Union members ask for $3.2 billion to clear health-care deficits, multi-year funding commitment

Protesters listen as members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) decry the funding deficits of Ontario’s hospitals.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As snow began to blanket Stratford and area, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) held a rally outside of Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae’s office. Kevin Cook, first vice-president of OCHU-CUPE, said they were there for one simple reason.

“We care,” Cook told the rally members, who numbered just over a dozen. “We care about our patients, we care about our co-workers and we care about the future of public health care.”

More specifically, the Feb. 3 rally was in opposition to media reports that hospitals should expect annual funding increases of two per cent, half of what the sector has received in recent years and a third of what is needed to cover rising costs.

In a mid-January release, Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), warned its members that “there are no easy choices ahead.”

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

As Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, said, the status quo is not enough.

“Six per cent a year just to do what we’re doing now,” he said to gathering members on Feb. 3. “Six per cent keeps 2,000 people on stretchers, 75,000 people waiting for surgeries. We’re saying none of that is good enough. Clear the backlog of surgeries, get people into hospital beds, open the ERs, add staff. That’s what we’re here for.”

OCHU-CUPE is asking the provincial government to add 6,200 staffed beds, an increase of $3.2 billion for core hospital funding to clear deficits and hire additional staff, to increase funding for hospitals at the predicted six per cent annual growth and to institute a multi-year funding commitment.

In response to the rally, MPP Rae said that local health care is a priority.

“Rural hospitals and healthcare workers are essential to keeping our communities safe and healthy, and I continue to support the important work they do,” said Rae in an emailed statement. “Through Budget 2025, Ontario increased base hospital funding by four per cent, and locally, since 2022 we’ve secured more than $181 million in net new healthcare funding for Perth-Wellington. I will continue to advocate for Perth-Wellington’s fair share of provincial healthcare funding.”

The 2026 Ontario budget has not been released and is expected to be tabled this spring. Last year’s budget came mid-May.