The Ontario government says it will bar international students from attending the province's medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026.

Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday at least 95 per cent of medical school spots will be reserved for residents of Ontario, while the remaining five per cent will be for students from elsewhere in Canada.

The change will only represent a small shift in enrolment, as roughly 88 per cent of all medical school spots in Ontario are already held by residents of the province, a health ministry official said.

The provincial government is also expanding a program that covers tuition and other educational costs to include students who commit to practising family medicine in Ontario with a "full roster of patients."

The grant program is expected to cost $88 million and be extended to 1,360 eligible undergraduate students. It will allow some 1.36 million more Ontarians to have access to a family doctor, according to Jones.

There are currently about 2.5 million people in the province without a family doctor, the Ontario Medical Association says. That number is expected to nearly double in coming years.