Ontario hospital funds to cover daily expenses have dropped by $2.2 billion in the last six years, shows a new report by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), a part of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The report, released on Tuesday, highlights how costs for hospitals have risen by six per cent per year.
OCHU leaders decried Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s plan to only increase hospital funding by 3.3 per cent in 2026/27 while costs continue to grow. The result has been hospitals needing to borrow money to pay their operating costs.
“Hospitals need six per cent annual increases simply to maintain services,” said OCHU president Michael Hurley in a press release. “The Ford government has cut hospital budgets in real terms, year after year, resulting in a loss of beds and staff in the face of significant utilization pressures from an aging population.”
The loss of operating funds have pushed hospitals into crisis as they cut staff to try and recoup the loss. Understaffing only worsens the quality of care as workers grapple with increasing hospital visits and longer stays. OCHU wrote that the increase in hospitalizations and the lengthening time of stay adds up to about two million extra hospital inpatient days.
The union said underfunded hospitals cannot accommodate these needs fully so hallway healthcare doubled despite Premier Ford’s campaign promise to end the practice. Staffing cuts are expected to only continue.
In July, CUPE members at Ottawa’s Queensway-Carleton hospital and St. Joseph’s
Hamilton received news of job cuts. In the same month, workers at the Scarborough Health Network held a rally to protest the chronic understaffing in hospitals.
“Funding cuts are driving the staffing crisis facing Ontario hospitals,” said Hurley. “We’ve seen emergency rooms across the province regularly forced to close, and wait times everywhere are continuing to rise. Patients are suffering. It’s unacceptable.”
The Ontario government said they are taking action to expand and modernize the province’s hospitals. On Tuesday, the government announced that they have started construction on the Scarborough Health Network’s new emergency department at Centenary Hospital. The project is also receiving provincial support amounting to $82 million.
Overall, the government has plans to invest over $281 million in 2026-27 to support infrastructure upgrades and repairs at 126 hospitals and 67 community health-care facilities.
“Our government is making historic investments to protect Ontario’s health-care system, ensuring that more people in Scarborough can connect to the care they need, where and when they need it,” Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, said in a government release. “With construction starting on Centenary Hospital’s new and expanded emergency department, we are taking an important step forward in connecting more people and their families in Scarborough to the world-class emergency care they need and deserve, for generations to come.”
READ MORE: Care is infrastructure
OCHU said investment in infrastructure is not enough if there isn’t enough staff to keep these buildings running.
“Expanding the emergency department won’t fix wait-times if staffing remains unaddressed,” said Stacy James, president of CUPE 5852, the local representing workers affected by the new department. “Lack of resources and staff shortages are creating unsafe conditions for workers and patients alike. Staff are mentally and physically exhausted from carrying the load. We need to invest in fixing these issues before building new infrastructure.”
CUPE said the solution to the crisis in hospitals is to keep them public and sufficiently funded. It is calling for a $5 billion in funding for the hospital sector to address the lack of capacity and multi-year funding and a halt to privatization.
“Privatization is not the solution,” Hurley said. “The research is clear, when we privatize services not only does the level of care suffer, but we’re paying much more for longer wait-times, further delays to treatment and reduced access for everyone but the most wealthy.”
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