MPP Stephen Lecce Connecting 5,000 Maple and Vaughan Residents to Primary Care

VAUGHAN — Today, Stephen Lecce, MPP for King—Vaughan, announced a $2.6 million investment in the Vaughan Community Health Centre, in partnership with the Mount Sinai Academic Family Health Team, to connect up to 5,000 Maple and Vaughan residents to primary care as part of the provincial government’s $2.1 billion Primary Care Action Plan that will help connect 300,000 people to primary care this year.

“After delivering the state-of-the-art Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and announcing the York University School of Medicine – Canada’s first medical school focused on training family doctors – adjacent to the hospital, I am proud to deliver a dedicated Primary Care Team with the mandate to serve nearly 5,000 Maple and Vaughan residents who lack access to essential primary care,” said Stephen Lecce, MPP for King—Vaughan. “This is a key part of our government’s ambitious plan to connect every resident in King and Vaughan to a primary care provider – a top concern in our community. In addition to securing modern primary care access for local families, we are building three-long term care homes with 672 net-new beds across King and Vaughan and have officially opened Vaughan’s first Youth Wellness Hub in the heart of Maple – delivering better healthcare, closer to home for families in King and Vaughan.”

MPP Stephen Lecce delivered $2.6 million to the Vaughan Community Health Centre to provide team-based primary care services for unattached residents living in the L6A (Maple) and surrounding areas in Vaughan. The funding supports access to primary care services for those on the Health Care Connect waitlist and underserved communities such as local Black, racialized, and newcomer communities. The Vaughan Community Health Centre will collaborate with the Western York Region Ontario Health Team and Health Care Connect to establish a process for accepting new patients. Community members can register with Health Care Connect or call Vaughan Community Health Centre.

“The Vaughan Community Health Centre has been providing primary care, chronic disease management and health promotion services to members in the community for the past 16 years,” said LoAn Ta-Young, Executive Director of the Vaughan Community Health Centre. “We are aware that community members who do not have a regular family doctor or nurse practitioner are accessing the hospital emergency department for their urgent primary care needs. With this funding, we are expanding access to team-based primary care services and helping our community members to get the care they need when they need it. Our team is proud to continue to deliver high-quality comprehensive care and contribute to reducing emergency department visits for primary care needs.”

This investment is part of the government’s Primary Care Action Plan that will help connect 300,000 people to primary care this year. The Vaughan Community Health Centre was funded through a recent call for proposals focused on communities—identified by postal code—with the highest number of residents not connected to primary care, including those on the Health Care Connect waitlist. Each successful team has established a plan to attach a high proportion of unattached people in their postal codes and demonstrated readiness to achieve significant progress within a year.

“We are continuing to build on our government’s record investments, which have helped secure Ontario the highest rate of access to a regular health-care provider in the country,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “We are protecting Ontario’s health-care system and people’s access to convenient care by funding new and expanded primary care teams across the province, helping connect everyone in Ontario to a primary care provider.”

This investment is part of the more than $2.1 billion the Ontario government is investing to support the Primary Care Action Plan that will add over 300 new primary care teams across the province. This includes $235 million in 2025-26 that in part is supporting over 130 new and expanded primary care teams across the province.

Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to grow the province’s highly skilled health care workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care closer to home for generations to come.

“In Vaughan, we understand that healthcare is at the heart of city building, and everyone deserves to have access to the high-quality support, services and care they need” said Steven Del Duca, Mayor of the City of Vaughan. This announcement from MPP Stephen Lecce to deliver a dedicated Primary Care Team for our residents is another step toward our shared vision of healthcare excellence in Vaughan. Thank you to Premier Ford, MPP Lecce and the Government of Ontario for continuing to invest in our city and essential primary care.”

QUICK FACTS

• Interprofessional primary care teams connect people to a range of health professionals that work together under one roof, including registered and registered practical nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, and pharmacists, helping patients to receive more connected and convenient care.

• Eligible teams not selected for funding in this round will be encouraged to refine and resubmit their proposals for the next call for proposals, which is expected to launch in September 2025.

• Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, will implement its action plan supported by the government’s historic investment of more than $2.1 billion to connect approximately two million more people to a family physician or primary care team by 2029, which will achieve the government’s goal of connecting everyone in the province to primary care.

• The Ontario Government recently passed the Primary Care Act, 2025., which establishes primary care as the foundation of Ontario’s health-care system and sets out six clear objectives for Ontario’s publicly funded primary care system to ensure people know what they can expect when connecting to primary care.

• In 2024, Ontario invested $110 million in primary care teams across the province, helping to connect 328,000 more people to primary care close to home.

  
  

MEDIA CONTACT                                                                                              

Stephen Lecce, MPP for King—Vaughan

Constituency Office

Tel.: 647-560-9700        

Email: Stephen.Lecce@pc.ola.org