Events

Conservation Halton is paving the way for residents to strengthen their physical and mental health, through a new collaboration with Canada’s national nature prescription program, PaRx.

Starting today, people issued a PaRx nature prescription can access Conservation Halton Parks for ten (10) free visits. This collaboration will empower residents to reap the health benefits of spending time in nature. Visitors can fulfil their nature prescriptions through activities like scenic trail hikes, wildlife spotting and nature photography.

“This partnership with PaRx provides greater access to nature and creates pathways to better health and a deeper connection with our environment” says Chandra Sharma, President & CEO, Conservation Halton. “This initiative exemplifies our dual commitment to ecological preservation and community well-being.”

PaRx, an initiative of BC Parks Foundation, equips healthcare providers with a powerful tool: nature prescriptions for preventative and therapeutic care. Supported by a significant body of evidence, time spent connecting with nature has been shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes.

Halton Healthcare is proud to be the first hospital system in Canada to partner with PaRx, furthering its commitment to innovative, nature-based health solutions available close to home. Through this partnership, primary care physicians are also connected to the PaRx initiative through the Connected Care Halton Ontario Health Team (CCHOHT), expanding access to nature prescriptions across the region.

Healthcare providers across Halton Region are encouraged to join the PaRx program to begin issuing nature prescriptions.  By participating, they become part of a growing movement that harnesses the power of nature as a therapeutic tool, benefiting patients while promoting conservation and environmental stewardship.

“Spending more time in nature has health benefits like improving mental health, lowering blood pressure and even extending life expectancy,” says Dr. Stephen Chin, Interim Vice President, Medical Affairs at Halton Healthcare. “The partnership between PaRx and Conservation Halton allows health professionals to prescribe an effective remedy to our patients. Nature prescriptions offer an accessible and sustainable way to improve the health of our community and is a wonderful complement to the care we provide.”

This summer, Adam van Koeverden, Member of Parliament for Milton, introduced Conservation Halton and BC Parks Foundation’s PaRx program to Halton region. MP van Koeverden is a steadfast advocate for the outdoors, health and well-being, and he fully endorses the initiative.

“This collaboration is a game-changer for our community,” says van Koeverden. “It encourages outdoor activity, fosters a connection with nature, promotes physical health, and nurtures mental resilience and environmental stewardship.”

Conservation Halton joins a growing movement of support for Canada’s national nature prescription program. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority became the first Conservation Authority to partner with PaRx. Building on this momentum, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority hosted a ‘Park Prescription (PaRx) Day’ at Scanlon Creek inviting dozens of families to connect with the outdoors for their health.

Conservation Halton has been connecting the community to nature for over 60 years with eight unique parks to explore in the region. Visitors can choose their own adventure to help ignite a greater love for the outdoors. Whether that means a quiet hike in the woods, a peaceful walk along the boardwalk around an internationally recognized meromictic lake, exploring a new trail on foot or on bike to a breathtaking waterfall, saying hello to furry and feathered friends  in our barn or Raptor Centre, or taking in the expansive beauty of the lookouts along the Niagara Escarpment, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

For more information, please contact:

Jennie McCaffrey
VP of Health and Education, BC Parks Foundation
jennie.mccaffrey@bcparksfoundation.ca, 778-222-5543

Shelly Datseris
Manager of Communications & Marketing, Conservation Halton
sdatseris@hrca.on.ca or 905-208-0030

Lea Batara       
Coordinator, Communications and Public Affairs, Halton Healthcare
lbatara01@haltonhealthcare.com

About BC Parks Foundation:

BC Parks Foundation, the official charitable partner to BC Parks, is on a mission to create the greatest system of parks and Indigenous protected areas in the world. Our programs promote both the health benefits of nature and nature stewardship, inspiring and empowering people in BC to enjoy and protect parks and Indigenous protected areas so that they flourish for now, for all, forever.

About Conservation Halton:

Conservation Halton is a community-based environmental agency that works to protect, restore, and manage the natural resources in the Halton Region. The agency provides opportunities for people to connect with nature through parks, conservation areas, and educational programs, fostering an appreciation and understanding of our natural environment.

