Ontario Hospitals' Cash Cushion Falls $2.2 Billion Since 2020, Union Report Says

Ontario's hospitals are running on empty, according to a new report from the union representing 40,000 hospital workers in the province.

The report, titled "Pushed over the brink: the escalating assault on Ontario's hospitals," was released August 4, 2026, by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, a division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. It says hospital working capital, the cash hospitals keep on hand to cover payroll and supplies, has collapsed from $2 billion in 2020 to negative $280 million by the end of 2025. That's a swing of $2.2 billion in six years.

Negative working capital means hospitals don't have enough liquid cash to cover their near-term bills. According to the report, many are now borrowing money just to keep the lights on and payroll running.

The Numbers Behind the Claim

CUPE says Ontario hospital operating deficits topped $400 million in 2025. At the same time, hospitals cut more than 1,300 jobs over the past year, according to the union.

Michael Hurley, president of OCHU/CUPE, puts the blame squarely on Queen's Park. "Hospitals need 6 percent annual increases simply to maintain services," Hurley said in the report. "The Ford government has cut hospital budgets in real terms, year after year, resulting in a loss of beds and staff in the face of significant utilization pressures from an aging population."

The math Hurley is pointing to: hospital costs are rising more than 6 percent a year, according to the union, but the Ford government's funding increase for 2026/2027 is set at 3.3 percent. That gap, if the union's cost figures are accurate, means hospitals are losing ground in real terms even as funding technically goes up in dollar terms.

The report cites Canadian Institute for Health Information data showing Ontario hospitals receive the least provincial funding per capita of any province in the country.

Hallway Medicine, Revisited

Doug Ford campaigned in 2018 on ending "hallway healthcare," the practice of treating patients in hospital corridors and other non-traditional spaces because of bed shortages. CUPE's report says that problem has gotten worse, not better, since he took office. Average daily hallway patients rose from under 1,000 in 2018 to nearly 2,000 in 2024, according to the union's figures.

The report also flags bed occupancy well above the widely cited 80 percent safety threshold, with most Ontario hospitals running above 90 percent, according to CUPE.

A local example cited in reporting from CommunityWire, an Oshawa-based outlet, shows the strain isn't evenly distributed. Lakeridge Health in Oshawa reportedly has negative working capital of $61 million, an operating deficit of $41 million in 2025, and bed occupancy at 99 percent. The union says Oshawa hospitals alone would need $157 million to reduce wait times, add beds, and match average per-capita spending in other provinces, and that the region needed 1,392 more full-time staff even before the latest round of cuts.

What's Missing From This Picture

This report comes from a public-sector union with a direct financial stake in hospital staffing levels and government funding decisions. CUPE represents the very workers whose jobs it says are being cut, which doesn't make the underlying numbers wrong, but it does mean the framing—austerity as a deliberate policy choice designed to hollow out care—is the union's interpretation, not an independently verified conclusion.

None of the three source accounts of this report include a response from the Ontario Ministry of Health or Premier Ford's office addressing the specific $2.2 billion working-capital figure or the 1,300 job cuts. Without that response on the record, readers are getting one side's read on why the numbers look the way they do.

The government's likely counterargument is this: provincial governments facing rising healthcare costs across an aging population routinely argue that funding increases, even below inflation in raw percentage terms, still represent record nominal dollar amounts. They further contend that efficiency and management reforms, not just higher spending, are needed to fix wait times. That's a legitimate fiscal argument taxpayers deserve to hear tested against the same CIHI data CUPE is citing.

What isn't contested is the CIHI finding that Ontario ranks last among provinces in per-capita hospital funding. That's a data point, not a union talking point, and it sets the baseline for whatever fight over the 3.3 percent funding increase comes next in Ontario's 2026/2027 budget cycle.