A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Ontario’s hospitals are facing mounting pressure as emergency room wait times grow and funding gaps widen.
The study’s author, Andrew Longhurst, says provincial funding has failed to keep pace with rising demand.
“We need the government to step up and recognize the severity of the situation,” Longhurst said.
“The funding coming down from the provincial government has not been adequate to address increases in hospital admissions and emergency room wait times.”
The report found that in 2024-25, up to 90 per cent of patients spent an average of 44 hours in emergency departments awaiting care.
Longhurst adds Kingston Health Sciences Centre has seen significant increases in wait times.
“For Kingston Health Sciences specifically, we’ve seen a 66-per cent increase from 27.7 hours to 37.7 hours waiting in the emergency department,” he said.
The report also found that most Ontario hospitals have been operating deficits since 2022, including about 70 per cent this year. Kingston Health Sciences Centre was not among them.
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Longhurst said the province’s latest budget left a major shortfall in health-care funding.
“The last provincial budget left a gaping hole of $3 billion in funding that is required to just maintain services in the public health care system,” he said.
“At the same time, we’re seeing the provincial government somehow finding the money for private for-profit health care facilities.”
A spokesperson for the minister of health disputes the report.
“The claims made in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ report are misguided. Ontario has one of the largest publicly funded healthcare systems in the world, and our government is investing over $101 billion this year alone, including a four per cent increase in the hospital sector for the fourth consecutive year, to connect people to the care they need when they need it. Since 2018, we have also increased funding for Kingston Health Sciences Centre by over 43 per cent,” they wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“We are proud to have one of the largest healthcare workforces in Canada, adding over 100,000 new nurses and nearly 20,000 new physicians since 2018, some of the shortest wait times for critical procedures, reducing the annual total volume of ED visits by nearly 200,000, with over 83% of people receiving surgery within the clinically recommended times, and the highest primary care attachment rate in the country.”
The report comes nearly a year after KHSC announced plans for a new west-end health care campus to replace the city’s aging downtown hospitals.
The province has not yet announced funding for the project.
Ted Hsu said the report reflects long-standing concerns from within the health care system and highlights the need for long-term planning.
“We really need that space,” Hsu said. “The population has grown. It’s not possible to keep upgrading the current site.
“If we make health care work, it leads to a stronger economy because it’s a big expense, and if we can do it efficiently and provide care in an equitable way that doesn’t depend on your income, then our economy will be stronger for it.”
The report concludes that rising hospital costs — increasing by about six per cent annually — combined with government underfunding are creating what it describes as a “toxic” situation that is undermining timely access to care.
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