Ontario hospitals say they have $1 billion in funding needs

TORONTO — Ontario hospitals need an additional $1 billion this year to keep pace with factors such as population growth and inflation, leaving them facing pressures far higher than the deficits they faced just at the end of last year, their association says.

Hospitals across the province struggled with deficits, with many of them — small and large, urban and rural — ending the year in the red.

The overall hospital deficit for 2024-25 was $360 million, the Ontario Hospital Association says, down from the initial projection of $706 million, thanks to some year-end revenues including government funding.

But that still left the hospital sector entering 2025-26 saddled with that previous year’s deficit and when adding in this year’s so-far unfunded cost pressures, hospitals need another $1 billion, they say. That’s even when factoring in government funding of up to $1.1 billion announced in the spring budget.

“Hospitals are facing kind of a multitude of complex challenges — financial challenges, operational challenges and pressures…things like inflation, the increased demand for services,” Melissa Prokopy, the OHA’s vice-president of policy and advocacy, said in an interview.

“We have continued to look for efficiencies over the years and in fact are the most efficient province with respect to hospitals, but ways for us to be able to do this, things like carefully managing admissions, thinking about how do we use innovations to shorten length of stay, these can only get us so far.”

The government is set to deliver its fall economic statement, a mini budget of sorts, in the coming weeks. A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones did not divulge if more money will be coming for hospitals.

“Our government continues to work with our hospital partners, including the Ontario Hospital Association, to ensure that all of our hospitals have the tools they need to continue to deliver the high-quality care patients deserve,” Ema Popovic wrote in a statement.

This year saw a four per cent funding increase for the hospital sector, the third year in a row that has happened, Popovic wrote.

Aside from the funding ask, what the hospitals need is more multi-year planning in order to have more predictability and stability for their budgets, Prokopy said.

“The pressures…aren’t new for this year,” she said.

“Many of them are structural in nature, and are years in the making. So I definitely think finding ways to sustain service delivery in the short term, while also planning for the longer term with respect to what we know is to come in terms of the aging population and increased complexity of care is going to be really important.”

Lee Fairclough, the Liberals’ hospitals critic and a former hospital president, said labour costs are the majority of hospital spending, which leaves them little wiggle room.

“What are our other options? Continuing to reduce the quality of the food?” she said in an interview.

“The other options are look for other revenue sources, which is, again, do you keep increasing parking? With most hospitals, that’s not your first choice. We know that that affects patients’ pocketbooks.”

Hospitals are managing as tightly as they can and the government needs to step up with more funding, Fairclough said.

“At a certain point you can’t sort of say to a hospital, ‘You can’t cut service, but you still have to be able to pay for all of this,'” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press