As the economy continues to change, many people are facing mounting pressures, making it harder to care for themselves and their families. To help address these challenges, the government is investing more in the care and services that people across the province rely on, easing the pressures families are facing and giving them every opportunity to care for their loved ones and get ahead.

More Child Care, More Choice

Providing more affordable quality child care for families by making preschool child care free for children aged two-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten, saving a family with one child $17,000, on average, building on the savings families get from full-day kindergarten.

Reducing Drug and Dental Costs

Introducing a new Ontario Drug and Dental Program, reimbursing 80 per cent, up to a maximum of $400 per single person, $600 per couple and $700 for a family of four with two children, of eligible prescription drug and dental expenses each year, for those without workplace health benefits or not covered by OHIP+ or other government programs.

Free Prescriptions 65+

Making prescriptions completely free for everyone 65 and over, ensuring that no senior citizen ever needs to go without necessary drugs. By eliminating the Ontario Drug Benefit annual deductible and co-pay, this saves the average Ontario senior $240 per year.

How we’re helping families get the care they need, when they need it

Ontario is:

  • Providing more affordable quality child care for families by making preschool child care free for children aged two-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten. This saves a family with one child $17,000, on average, and builds on the savings families get from full-day kindergarten.
  • Introducing a new Ontario Drug and Dental Program, reimbursing 80 per cent, up to a maximum of $400 per single person, $600 per couple and $700 for a family of four with two children, of eligible prescription drug and dental expenses each year, for those without workplace health benefits or not covered by OHIP+ or other government programs.
  • Introducing the new Seniors’ Healthy Home Program. This recognizes the costs associated with older seniors living at home, where they want to be. It provides a benefit of up to $750 annually for eligible households led by seniors 75 and over to help them live independently and offset the costs of maintaining their homes.
  • Providing better and faster access to mental health and addictions services for hundreds of thousands more children, young people and adults across Ontario — bringing the total funding to more than $17 billion over four years.
  • Increasing the amount of daily care each person in a long-term care home receives to an average of four hours.
  • Creating 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next 10 years — adding 5,000 new beds by 2022 — to help people who can no longer live independently and provide peace of mind for people who care for them. These new beds are in addition to the 30,000 existing beds being redeveloped.
  • Improving care for 14,000 people newly diagnosed with dementia, regardless of where they live.
  • Investing approximately $19  billion over 10 years to build and renovate hospitals, including up to $2.4  billion for the design and construction of SickKids’ new Patient Care Centre and up to $1.8 billion for the design and construction of The Ottawa Hospital's Civic Campus redevelopment.
  • Reducing wait times, addressing capacity issues and better meeting the needs of Ontario’s growing and aging population through an additional $822-million investment in Ontario’s hospitals in 2018–19 — the largest single government investment in hospitals in almost a decade.
  • Building a fair society by investing $1.8 billion to strengthen services for about 47,000 adults with developmental disabilities through an approach that enables informed choices and active participation in the community.
  • Supporting people accessing social assistance by investing an additional $2.3 billion over the next three years to increase rates, reduce complex rules and streamline the system to better support those who need it.
Updated: April 11, 2019
Published: March 28, 2018