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The Ontario government is investing $100 million in 2026/27 to expand access to publicly funded fertility services as part of the Ontario Fertility Program (OFP).

This next phase in the province’s $250 million investment is intended to shorten wait times and help more families access fertility treatment in hospital and community settings. The funds will support 27 clinics across Ontario that provide in vitro fertilization (IVF) services to 10,000 families. Two of the IVF clinics are new.

This investment builds on the government’s initial $50 million investment in 2025/2026 and will help clinics deliver an estimated 10,000 additional IVF cycles in 2026/2027. A further $100 million will be invested in 2027/28.

Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s deputy premier and minister of health, made the announcement at Astra Fertility, a new clinic that will provide IVF services to 350 Ontarians. In addition to Astra, the province is funding Halton Fertility and Women’s Health Centre, helping to expand access to publicly funded IVF services for 255 new families in Oakville.

With this OFP expansion, the program now supports 56 Ontario clinics that provide publicly funded fertility services, including IVF, intrauterine insemination, and fertility preservation. The province will be requiring all publicly funded fertility clinics in the OFP to be accredited by Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum Global program by April 1, 2028, to ensure consistent quality standards across the province.

Increased Need for IVF Services

“There’s no role more special or important than being a parent, which is why our government is shortening wait times by making fertility care more accessible for thousands of Ontarians. This investment will help more Ontarians receive publicly funded IVF services where and when they need them while protecting the OFP,” Jones said in a statement.

“Until now, IVF services have been concentrated in large urban areas like Toronto, but we're trying to expand them to other locations that don't have access,” Amanda Michael, MD, medical director of Astra Women’s Health and Ambulatory Surgery Centre and an obstetrician-gynecologist in Brampton, Ontario, told Medscape News Canada. “This funding will help to reduce wait times and will cut down on travel time and expenses associated with having to miss work. 

“Patients in Brampton sometimes have to travel to Toronto for treatment, which is a big commitment because IVF requires multiple appointments in a week,” Michael continued. “The average treatment wait time is 12 to 24 months. If you're 38 or 39 years old, waiting 2 years has a significant impact on the success and results of these procedures. We’re hoping that having access sooner and closer to home will improve outcomes.” 

The level of demand for IVF services in Ontario is high. Roughly 130,000 Ontarians have accessed the fertility program so far. Experts are hoping to triple that number with this expansion of services. But even this new funding isn’t likely to satisfy the demand, according to Michael. “Fertility [challenges] affect 1 in 6 couples due, in part, to delayed childbearing, which has become increasingly common. Once the time comes when people want to start a family, it’s often not as easy as they think it's going to be. Also, there are more single women and LGBTQ+ families accessing fertility care,” she noted.

“Importantly, this isn’t just about increasing volume but also about strengthening a distributed network of high-quality care,” Marjorie Dixon, MD, founder, CEO, and medical director of Anova Fertility in Toronto, told Medscape News Canada. “IVF now accounts for roughly 3% of all births in Ontario, nearly double what it was a decade ago. At the same time, more than 18,000 patients remain on wait lists. The combination of rising need, growing utilization, and long delays makes it clear that this isn’t a demand issue, it’s a capacity issue. Expanding access is essential to meeting a real, time-sensitive need in what remains a significantly underserved area. It creates a more equitable system where access to care isn’t determined by geography.”

Reducing Emotional Strain 

IVF treatment has a mental health component, and couples often spend years trying to conceive, Michael emphasized. “Hopefully, this will make a huge improvement for women in reducing their emotional strain,” she said.

Improving access to publicly funded IVF produces significant cost savings, which may be why the government started funding IVF cycles in 2015, according to Michael. Previously, people would transfer multiple embryos at one time, which would result in higher levels of multiple pregnancies. With twins or triplets, costs escalate as the result of NICU stays and the complications that can arise with preterm deliveries. The new program mandates a single embryo transfer each time, which will help to minimize multiple pregnancies, improve pregnancy outcomes, and reduce NICU stays, which also reduces costs, she said.

Michael and Dixon reported having no relevant financial relationships. 

Evra Taylor is a widely published freelance medical writer and reporter with 20 years’ experience covering a broad range of therapeutic sectors, including family health, cardiology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, and dermatology.