On June 5, 2025, the Government of Ontario passed the Primary Care Act, a framework of six ambitious, patient-centred objectives for Ontario’s publicly funded primary care system.
The objectives are clearly based on MAP’s OurCare Standard—six statements that describe what every person in Canada should expect from our primary care system.
“To call this historic is an understatement,” said MAP scientist, OurCare lead and U of T Fidani Chair Dr. Tara Kiran.
This legislation will make Ontario the first Canadian jurisdiction to establish a framework to improve its primary care system. The Minister is now required to prepare an annual report describing how the Government of Ontario is working to achieve the Act’s objectives.
About OurCare: In 2023, MAP led the largest-ever public consultation on primary health care, collecting input and ideas from close to 10,000 people across Canada. In 2024, we distilled what we heard into the groundbreaking OurCare Standard: six simple statements that describe what every patient in Canada should be able to expect from primary care. The Standard represents a concrete and achievable vision and a new benchmark for assessing the quality of primary care in Canada. This national initiative was made possible through generous support from Staples Canada (Even the Odds), Max Bell Foundation and Health Canada.
