This provincial election, think of your someone.

Before you vote—before you mark that X—stop.


Think of your someone.

The friend who’s struggling but says they’re fine. The family member who can’t seem to catch a break. The neighbour you don’t see much anymore. The person you lost too soon.

Every dollar invested in mental health saves two dollars in long-term costs. But this isn’t just about the numbers—it’s about the people behind them.

So before you vote—before you decide Ontario’s future—think of your someone. Vote for the candidate who will fight for them. Vote for the policies that could save their life. Vote like it matters. Because everyone is someone’s someone.

Ontario’s health budget last year was over $71 billion, with only three per cent going to community mental health and addictions.

Know the facts.

See what each party has promised in terms of mental health and addictions.

Check back often – this list will be updated as the election unfolds.

Mental health
Ontario Liberal Party
  • Introduce universal mental healthcare under OHIP by expanding the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program.
  • Hire more social workers.
  • Define basic mental healthcare coverage under OHIP.
  • Deliver accessible mental health services for children, youth and teenagers.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Implement the $3.8 billion Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System announced in 2020 to improve mental health services for communities across Ontario.
Ontario New Democratic Party
  • Fund universal mental health care and increase funding to community mental health and addictions providers (Canadian Mental Health Association, Addictions & Mental Health Ontario).
  • Establish wage parity for health care workers in community settings so they can also offer mental health support.
  • Committed to having one mental health professional in every school in the province.
  • Clear the waitlist of 28,000 children and youth waiting for mental health care.
Green Party of Ontario
  • Cover mental health and addiction care for all under OHIP.
  • Increase base funding for community mental health services.
  • Raise wages for community mental health workers to match sector standards.
  • Integrate mental health and addiction services into expanded Family Health Teams and walk-in clinics for early intervention.
  • Provide virtual care options in rural and remote areas.
  • Implement a wait time reduction strategy with public reporting.
  • Reduce wait times for children’s and youth mental health services to 30 days or less.
  • Expand Youth Wellness Hubs province-wide.
  • Ensure mental health supports for first responders.
Ontario Liberal Party
  • Ensure every Ontarian has access to a family doctor by recruiting, retaining, and integrating 3,100 family doctors by 2029.
  • Establish two new medical schools and expand current ones, doubling medical school spots and residency positions.
  • Fast-track 1,200 internationally trained doctors through Practice Ready Ontario over four years.
  • Incentivize family doctors to work in rural/northern communities and mentor new doctors.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Invest $1.8 billion to connect every person in Ontario to a family doctor and primary care by 2029.
  • Train and hire more health-care workers.
  • Open new medical schools and expand existing medical schools for doctors and nurses.
  • Continue to invest to help address immediate health-care staffing needs.
  • Continue to invest $50 billion in more than 50 hospital construction or expansion projects across Ontario.
Ontario New Democratic Party 
  • Guarantee every Ontarian a family doctor with 3,500 new doctors, easier access for internationally trained doctors, and a focus on northern Ontario.
  • Hire 15,000 nurses with safe staffing ratios.
  • Build 9 new hospitals, including in Brantford, Scarborough, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Fort Erie.
Green Party of Ontario
  • Recruit 3,500 more doctors in Ontario through more medical school positions and more residency opportunities for international medical graduates.
  • Ensure every person has a primary care provider within 3-4 years.
Ontario Liberal Party
  • Provide wraparound support for addiction recovery.
  • Reduce opioid deaths by expanding treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation.
  • Establish CARE Fund to double investment in Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Ban on drug consumption sites within 200m of schools and child-care centres; no new sites or “safer” supply initiatives allowed.
  • Invest $530 million to create 27 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs across the province to support people struggling with addiction and mental health issues by focusing on addiction recovery.
  • Enable direct-to-consumer alcohol sales with all willing provinces and territories.
  • Remove minimum retail price of alcohol and freeze beer tax.
Ontario New Democratic Party 
  • Follow the advice of experts and use evidence-based harm reduction strategies to address the opioid epidemic.
  • Fund the addition of detox beds and residential treatment beds.
Green Party of Ontario
  • Address substance use with a health and human rights framework, not criminal justice.
  • Reopen and expand safe consumption and treatment sites, focusing on high-opioid death areas like the North.
