Even more students expected for Brampton’s new medical school

By

Published March 31, 2023 at 10:37 am

Toronto metropolitan university TMU

With the province announcing on Thursday that it’s adding hundreds of new medical school seats in Ontario, the looming question is how many Brampton will get.

The city is the future home of a new medical school for the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), formerly Ryerson University.

The school could open as soon as 2025 at the Bramalea Civic Centre, and was initially set to receive 80 undergraduate seats and some 95 postgraduate positions.

When asked how many more seats the school will get from the province, Brampton MPP Graham McGregor couldn’t confirm an exact number but expects it will be “a significant chunk.”

“That’s still being determined through a needs-based assessment with all the various medical schools, but we feel very good about Brampton’s competitive position,” said McGregor.

“They have a good space there at the Bramalea Civic Centre, so we expect to get a good amount of these seats.”

The MPP for Brampton North believes the new school will help build up the city’s healthcare system by giving more medical students access to “world-class post-secondary education.”

The school’s new location at the centre is forcing the popular Chinguacousy branch library to relocate, a move that has upset some Brampton residents — but McGregor believes the trade-off is well worth it.

“This medical school is a historic landmark for Brampton,” he said. “We haven’t had a new medical school come into the GTA in over a hundred years, and we’re getting one right here in Brampton where we need the support, we need more doctors. Putting the Brampton school of medicine at the Bramalea Civic Centre was absolutely the right idea.”

He says the location of the centre and its easy access to transit will make it an attractive spot for medical students, even those outside of Brampton, to come study.

On Wednesday, the Brampton Library announced a temporary new home for the Chinguacousy branch library at the Mount Chinguacousy ski chalet, but the smaller space — around one-third the room of the current branch — means not all features and amenities will make it into the new building.

Premier Doug Ford visited Hamilton’s McMaster University on Thursday to announce $33 million in funding over three years to add 100 more undergraduate medical school seats and another 154 postgraduate medical training seats, which will be prioritized for Ontario residents.

He says the funding is to ensure less Ontario students have to leave the province to study medicine.

“One of the things I hear all the time from families is that a lot of students are being forced to leave the province for medical school […] because they can’t find a residency spot right here in Ontario,” said Ford. “Meanwhile, students from other countries are learning here, but then they return home after that. I find that unacceptable.”

The funding is part of the new provincial budget, which is doling out more than $15 billion over the next three years for healthcare, including an $850 million increase in funding to hospitals – a four per cent boost in base funding – plus $200 million to address healthcare staffing shortages across the entire system.

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising