Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: #26, Eric Hoskins
Our annual ranking of the people whose smarts, connections and clout are changing the city as we know it
Eric Hoskins
Queen’s Park
26 The Syrian refugee crisis gave Ontario’s health minister an opportunity to reach into his past. Hoskins, a physician who has worked with refugees in Africa and the Middle East through MSF and War Child Canada (which he co-founded), challenged the feds to sponsor 5,000 refugees by the end of the year. He also advised Kathleen Wynne as she shaped Ontario’s response. The St. Paul’s MPP had his hands full with his $50-billion health ministry, too: he amended a bill in order to protect patients’ medical information and led discussions with his counterparts in other provinces on a national pharmacare program. Hoskins stayed on top of the Ebola and measles scares by expanding training, providing protective equipment to front-line health care staff and developing an Ebola testing lab in Toronto to avoid wasting time sending samples to Winnipeg.
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Damage control. He earned the wrath of Ontario doctors by cutting their billings—which average $368,000—by 2.65 per cent in February and another 1.3 per cent in October to keep the books balanced.
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An earlier version of this article mentioned that Hoskins “earned the wrath of Ontario doctors by cutting their salaries.” Our use of the word “salaries” earned their wrath as well. In fact, it’s their gross billings that average $368,000 per year, not necessarily their take home.
