Annual General Meeting

I won't give up.

It's huge. It means we're going to have good policy and make things work for everyone.

By increasing our differences, we enrich our shared purpose.

These are really things that all parties could support to improve the health care of Ontarians.

All of you are here because you're willing to help continue this advocacy work and to advocate for change.

We know what can help the health-care system.

Together, we will turn our solutions into better health care for patients.

Hello everyone, I am Doctor Rebecca Hicks. I am a proud physician and I am excited to be your new OMA president.

I want to start tonight by acknowledging the incredible talent that has come before me, most recently Doctor Zainab Abdurrahman. Your mentorship and leadership has been a beacon for all of us, and this year she and I represent the first back-to-back women presidents in 145 years of OMA's history. Zainab, I am honoured to share this first with you. Thank you.

Thank you also to my family and friends who have supported me in my journey here. Thanks Mom, for being here tonight to support me. And thanks Dad, although I lost you too soon, I know you would have been here if you could. It is from my loved ones that I learned to fight for what I believe in, and it is they that I call when life gets hard.

And I know that every single member in our organization knows what it feels like when things get hard because that is the nature of our work, to care for people at their worst moments. And because of this, my biggest thank you tonight is to all of you, the doctors of Ontario. I will work hard every day to be worthy of the trust that you have placed in me.

Tonight, I want to spend some time explaining how I ended up on this stage because I did not go into medicine expecting to be a leader and I didn't expect to run for OMA president. When I finished my residency, I thought I had finally reached my finish line. I was going to be a community-based family doctor.

But I realized quickly that our health-care system wasn't working for patients or doctors. I was getting frustrated and burnt out and so I had to ask myself what am I going to do about it? And I felt that I had two choices. I could buckle down, stay in practice for as long as I could, or I could channel my energy into making things better. And I chose option number 2, and that's how I started on my leadership journey.

Being a part of the fight for change has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I dove in head first, and over the last several years I have had the privilege of working locally, regionally, and provincially to advocate for doctors both inside and outside of the OMA. I've approached my president-elect year as my second residency, doing everything that I can to understand the needs of our members in preparation for being your president. I will advocate fiercely for your needs.

Each president at the OMA brings their experience and their personality to the role, and as a family doctor I will bring my experience as a generalist. If there is a member concern, I am here to listen. No chief complaint is off the table. I will bring my love of communication and community. I am here to listen to you and to connect with you. While my role as the president is to speak on behalf of the association and the profession, please know I am acutely aware that it is not my voice that is speaking, it is the collective voice of our 50, 000 members.

And this year as president, I want to focus on three important ideas, ensuring that our members feel valued by their association, increasing physician engagement at the OMA, and making a continued concrete commitment to physician wellness.

I have a vision of the OMA as an organization where every member feels seen and valued, and where each member can feel heard, both about their concerns and their proposed solutions, and where members see and feel value in being engaged in every single step of physician advocacy.

And we need that engagement more than ever because patients are getting older and more complex, and health care as a public issue of concern is fighting for relevance in a world where cost of living and economic threats are taking up more space than ever. With the development of AI, we now live in a time where health care could look completely different in 10 years. And as an association, we need to rise to this challenge co-designing health-care solutions with patients and with government.

When I talk about us as doctors being engaged, I'm not suggesting that everyone needs to put their name forward to be board directors or president of the OMA. There are many ways for us to get involved at the association, such as our district-based events, section-based advocacy, or staying informed through OMA News. Any little bit helps.

And my job as president is to meet doctors where you are at. I know how busy you all are and I know that there are members, thousands of us, who have not had much, if any, interaction with the association. My job is to seek out those members across specialties and across the province to better understand your concerns and to bring value from the OMA made directly to you.

Physician wellness is another of my top priorities this year as president. According to the 2025 National Physician Health Survey, almost 50 per cent of Canadian doctors are experiencing not only burnout, but high levels of burnout. We are exposed to challenging, and if we're being honest, traumatic situations in our job and we are asked to consider our patients' health and their concerns above our own. This is noble, and it is also unsustainable.

This year, I want to champion a reclamation of our humanity as doctors. We are people, we have limits, and we need to build those boundaries into our health-care system. We have to prioritize caring for the caregivers or our system will falter.

It is not selfish to care for yourself. I know that when I reach out for help, I am not just taking care of myself, I am also taking care of my family, my friends, and my patients.

