Last Friday in Listowel, MPP Matthew Rae from Perth-Wellington and MPP Lisa Thompson from Huron-Bruce announced a significant funding of $4.3 million for the Huron Perth and Area Ontario Health Team.
According to Rae, this funding will enhance access to essential healthcare resources for more residents in the region.
“It’s gonna help over 10,000 people get access to primary care in the communities they live in, and it will benefit communities across Huron and Perth counties. The Town of St. Marys, Stratford, Mitchell and Listowel in particular on my side, and then obviously a bunch on the Huron side for Minister Thompson,” Rae explained.
The announcement took place at the Fisher Family Primary Care Centre in Listowel. The funds will be distributed among regional family health teams that form the Huron Perth and Area Health Team. This includes Listowel-Wingham and Area FHT, STAR FHT, Stratford FHT, Huron Community FHT, Maitland Valley FHT, Clinton FHT, Happy Valley FHT, Bluewater Area FHT and Grand Bend Area Community Health Centre and Family Health Organization.
The Listowel-Wingham and Area Family Health team plans to lead efforts in creating more outreach clinics for those without a primary care physician-essentially helping those who currently lack one find coverage.
MPP Thompson highlighted how valuable the leadership from the Listowel-Wingham Family Health Team has been for the area.
“It’s great the collaboration that we see headed up by the Listowel-Wingham Family Health Team across Midwestern Ontario, where they introduced unattached clinics, and they’ve been highly successful,” Thompson shared.
This funding aligns with the provincial government’s commitment to ensure everyone in Ontario has a primary care physician by 2029.
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson and Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae (middle holding sign) alongside leaders and board members from local family health teams and local dignitaries outside the Fisher Family Primary Care Centre in Listowel Ontario, following a $4.3 million funding announcement for expansion of primary care services in the region. April 17, 2026 (Photo by Ryan Drury)
Robin Spence Haffner, Executive Director of the Listowel-Wingham and Area Family Health Team mentioned that this funding will allow them to broaden their service offerings as well as increase staffing levels.
“What it allows all of the family health teams and all the physicians groups to do is see more patients. So they’re able to attach more patients at local clinics. So it really builds our capacity to get more people attached to teams-based care throughout the entire region,” Spence Haffer said proudly. “We’ve got funding for at least 18 new clinical staff. So that’s everything from nurse practitioners to nurses to social workers to physiotherapists. So really, whatever will help get more people attached (to a physician), so we’re really excited about it.”
Spence Haffner also pointed out that anyone without a primary care doctor can sign up online for assistance finding one.
“So what people need to do is sign up for Health Care Connect. If you just Google it, you can get signed up and you can sign up for it if you don’t have a family doctor or if you do have one but they’re far away,” she pointed out.
Many residents already have family doctors located in cities like Kitchener or London which can make travel challenging-especially for elderly community members.
You can sign up for Health Care Connect here: https://hcc3. hcc. moh. gov. on. ca/HCCWeb/faces/layout HCCReg Splash. xhtml
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