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‘It’s a preventable crisis, and it is only deepening,’ CCPA researcher says, while Ontario health minister criticizes claims in report as ‘misguided’
Published May 20, 2026 • Last updated 4 days ago • 5 minute read
Andrew Longhurst, senior researcher of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Sharon Richer, secretary/treasurer of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, held a press conference in Sudbury. Photo by John Lappa //Sdbury StarArticle content
Health Sciences North has run annual deficits of more than $10 million over the past two years while hospital admissions and wait times in Sudbury have risen dramatically, a new report says.
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At a press conference in Sudbury on Wednesday, researcher Andrew Longhurst said emergency department wait times are the canary in the coal mine for health system performance.
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In Failure, By Design: Ontario’s deepening hospital funding crisis, Longhurst found that rising hospital costs of six per cent annually and government underfunding are creating a toxic situation that undermines the goal of offering timely access to care for patients.
“Over the last three years, our research shows that predictable increases in Ontario hospital costs are being met with consistent underfunding from the provincial government,” Longhurst said. “When hospital funding increases fall below the required six per cent, the health care needs of the population go unmet. It’s a preventable crisis, and it is only deepening.”
He prepared his report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The report found most of Ontario’s 136 hospitals, including Health Sciences North, have carried operational deficits since 2022
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Hospital admission wait times at Health Sciences North went up 89 per cent in five years since 2020-21, with 90 per cent of patients in emergency departments waiting 51.1 hours (up from 27 hours), the report said.
HSN also saw a dramatic surge of 169 per cent in wait times for an emergency department assessment, with 90 per cent of patients waiting seven hours in 2024-25 compared to 2.6 hours in 2020-21, Longhurst’s study found.
Sudbury’s hospital operated fiscal deficits of more than $10 million in 2024-25 and 2023-24.
Longhurst disputed claims by the Ontario government about health funding as misleading, pointing to the provincial finance minister’s recent statement about spending being “unsustainable.”
Total Ontario health care spending merely rose to 7.6 per cent of GDP in 2023 from 7.4 per cent of GDP in 2014, Longhurst said, but Ontario ranked last in per capita hospital and total health care spending in Canada in 2023.
“The Ontario government’s funding austerity, and the attitudes that deride health care workers, are harmful to the workers as well as to the patients and communities who depend on their skills and commitment,” Longhurst said. “And this all contributes to deteriorating working conditions, rising vacancies among hospital staff, and now, job cuts.
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“We strongly recommend that the provincial government implement an aggressive plan to address the hospital funding and capacity crisis—rather than laying off staff. Hospitals need certainty in funding levels, which should increase by six per cent annually. Without this, the consequences are disastrous for patients.”
Provincially, hospital admission wait times increased 52 per cent in five years, while wait times for emergency department assessment rose 67 per cent.
Asked for a response, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the claims made in the CCPA 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,” Jones said in a statement.
“To support growing demand and support patient care at Health Sciences North, we have increased funding by 44 per cent, or more than $130 million, since 2018 while investing $5 million to support the planning for future expansion, over $10 million to build a new 52-bed Acute and Reactivation Care Centre, which is already helping patients transition home and free up acute care beds and, more than $2 million to support Sudbury-area Inter-professional Primary Care Teams to connect over 5,500 people to primary care, helping reduce pressure on emergency departments and improve patient flow.”
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Jones said the government is proud to have one of the largest healthcare workforces in Canada, having added “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 per cent of people receiving surgery within the clinically recommended times, and the highest primary care attachment rate in the country.”
“We continue to build on this progress by getting shovels in the ground for over 50 hospital redevelopment projects, adding new MRI and CT machines in communities across the province, up-skilling nurses to work in emergency departments, expanding programs like Learn and Stay and, taking bold action to make it easier to access care in the community, including allowing pharmacists to treat common ailments and our plan to connect every person to a primary care provider by 2029.”
In its own response to the CCPA report, HSN focused on its successes at meeting demands on the hospital and attributed wait times to a variety of factors.
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“In 2025-26, nine out of 10 patients admitted through HSN’s Emergency Department received an in-patient bed within 33 hours, compared with the provincial wait time of 28 hours,” HSN said in its statement.
“Several factors are contributing to longer wait times for inpatient beds at HSN, including high hospital occupancy rates and increasingly complex patient care needs.
“Demand at HSN remains extremely high. On Wednesday, the hospital was operating at 108 per cent. Our hospital routinely operates above 100-per-cent capacity with 120 to 130 patients receiving care in hallways, tub rooms, the emergency department, or in temporary placements such as retirement homes each day.”
HSN said the ministry is aware of those challenges and the hospital is “actively working with them on long-term capital expansion planning that would see HSN increase its current bed capacity at the Ramsey Lake Health Centre in the Emergency Department, Pediatrics, Mental Health and Addictions, as well as inpatient units.
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“HSN ended the fiscal year in a balanced position and will have more details to share on this at our upcoming annual general meeting in June.
“We continue to work closely with Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health and appreciate recent investments to support our long-term financial sustainability so HSN can continue to provide specialized healthcare services in Northeastern Ontario for years to come.”
However, Sharon Richer, secretary-treasurer of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, the hospital division of CUPE, said a sharp increase in province-wide wait times occurred before the latest round of hospital job cuts, beginning at the end of last year.
“By any metric, our hospitals require a substantial increase in staffing and capacity to improve wait times, reduce hallway medicine, and enhance the quality of patient care,” Richer said. “However, the government’s stubborn refusal to meet rising hospital costs is taking us backwards, whereby jobs are being eliminated every day, even as staffing shortages suffocate the system. The political choice to starve our public hospitals is a failure by design.”
– with files from The Star’s Ben Leeson
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