions they studied for could increase Ontario’s GDP by up to $100 billion over the next five years.

Led by Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, Matthew House Ottawa, Toronto Artscape, and UTIMUS, the programs announced today will prepare jobseekers for well-paying careers in manufacturing, finance, administration, communications, hospitality and the arts. Participants will have the chance to explore a range of employment and training options through paid internships, job placements, language training and digital literacy courses.

Jobseekers will also have access to help with resume writing, improving interview skills, and other tailored support to help them find and retain long-term employment. Training – including for Afghan and Ukrainian arrivals – will be delivered in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and online and will match participants’ skills with the needs of businesses hiring in their communities.

The projects are funded through the government’s Skills Development Fund, an over $700 million initiative, which supports ground-breaking programs that connect jobseekers with the skills and training they need to find well-paying careers close to home. For more information on how to register, contact one of the participating organizations.

The Ontario government is investing $6 million to support 30 multi-year projects to help protect, conserve and restore the Great Lakes. These investments will help reduce plastic litter, excess nutrients and road salt entering lakes, rivers and streams, advance climate resiliency, and make significant progress on restoring environmentally degraded areas of the Great Lakes.

The projects are led by community groups, not-for profits, conservation authorities, universities and Indigenous organizations and communities across the province and support commitments in the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health and Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy.

Some of the organizations receiving funding include:

• Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority, which received $65,000 to work with area farmers to reduce excess nutrients from agricultural lands. Kaiser Lake Farms in Greater Napanee is one of the farms taking action on their land to help improve water quality and help restore the Bay of Quinte Area of Concern.
• Quinte Conservation Association, which received $162,791 to reduce nuisance algae and manage phosphorus in the Bay of Quinte Area of Concern. The project will also monitor and maintain the area’s water quality, fish and wildlife habitat while identifying emerging threats such as invasive species and climate change.
• St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, which received $402,187 for projects that will continue monitoring mercury in fish, sediment and industrial sites to make sure clean-up actions in the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern were effective and support the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne to study the health of Lake Sturgeon and Eel.
• Raisin Region Conservation Authority, which received $140,000 to develop and implement an agricultural land stewardship program and facilitate an outreach and education program to improve water quality within the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern.
• Governing Council of the University of Toronto, which received $610,416 to assess Great Lakes water quality (quantifying nutrients loadings, chlorides, microplastics discharges and tire compounds), evaluate drinking water treatment processes and assess practices that reduce excess nutrients and nutrient runoff from agricultural lands to the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Program funding is also going to Chiefs of Ontario, Anishinabek Nation and Métis Nation of Ontario as well as 11 First Nations and Métis communities which will lead projects to support commitments in the latest Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health and Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy.

Funding for the Great Lakes Program is part of the Ontario government’s $14 million in annual investments to further protect, conserve and restore the health of the Great Lakes and support the well-being of communities that rely on them.