FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 24, 2026
Ontario’s hospital privatization plan ‘not adding up’ as public funding on for-profit clinics balloons while wait-times increase: new CCPA Report

TORONTO – Ontario’s funding of for-profit medical imaging (MRI) and surgical services is increasing wait times and threatening public health care, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). 

In Not adding up: Surgical and diagnostic privatization in Ontario, CCPA Senior Researcher Andrew Longhurst analyses unpublished data – obtained through Freedom of Information requests – from Ontario’s 918 licensed private centres and two private hospitals offering publicly funded health services and finds that this privatization does not serve the public interest.  

The report will be released at a press conference at Queen’s Park on Monday morning. Longhurst will be joined by Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), to speak about the research findings.  

When:  10 a.m. on Monday, September 28 
Where: Queen’s Park Media Studio, 111 Wellesley St. W, Toronto   
What:   Media conference to release findings of new CCPA research report about    
             privatization of hospital surgeries and diagnostic tests   
Who:   Andrew Longhurst, Senior Researcher, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE)  

For more information please contact:
Zee Noorsumar,  
CUPE Communications 
znoorsumar@cupe.ca 
647-995-9859