FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 January 2026
TORONTO, ON – Today, Lee Fairclough, MPP for Etobicoke Lakeshore and Ontario Liberal Critic for Hospitals, issued the following statement regarding Premier Ford’s continued underfunding of Ontario’s hospital system:
Ontario’s hospitals are in crisis, and this is a crisis of the Ford government’s own making. There is no more ‘fat’ to cut, Ontario’s hospitals are the lowest funded per capita in the country.
We know that the Ford government is sitting on billions of dollars in contingency funds that can be invested into our hospitals right now.
Patients do not want service cuts or hospital closures. They do not want hospitals forced into impossible decisions after years of underfunding – decisions that lead to fewer staffed beds, longer emergency room waits, delayed surgeries, and more frequent closures.
Ontario Liberals are calling for predictable, multi-year funding to keep hospitals stable – and we are reiterating our call for an immediate $1 billion dollar injection into our hospital system.
Having been the President of a regional hospital, I can tell you that it is unconscionable that Premier Ford is making it harder – not easier – to get the care people were promised and that they deserve.
As the Prime Minister underscored this week, these are uncertain times. People are worried about their jobs and paying their bills. Premier Ford should not be adding to that anxiety by letting access to timely, quality health care slip out of reach.