Breadcrumb Trail Links
MPPs echo union concerns about threats to staffing and beds
Published Feb 12, 2026 • 3 minute read
Emergency department entrance at Health Sciences North in Sudbury. Photo by John Lappa/Sudbury StarArticle content
The province is pushing back on alarms raised by CUPE that beds and jobs could disappear at Health Sciences North, while local MPPs are echoing the union’s concerns.
Advertisement 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
At a press conference in Sudbury on Tuesday, representatives of CUPE and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions predicted about 135 nurses and PSWs in Sudbury could lose their jobs, while 35 staffed hospital beds are in jeopardy at HSN.
Article content
Recommended Videos
Article content
The union blamed a government plan to cap annual funding increases for hospitals at two per cent over the next three years, which it said falls far short of the six per cent average since 2020.
“At least 1,000 jobs are already being eliminated in hospitals in North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, Niagara and the GTA,” said CUPE in a release.
According to the Ministry of Health, however, the changes currently being made by hospitals “address non-clinical, administrative functions” to improve efficiency, and do not affect patient care.
Sudbury Star Morning Briefing
Thanks for signing up!
Article content
Advertisement 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
“The claims made in this (CUPE) release are misguided,” said ministry spokesperson Satnam Grewal. “Ontario is proud to have one of the largest publicly funded health-care systems in the world, with the largest health-care workforce in Canada, and we continue to make record investments in our health-care system, including investing $91.5 billion this year alone, a $30-billion increase since 2018.”
In Sudbury alone, the province is investing more than $2 million in Interprofessional Primary Care Teams “to attach over 5,500 people to primary care,” said Grewal, adding this is on top of a $900,000 infusion for IPCTs in 2024 “to serve more than 900 patients in the Sudbury area. Since 2018, we have also increased funding for Health Sciences North by over 35 per cent.”
Advertisement 4
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Grewal said spending in the hospital sector has gone up by four per cent for “an unprecedented third year in a row,” and annual hospital support since 2018 has increased by 52 per cent.
“This is in addition to a $60-billion plan for health-care infrastructure across the province, the 50 new MRI and CT machines we have added, over 100,000 new nurses and nearly 20,000 new physicians that have joined the workforce since 2018 who continue to support hospitals across the province,” she said.
CUPE argues such investments still don’t meet the needs of Ontarians, whose hospitals are funded and staffed “at the lowest rate across Canada.”
Doug Allan, who authored a new CUPE report titled On The Brink, said “a significant increase in beds and staffing levels” is required. “We need this to end the backlogs, delays, and to reduce hallway health care as the (Doug) Ford PCs promised in their 2018 election campaign. We also need it to keep up with increasing demand pressures that naturally arise with a growing and aging population.”
Advertisement 5
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Local MPPs Jamie West and France Gelinas said the CUPE warning about a potential loss of hospital workers and beds needs to be taken seriously.
“These aren’t just numbers on a page,” said West in a joint statement issued the NDP members. “These are the hard-working frontline health-care workers who provide care and support to our loved ones. Northern communities are already stretched thin.”
People in our area are “tired of being forgotten and forced to pick up the pieces of a system that needs more support, not cuts,” said West. “Workers across our hospitals deserve better from this Conservative government as they continue to worsen hallway medicine and allow layoffs, like the Liberals before them.”
Gelinas, who serves as health critic for her party, said what’s happening in Sudbury is a symptom of a much bigger problem.
“Ford and his government are starving our health-care system of the funding it desperately needs and the North is feeling the deepest impacts of those choices,” she said. “Make no mistake, these are calculated choices by this Conservative government. When hospitals are forced to cut staff and beds, we see longer waits, hallway health care and communities losing the care they count on.”
sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca
Article content
Share this article in your social network