Now that I've shared with you my priorities for the year, I also want to address some of the challenges that our membership and our organization face. And as such, I want to acknowledge that there are members here tonight and across the province who may not feel represented by the OMA.

To anyone who feels that the organization is missing the mark, please know that I did not sign up to lead because I thought everything was going perfectly. I signed up to do my part in moving the OMA towards a future where doctors of all specialties are valued and supported.

We have incredible diversity in our profession. Our organization has over 50, 000 members and 49 different sections, and that means we will not always agree. But this is not just a challenge, it is a strength because diversity of thought and opposing forces can strengthen our advocacy. Like opposing threads that weave together into a fabric that is stronger than its individual parts. And my job as president is to listen to each thread and to help strengthen their connections by bringing member ideas back to the organization.

To any member who does not have faith in what we can accomplish as a membership, I'm not asking you to change your mind tonight, but I am going to ask you to stay engaged in the conversation because each opposing thread strengthens our fabric unless we remove ourselves from the collective weave. We can use respectful, constructive debate to strengthen our advocacy and affect real change in our health-care system.

It is going to be slower than we want and each step we take is going to feel smaller than we would like it to be, but each time we are able to move that needle, we are improving things for doctors and patients in Ontario.

And we are making progress. The recent Physician Services Agreement was a step forward in ensuring that doctors are fairly paid in Ontario, and this year will be about ensuring that those items agreed to are implemented as smoothly as possible. Because we need physicians to see increased funding to their practices and we need to see increased funding to much needed areas of medicine, such as our northern rural communities, emergency medicine and family medicine.

What we as doctors seek to change is not easy, and as is often the case in health care, the things that are most worth doing are the things that it takes the longest and most effort to achieve. The changes that we need to make in our health-care system are not simple asks that will be quick to implement, but they do bring meaning to the lives of Ontario's doctors and patients, and they are worth fighting for, even when there's no end date on the books.

So in closing tonight, I care deeply about the success of Ontario's doctors. I am all in, and I also know that I cannot do it alone. With your engagement, we can continue to take meaningful steps forward as a profession. I am honoured to work with this organization and its staff to serve you, the members.

I look forward to hearing from you. I look forward to working with you towards a shared goal of a health-care system that cares for us all, patients and doctors alike. Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy, and good evening. I'm Kimberly Moran. I'm the very proud CEO of the Ontario Medical Association and I'm thrilled to be here to celebrate the year behind us and look to the future. And that celebration really began last week with Doctors' Day, an annual opportunity to recognize and appreciate all that you do.

Last year, I stood up here and made some commitments to you. I said we were going to fight to get you the deal you deserve and that we'd work to make it easier to practise medicine. Well, Ontario's doctors had a good year.

You received a landmark Physician Services Agreement delivering a 20. 2 per cent compounded compensation increase, the strongest result in decades. We delivered the largest investment in family medicine in more than a decade and the largest investment in emergency medicine in over 20 years.

We also– we also just announced a transformative result with a new burden-based on-call program and we got louder on issues that matter to you most. More importantly, we achieved these wins working side by side with physician leaders telling us what we need to focus on.

Much of our accomplishments were possible because of the close collaboration between the board, physician leaders, staff, OMA Insurance, the Ontario Medical Foundation and OntarioMD, all working collaboratively together.

Now we've made progress on many fronts, but we're not taking our foot off the gas, not even for a minute. You're still on the front-lines of a healthcare system that doesn't always work as well as it should for you and your patients. I feel hopeful and positive that we can and will make substantive change both in physician working conditions and the health-care system.

Looking ahead, your association is stronger and more effective than ever as we fight for what matters to you. We remain committed to holding the government accountable for implementing the Physician Services Agreement on time and to fulfill its promise of connecting every Ontarian to a family physician, and to continue fighting to fix OHIP.

These are just a few examples of our priorities. Working together, we'll address the challenges you and your colleagues face. It's my great privilege to represent you as the CEO of your association. Thank you for your continued trust and engagement.

Good evening everyone. As I prepared to speak with you today, I did something that I don't recommend to anyone. I went back and I watched my own inauguration speech. As I listened, what struck me the most was this. The presidency doesn't change who you are, it actually reveals it.