About Halton Healthcare:

Halton Healthcare: Halton Healthcare is a healthcare organization comprised of three community hospitals – Georgetown Hospital, Milton District Hospital and Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Together these hospitals, along with their community locations, provide healthcare services to nearly 400,000 residents in the communities of Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville. Halton Healthcare hospitals have been recognized for their best practices in a number of patient safety and patient care initiatives.

TORONTO — Today, the Ontario government launched the first call for proposals to create and expand up to 80 primary care teams that will connect 300,000 more people to a family doctor and primary care team this year, bringing the province one step closer to connecting everyone in Ontario to primary care by 2029.

“Through our government’s record investments in primary care, Ontario has achieved the highest rate of access to a regular health care provider in the country,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “To continue to build on this progress, we are taking the next step to connect 300,000 more people to primary care this year– bringing us one step closer to our goal of connecting every person in the province to primary care.”

The province is investing $213 million to support the first call for proposals that will create or expand up to 80 primary care teams. This funding is part of the more than $1.8 billion the Ontario government is investing to add 305 new primary care teams across the province, connecting two million more people to publicly funded primary care within four years.

This first call is targeted to communities, by postal code, that have the highest number of people not connected to primary care, averaging 8,000 people unattached per postal code. This is an important step in the government’s action plan to build a primary care system that automatically offers every person in Ontario the opportunity to have a family doctor or primary care team based on postal code no matter where they live.

This approach will attach everyone currently on the Health Care Connect waitlist (as of January 1, 2025) to a primary care team over the next year. As part of their application, prospective teams will have to demonstrate how they will connect the maximum number of people living within their identified postal codes to primary care. The government expects to select and announce successful teams in summer 2025, as well as launch a second call for proposals in September 2025.

To support targeted strategies to recruit and retain the workforce needed to deliver high-quality care, Ontario is also investing an additional $22 million to support all existing primary care teams to help them meet increased operational costs for their facilities and supplies. The province will continue to look at additional ways teams can successfully support, and retain, their workforce.

“Together we are building a primary care system that is comprehensive, convenient, and connected for every single person in Ontario,” said Dr. Jane Philpott. “In communities across Ontario, your primary care team will be your entry to care, where you will have a team of health professionals led by a family doctor or nurse practitioner to provide the care and services you need, when you need it, in a timely way.”

Ontario’s Primary Care Action Team, led by Dr. Jane Philpott, will implement its action plan by building on the government’s historic investment of more than $1.8 billion to expand access to primary care and draw on best-in-class models of care from across the province to close the gap for the remaining 10 per cent of people in the province in need of primary care by 2029. Interprofessional primary care teams are made up of a family physician or nurse practitioner and other health care professionals such as nurses, physician assistants, social workers, dieticians and more.

Through Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government continues to take bold and decisive action to grow the province’s highly skilled health care workforce and ensure people and their families have access to high-quality care closer to home for generations to come.

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Quick Facts

• The government’s plan will close the gap for the remaining 10 percent of people not connected to a primary care provider by attaching approximately two million people to primary care by 2029.
• The first call for proposals will open today, April 10, 2025, and close on May 2, 2025. Prospective primary care teams will be notified of funding decisions in summer 2025.
• Primary care practices and clinicians should work with their Ontario Health Team and their Primary Care Network to submit a proposal.
• Applications are focused on creating or expanding one of the existing team based models: family health teams, community health centres, nurse practitioner-led clinics, and Indigenous primary health care organizations.
• To ensure Ontario Health Teams and their Primary Care Networks can support primary care teams and clinicians, like family doctors and nurse practitioners, to attach everyone within their identified postal codes over time, the government is investing an additional $37 million in Ontario Health Teams.
• Through the Your Health plan, Ontario invested $110 million in primary care teams across the province, helping to connect 328,000 more people to primary care close to home.
• Ontario has also opened two new medical schools and increased the number of medical school seats at existing medical schools to add 340 undergraduate seats and 551 postgraduate seats.
• Since 2018, the province has added nearly 100,000 new nurses and over 15,000 new physicians to the healthcare system.