  • Integrate paid peer support workers into substance use programming.
  • Invest in 24/7 mobile crisis response teams and rapid access addiction clinics.
  • Increase access to publicly funded treatment beds.
  • Increase investment in Youth Wellness Hubs for support in employment, health, addiction, education, recreation, and housing.
Ontario Liberal Party
  • Connect people to mental health resources and community support by establishing the CARE Fund (Crisis Assistance and Response Enhancement Fund) to double investment in Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking; landlords liable for knowingly hosting drug production/trafficking sites.
  • $75.5M for enforcement tools to address homeless encampments and illegal drug use in parks/public spaces, with a focus on housing and temporary accommodations.
  • Enact new authorities to identify and confiscate pill presses, precursor chemicals and lab equipment if law enforcement determines that the intent is to produce fentanyl.
  • Safer Municipalities Act: Increased penalties for trespassing in illegal encampments and a ban on illegal drug use in public spaces.
  • Increased addictions treatment units in jails, including as a condition of probation.
Ontario New Democratic Party
  • Increase pay and hire more court staff to extend courtroom hours.
  • Repair, reopen, or build new courthouses in underserved areas.
  • Fund Legal Aid Ontario for greater access to legal assistance.
  • Recognize Intimate Partner Violence as an epidemic and improve survivor services.
  • Restore the full Victims Compensation Fund.
  • Create Anti-Racism Councils to advocate for racialized communities and address key issues like Islamophobia, antisemitism, and cultural diversity.
Green Party of Ontario
  • Invest in emergency mental health supports including crisis centres and outreach workers, and have social workers in emergency rooms during peak hours to divert their needs.
Ontario Liberal Party
  • Build supportive housing units with mental health/addictions support.
  • Bring rent control laws to newer buildings while still resetting rents between tenants.
  • Speed up the Landlord Tenant Board process and offer short-term, interest-free loans to vulnerable tenants facing eviction.
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs will include supportive housing solutions.
  • $2 billion investment to build millions of new homes across the province.
Ontario New Democratic Party 
  • Build, acquire, or repair 300,000 permanently affordable homes.
  • Create 60,000 new supportive housing units, allowing people living in encampments or the shelter system to move into a safe, permanent home, while connecting them to mental health care, addiction treatment and other ongoing supports.
  • Implement vacancy control to limit the amount a landlord can increase rent between tenants and close the loophole that excludes units occupied after 2018 from rent control.
  • Upload cost of housing, emergency shelters, and homelessness prevention programs.
Green Party of Ontario
  • Provide immediate support for people in encampments until permanent housing is available.
  • Build 250,000 affordable non-profit and co-op homes, plus 60,000 permanent supportive homes with mental health and addiction support.
  • Use a Housing First model prioritizing stable, permanent housing.
  • Include those with lived experience in program development.
  • Boost funding for women’s shelters, safe transitional housing, and culturally appropriate options.
  • Reinstate rent controls and implement vacancy control to limit rent increases.
  • Renew 305,000 community housing units and create a capital repair program.

Raise your voice: Swipe for questions to ask your candidate:

“How are you helping Ontarians struggling with mental health and addictions challenges?
“How are you working to protect community mental health and addictions workers from burnout so that I can get the best care possible?”
“Will you commit to building more supportive housing just as you commit to building more affordable housing?”
“What is your party’s plan to recruit and retain mental health and addictions workers who are second only to nurses for reporting burnout?"

The current provincial funding model is ineffective for the crisis at hand.

The community-based mental health and addictions sector is an integral part of Ontario’s healthcare infrastructure. We are an essential service requiring adequate funding and resources so the broader health system can operate efficiently and effectively. Yet our sector has received only one base budget increase in the last 11 years. In the face of double-digit inflation and rising cost of living, this lack of funding has resulted in a workforce that is crumbling, overworked and burned out. The elevated urgency, complexity, and severity of our clients’ needs has become nearly impossible to manage with our current inadequate funding.

Read our pre-budget submission

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Someone’s Someone is a campaign by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Ontario, intended to raise awareness and increase empathy and understanding toward people who use substances or are living with addiction.

Learn more about CMHA and its Ontario network at ontario.cmha.ca

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