This role is not easy. The hours are relentless, the issues are complex, and the stakes are high. But every challenge strengthened my resolve and I hope made me a better advocate and a better leader for all of you.

At my inauguration I spoke about the focus on three areas, three priority areas: physician wellness, digital innovation led by physicians, and a strong advocacy system to advocate for a system that respects our work.

First, we must protect physician well-being from training into practice and through retirement. We cannot pour from an empty cup.

I'll be honest, this presidency came at the right moment for me when I needed to pay attention to some signs of burnout in my own clinical practice. That's why I'm so proud of what we've done and what we've elevated with our physician health program. We've made it clear that it is wide reaching, it's confidential, and it's for all of us. If you've ever had this thought, my struggle isn't serious enough to ask for help. I want you to hear this from me as your president. This program is here for you.

PHP supports physician well-being, burnout, and the hard transitions we have in our careers. We've created space for honest conversations. We've talked about shame in medicine, identities and the realities that we carry home after our difficult days.

Second, digital innovation. We've seen what happens when technology is built without physicians. It's clunky, it just adds steps, and it just takes time away. It steals time. This year we've moved from thinking and talking about digital health to shaping it.

The goal isn't technology for technology sake. The goal is to give physicians back our most precious commodity, time.

And third, we must advocate for a health-care system that values and respects physicians. As I said last year, everyone of us is a specialist. Whether your specialty is family medicine, pediatrics or thoracic surgery, our training, our judgment and our accountability matter. We're not providers. We don't have clients. We are physicians and our patients deserve a system that respects what that means.

And the strongest advocacy starts with listening, really listening, listening to the realities of practice across Ontario. So, thank you. Thank you to all of you who opened up your doors to your clinics, your homes, your hospitals, and your communities to me.

My goal is to spend time in places that often feel overlooked. The smaller communities, the smaller hospitals, and the voices that don't always feel like they have a place at the table. From Sioux Lookout to Leamington to Palmerston, thank you for trusting me with your stories. If you remember anything about my presidency, I hope it is this. I came to hear your concerns and I took your stories, I carried them with me into the boardrooms, into all the meetings with government, and to every place where I had the privilege to speak on your behalf.

Finally, I truly and deeply believe that we are all leaders. Everyone of us is a leader. Our association depends on physicians who are willing to put up their hands, and that means the section chairs, the district leaders, committee members, department heads, and yes, future presidents.

We cannot rely on the same people forever, and we shouldn't have to. So, I'm asking you to look around and ask yourself, who are we mentoring? Who are we inviting in? And if you're quietly wondering, could I lead? Is this the space for me? Let me tell you plainly, you already do. There are no imposters here.

And as we look ahead, I'm proud to pass on the baton. Doctor Hicks has spent this past year learning, listening and shadowing. She's been preparing with care and intention. She comes into this role as I did, supported by an extraordinary community of past presidents who never hesitate to take a call. They're always happy to offer perspective and always there to challenge us to think even bigger for physicians.

To my family, thank you. Thank you for your patience and your steadiness and your constant support of my leadership professionally and personally, and for always coming. To my friends and colleagues, thank you for your counsel and your kindness and for your trust.

And to the Board, the Chair, our entire OMA staff and our CEO, thank you for the expertise and the dedication and the heart that you bring to this work each and every day. It has truly been my privilege to be the 144th President of the Ontario Medical Association.

In the words of Obama, mic drop, Zainab out. Thank you so much.

Good evening. It's a pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Ontario Medical Association Board of Directors to all of you joining us in person and online to our Annual General Meeting. It's especially very meaningful to gather in the nation's capital of Ottawa and I wish to thank the leadership and the members of District 8 for your warm hospitality.

The Ontario Medical Association acknowledges that we are meeting on the traditional and unseated territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation. We are recognizing the enduring presence and contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, and we also acknowledge that the health system has not always served Indigenous communities with equity, safety or respect. Reconciliation is an ongoing responsibility. It requires more than acknowledgement. It requires sustained action, partnership and accountability over time.

Across this country, the profession is engaging in that work in a more visible and coordinated way. This was reflected in the Canadian Medical Association's formal apology to First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, an important step in acknowledging both the history and the responsibility that we carry as a profession. The Ontario Medical Association was part of that moment, alongside physician leaders from across the country. Moments like that matter, but they also translate and need to be translated into change about how we care and how we deliver that care, and how Indigenous voices are included in shaping the system. The OMA Board is committed to ensuring that this work is embedded within the organization's priorities and advanced in a way that's both meaningful and accountable.

