Social Policy in Ontario

Hospitals get $1.1B infusion from Ford government as critics warn it’s not enough

Posted on March 28, 2026 in Health Delivery System

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Rob Ferguson

TheStar.com – Provincial Politics
March 26, 2026.   By Rob Ferguson, Queen’s Park Bureau

Ontario’s public hospitals are getting a $1.1-billion boost in Thursday’s budgetamid warnings the extra money will barely cover deficits as they struggle to improve patient wait times.

The four per cent increase from Premier Doug Ford’s government raises the total provincial funding for hospitals to $28.9 billion at a time when the Ontario Hospital Association says costs are rising at a faster rate.

Putting the system on a sound financial footing would require a cash infusion of $2.7 billion, OHA president Anthony Dale said recently, while acknowledging pressures on the province make that unlikely.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he must be cautious with the provincial purse in a world buffeted by wars over trade and territory.

He called the extra money “substantive.”

“We’ve always been there to fund our hospitals,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters, noting hospital funding is up 55 per cent over eight years under Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

“What I need them to do is to make sure that every penny we’re giving them goes to the front-line health-care workers … for the benefit of patients.”

Bethlenfalvy’s projected deficit for the fiscal year beginning April 1 has almost doubled to $13.8 billion — the highest since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition parties predicted the situation in hospitals will only get worse.

“We would have liked to have seen real investment,” said New Democrat MPP Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale), her party’s finance critic.

“Next year, if you go walking into a hospital, you’re going to see the same issue that you’re seeing this year — hallway medicine, overcrowding, emergency rooms being closed.”

Providing just one year of funding is not good enough and raises questions about how operating money for new hospitals now under construction or renovation will be provided, said interim Liberal Leader John Fraser.

“What’s the point of building something if the thing inside it doesn’t work?”

Dale sounded an alarm during the government’s pre-budget consultations over the winter, pressing for “stable, multi-year funding.”

“Many hospitals are grappling with significant challenges. Many are projecting year-end deficits, have eroded their working capital and in the absence of certainty about their revenues, cannot plan for the future,” he said.

“Costs for the sector have been rising by about six per cent per year, primarily due to Ontario’s growing population, its aging population and inflation, in general,” he added.

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“In recent years, the sector has received annual increases of approximately four per cent, leaving the sector with a persistent and deepening structural deficit of approximately $1 billion.”

The problem is unfunded beds and “outdated funding rates” that cannot be offset solely by cost-cutting and other efficiencies, and that means “there are no easy choices ahead,” Dale cautioned.

Hospitals may have no choice but to consolidate services, which could negatively affect patient care, including non-core inpatient services and cuts to core services.

A year ago, the province tasked hospitals with developing three-year plans and doing low-risk cost-cutting, such as not filling some vacant positions and allowing registered practical nurses to do work previously done by registered nurses.

“The Ford government isn’t even supplying hospitals with the bare minimum they need to meet payroll and to provide the care that Ontarians need and deserve,” said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/hospitals-get-11b-infusion-from-ford-government-as-critics-warn-its-not-enough/article_8c180c27-fbb0-426c-a8ab-926bec8c2a08.html

Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction

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