Council approves plan to attract primary care providers to Ottawa

Council today approved a Primary Care Provider Recruitment and Retention Strategy to attract more family doctors and other primary care providers to Ottawa.

The strategy outlines 10 actions the City will take, including creating a new primary care recruitment and retention ambassador position. The ambassador will work with health care professionals, health care organizations and the Province to build a plan to attract and keep medical professionals in Ottawa. The City will join the Eastern Ontario Physician Recruitment Alliance to access their recruitment resources and will work to promote Ottawa as a great place for healthcare professionals to live and work.

The City will also:

• Encourage more non-profit medical clinics
• Work with local Ontario Health Teams to help physicians establish or expand their practice
• Collaborate with Ottawa Public Health to improve equitable access to primary care
• Work with non-profit organizations to better support primary care services
• Advocate to the Province to remove the five-year ban on international medical graduates and the three-year ban on foreign trained doctors for Ottawa, especially for francophone professionals and in rural settings

To ensure all resident have access, the City needs about 270 new primary care providers, not including those retiring soon.

Council approved a new business licensing regime for hardscaping contractors to address frequent issues with non-compliant work on private property, such as unauthorized driveway expansions, excessive paving, and dumping on public property.

Licensing will help protect consumers by ensuring contractors who install or modify driveways, interlock, walkways and patios must obtain a business licence and comply with City by-laws. They must carry insurance, provide written contracts and share a plain-language guide outlining City regulations. These measures will ensure accountability for contractors and help prevent situations where residents are forced to fix landscaping work that does not follow City rules. The new rules will take effect on March 1, 2026.

Council received the 2024 annual report on Ottawa’s 9-1-1 call answer function. The report shows that 91 per cent of calls were answered within six seconds. Call volumes decreased for the first time in four years, down 6.6 per cent from 2023, which saw higher call volumes due to a temporary software glitch affecting mobile devices, triggering a surge in accidental 9-1-1 call during that year. Residents continue to benefit from the inter-city call transfer service that enables them to request emergency help for loved ones in other jurisdictions across North America. This service is used 75 to 80 times per month. The City is also making progress on upgrading to the Next Generation 9-1-1 system, which will improve emergency communications and service reliability in the future.

• Agenda