This annual General Meeting is core part of our governance process. It's where members come together to receive reports, to confirm leadership and to make decisions to help shape the direction of the organization. My role this evening is to represent the Board in that governance capacity and to support a process that is fair, structured and grounded in our bylaws.

Our Annual Board Report is available online with a one-page summary for ease of review on all of your table tops and based on feedback from members following last year's AGM, we've structured this meeting as a focused two-hour session. Given the number of member proposals before us this evening, the agenda has been designed to ensure that all required business can be addressed within that time frame. And as a result, we will not be holding the traditional open microphone Q&A during tonight's meeting.

We recognize that members will have broader questions and perspectives, and we want to ensure that there's dedicated space for that dialogue. We will therefore be hosting an event called OMA Live on May 13th and I would strongly encourage all members to register and to participate. That session is intended to support broader engagement and discussion with members This evening, questions and discussion will be focused on the business before us at this meeting. In addition, any questions submitted through the Q&A function this evening will be reviewed and responses will be shared in the post-AGM summary distributed through OMA communications.

Over the past several years, the board has been focused on strengthening how we govern. That work began with the governance transformation in 2020, which reshaped our organization. We moved from what was known as General Counsel to the General Assembly and the Physician Leadership Group, bringing together physician leaders from across sections, districts, fora and MID groups, medical interest groups. The board also changed from a representational board to a skills-based board inclusive of three public members.

What followed was not simply change on paper, but the work of implementation and refinement. We inherited a new governance structure and the responsibility to make it function in practice. That's taken time. It has included clarifying rules, strengthening accountability, and improving transparency in how decisions are made, alongside ongoing internal and independent external reviews. It's also meant completing functional elements of that model, including adjusting committee structures in the OMA and modernizing the honoraria that recognized physician contributions, including travel time and child care.

That work has required discipline over time and it continues. And alongside that, there's been a deliberate focus on leadership sustainability, strengthening vice chair rules and building capability in areas such as tariff leadership, negotiations, financial literacy, with further work ahead in structured development for governance and meeting leadership. You will see that that governance modernization is reflected in this meeting too. We've introduced an independent procedural chair to guide the formal business of the AGM and to ensure a consistent and neutral process.

So this evening all of our members will be asked to approve the agenda, to approve the minutes of the 2025 annual AGM, to confirm the appointment of the auditors, and you're also going to be asked for the first time to ratify the election of three directors conducted through a ranked ballot process in accordance with the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act. In addition, we will consider several member driven proposals. These are important matters. They relate directly to how this organization functions and how physicians are represented.

And you're going to hear differing perspectives. And that's what's expected in a membership of this size and complexity, and it's an important part of thoughtful decision making. I would ask that we approach the discussion with respect for one another, with attention to process, and with a shared commitment to hearing perspectives that may differ from our own. Our responsibility this evening is not to all agree on everything, but to ensure that decisions are made through a process that's fair, considered and grounded in our bylaws.

Those bylaws require that significant governance decisions be informed by consultation with the membership through the General Assembly, so that decisions are informed not by individual experiences and opinions alone, but by the collective perspective of members across this province. This work is not always easy, and it's not happening in an easy time for our profession. But it matters because how we govern this organization directly shapes how we represent, how we support and how we advocate for all physicians across this province. And we are stronger when the work is done together through your engagement, through your leadership, and through the collective voice of the membership.

As many of you know, this is my final general meeting as Board Chair. It's been a privilege to serve in this role for the past four years, and I leave this role with optimism.

I leave it with optimism because of the strength of this membership, because of the depth of the physician leadership across this province, and because of our ability to work constructively with government and system partners to influence the health system. And because this organization continues to evolve, it continues to find new ways to support its members, to innovate and to respond to what physicians need in a changing system. And because of the leadership across this organization, the more than 600 physicians who lead within the OMA at the board level and through our CEO, Kim Moran, and staff. And because of the shared commitment that I see again and again to the patients that we serve and to one another as colleagues, this is what gives the organization its strength.

And this is what I will carry forward and it's what you will carry forward. And with that, I'm now going to turn to our CEO, Kimberly Moran, to say a few words. Thank you.