Ontario hospitals told to find savings; ministry doesn't rule out service cuts

Service reductions and bed closures will be considered only if lower-risk measures exhausted: ministry

Allison Jones · The Canadian Press · Posted: Oct 20, 2025 2:03 PM EDT

Ontario's Ministry of Health tasked hospitals to plan to balance their budgets within three years, assuming annual funding increases of two per cent — half of what they have received in recent years. (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)

Ontario's Ministry of Health has tasked hospitals struggling with deficits to come up with a three-year plan to balance their budgets, and service cuts and bed closures do not appear to be off the table for extreme cases.

The Ontario Hospital Association has said that hospitals ended last year $360 million in the red and need an additional $1 billion in funding this year to keep pace with population growth and inflation.

However, government guidance to hospitals on the balanced budget plans, obtained by The Canadian Press, suggests belt tightening is on the way

For the financial planning exercise, hospitals were told to assume annual funding increases of two per cent — half of what they have received in the past three years. The parameters are not confirmation of funding intent, the government says in the document, but the hospital sector is reading the tea leaves.

Read more at CBC News