Private health care providers are cashing in as Ontario hospitals fall further behind

By Andrew Longhurst
Jan 31, 2026

Ontario is expanding private surgical care while hospitals struggle with staffing levels and patient loads

Key points:

• Ontario has consistently underfunded public hospitals, leaving them with a $1 billion structural deficit and the lowest per capita hospital spending in Canada.
• The province is directing new public money to for-profit surgical facilities instead of stabilizing and expanding the public hospital system.
• For-profit clinics rely on the same limited pool of nurses, anesthesiologists, and technicians, pulling staff away from public hospitals.
• Evidence from Alberta shows that similar private surgery initiatives shifted work and staff without reducing wait times and, in some cases, made them worse.
• Without significant, predictable funding increases, Ontario hospitals face job cuts, reduced services, and longer waits for patients.

Ontario’s hospital funding crisis is the result of a deliberate provincial policy choice to underfund public hospitals while funnelling public dollars to for-profit providers.

In a submission to the provincial government ahead of the spring budget, the Ontario Hospital Association stated that the hospital sector faces a structural deficit of $1 billion and needs a predictable, multi-year funding plan. This deficit is not surprising—data reveal that the province continues to have the lowest per capita hospital spending in the country at $1,967, behind B.C. ($2,111), Quebec ($2,113), and Alberta ($2,169). That underfunding has persisted for years.

As a result, Ontario now has one of the most below capacity hospital systems in the industrialized world. Ontario had five per cent fewer hospital beds per 100,000 people in 2022 than in 2009, based on the most recent data available.