FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kenora, ON – Health care workers are organizing a rally in Kenora outside MPP Greg Rickford’s office to protest the provincial government’s failure to address the hospital funding crisis.
Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), said emergency department wait-times across Ontario have increased significantly as government funding fails to keep pace with rising costs in the sector.
Hurley cited CIHI data showing that hospital admission wait-times at LWDH went up 62 per cent in five years since 2020-21, with 90 per cent of patients in emergency departments waiting 24 hours (up from 14.8 hours).
There was also a 70 per cent surge in waits for an emergency department assessment, with 90 per cent of patients waiting a maximum of 5.1 hours in 2024-25 compared to 3 hours in 2020-21.
Plagued by chronic underfunding, the LWDH ran deficits in two of the last three years.
The union says the main issue is the lack of funding, as government spending on hospitals has increased by four per cent annually in the recent past even as sectoral cost inflation is six per cent. For the 2026-27 fiscal year, the government has committed “up to four per cent increase in funding.”
“The Ford government has shown a stubborn insistence on austerity for hospitals, even as funding shortages are crushing workers, and causing untold suffering for patients,” said Kevin Cook, the first vice president of OCHU-CUPE.
The rally will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Who: Health care workers at LWDH and community allies
Kevin Cook, first vice president of OCHU-CUPE
What: CUPE rally for more hospital funding
When: 10 a.m., Tuesday, July 7
Where: Greg Rickfors’s constituency office, 610 Lakeview Drive, Kenora, ON
For more information contact:
Zee Noorsumar
CUPE Communications
647-995-9859
znoorsumar@cupe.ca
