Ontario to bar international students from medical schools starting in 2026
Posted October 25, 2024 12:05 pm.
Last Updated October 25, 2024 1:48 pm.
The Ontario government says it will allocate the vast majority of medical school seats to residents in the province with the remaining reserved for other Canadians, barring international students.
The announcement was made by Premier Doug Ford on Friday along with a number of measures they say will help close the gap of people who don’t have access to a regular health-care provider.
The legislation, if passed, will require Ontario medicals schools to allocate at least 95 per cent of spots to Ontarians and the other five per cent reserved for students from the rest of Canada.
It also included an estimated $88 million over three years, starting in 2026, to expand Learn and Stay grants for 1,360 eligible undergraduate students who commit to practice family medicine.
As of July 2024, there are now 2.5 million people in Ontario who don’t have a family doctor, the Ontario College of Family Physicians has said.
“We’re training more family doctors than ever before, helping them live, learn and stay in Ontario, and we’re helping Ontario students support and remain in our province by prioritizing them for medical school seats in Ontario schools,” said Ford in a release.
The government also plans on reviewing the visa trainee program, which trains international students sponsored by foreign governments.
When asked if she was worried about closing off the talent pool to international students, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said they are putting Ontario students first.
“We know through our data that when students train, practice and learn in the province of Ontario, they stay,” said Jones. Northern Ontario
She said data from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, shows if you train in Northern Ontario, you have a much higher chance and percentage of students who continue to practice in the north.
“We want to bring that talent back to Ontario … We still have a small pathway for Canadian students because we also understand our responsibility as the leading province … but we are going to prioritize Ontario residents, because those are our taxpayers that are paying those students to go to school.”
Ontario is also opening two new medical schools at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University and has expanded medical school seats, adding more than 260 undergraduate and 449 residency spots.
