Ford government to ban foreign students from Ontario medical schools

Premier Doug Ford is planning to prohibit new foreign students in medical schools and offering free tuition to 1,360 Ontarians if they agree to work as doctors in the province for five years after graduating. In a move to tackle , Ford is expanding “learn and stay” grants to family medicine students and reserving 95 per cent of spots in the province’s medical schools for Ontario residents starting in fall 2026. The other five per cent would be for students from the rest of Canada.

Ford said Friday he has long been frustrated that Ontario students had to go elsewhere for medical school because they couldn’t get spots here, with many never returning. “This has been gnawing at me for years,” he said, standing with Health Minister Sylvia Jones in front of Queen’s University students in the family medicine program on a satellite campus at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa. “Ontario students need to come first,” said Jones, who has pledged that At the same time, too many Ontario students are going to medical school schools elsewhere in North America and abroad and staying there.



“They meet someone and never come back home,” said the premier, who maintained the new measures will stem the tide. “If you’re born in Ontario, you’re more likely to stay and practise in Ontario.” But it will be years before the new measures — which include paying for the books and equipment future family doctors — will have an impact because of the long time frame for training physicians.

Nevertheless, Ford hailed the grants as “a game-changer.” Under the grant program, doctors would be able to work anywhere in Ontario. One of the medical students standing behind Ford at the announcement said the financial aid will be “life-changing” because of the high cost of medical school.

The government estimates the medical students accepted for the learn and stay program will eventually be able to serve about 1.36 million patients once they become physicians. Medical students will be able to apply for the grant program for the 2026-27 academic year.

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