CUPE says the province’s funding plan will deepen staffing shortages, expand wait times, and push more patients into hallway and waiting room care.
Janiece Campbell, Now Toronto
March 2 2026
What to know
- Health-care workers rallied outside Premier Doug Ford’s Etobicoke office Monday to protest the province’s plan to cut hospital funding by 10 per cent over three years.
- CUPE says the reductions come as surgical wait lists surpass 200,000 people and more than 2,000 patients remain on stretchers awaiting beds.
- Union leaders warn the funding plan could result in the loss of roughly 2,450 hospital beds and 9,000 nursing and PSW positions across Ontario.
- Frontline staff say chronic underfunding is driving burnout, workplace violence and hallway care, with some patients treated in corridors and waiting room chairs.
Health care workers gathered outside of Premier Doug Ford’s office in Etobicoke Monday morning, protesting what they describe as deep and damaging funding cuts to Ontario’s hospital system.
The rally, organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), comes in response to the provincial government’s plan, which includes cutting hospital funding by 10 per cent over the next three years.
CUPE says the consequences of the cutbacks are already being felt across the province. Hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area, North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Niagara have seen hundreds of positions eliminated, affecting frontline staff and patient care.
“[Ford] promised to end hallway medicine,” OCHU President Michael Hurley said to Now Toronto. “He promised to get patients off stretchers. At that time, there were 850 people on stretchers. Now there’s over 2,000. He also promised to clear the surgical waiting lists. At that time, there were 70,000 people on those lists. Now there’s over 200,000.”
Read more at Now Toronto
