Lake of Bays renews funding for Healthcare Recruitment Program

The municipality committed to fund the program until 2028

Lake of Bays Council agreed to renew funding for a Health Human Resources (HHR) Task Force, in the July 8, 2025, meeting.

According to the Muskoka Almaguin Ontario Health Team (MAOHT), health service providers, hospital foundations, the District of Muskoka and area municipalities initially funded the HHR program for primary care recruitment for three years, however, it expires this December.

The MAOHT requested support to continue the recruitment program because of the shortage of primary care practitioners in the area and the success of the Task Force.

Patient service concerns include 13,000 people on the waitlist for south Muskoka, 9,000 for north Muskoka, and 1,325 for Health Care Connect, according to their report.

It adds that success in 2024-25 includes “15 new family physicians and nurse practitioners joined practices with MAOHT.”

They added that successes include hospital programs north and south of Muskoka being fully staffed until November, developing international candidates, updated marketing, and community tours for candidates.

According to MAOHT, upper-level government “announced investments of $1.85 billion over the next 5 years to create new and expanded primary care teams through the work of Dr. Jane Philpott and the Primary Care Action Team (PCAT).”

They add that Ontario Health Teams are mandated to a Primary Care Network to organize local sector for primary care and engage them in planning and implementing priorities.

They said the focus of the MAOHT will be action, such as marketing and recruitment fairs, engagement, and collaboration.

The funding support from Lake of Bays for 2025 is $5,000, and the MAOHT requested another 3-year extension for the same amount from 2026 to 2028.

MAOHT said, “It provides us stability over time, and it also allows us to kind of plan ahead and put areas of focus.”

Mayor, Terry Glover, indicated that he’s been working on this issue at the District level as well. He said, “It was terrifying at first. So, it’s looking much better.”

He added, “For our $5,000 I’m very comfortable with where I believe we’re headed.”

He expressed that he was “surprised” that Muskoka Lakes and Georgian Bay are not on the list. However, in District meetings he’s heard it expressed that health services are a “provincial problem.” He said, “It does affect all of us.”

He also emphasized that retention is “extremely important” for consideration once care givers are recruited and said, “we look forward to your future successes.”

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