Budget 2026: Ontario Nurses' Association Demands Accountability for Job Cuts, Privatization and Chronic Underfunding Amidst Investment in Home Care

TORONTO, March 26, 2026 /CNW/ - The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) welcomes the $1.1 billion investment in home care that was announced in the Ford Conservatives' provincial budget today but is demanding accountability for the critical underfunding across health-care sectors and post-secondary education, and the continued drive towards private health care.

Over the last eight years, the Ford Conservatives have made a concerted effort to underfund public health care and expand and funnel taxpayer dollars to private, for-profit providers and facilities. Coupled with nearly $1.5 billion in cuts to post-secondary education which will have major impacts on nursing students, this is a threat to Ontarians' access to public health care.

"Ontarians need accountability for their hard-earned taxpayer dollars. They want this money to go to high-quality, timely front-line care, and the workers who provide it," says ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN. "Every day we are seeing more and more cuts to front-line nursing and health-care positions because of this government's chronic underfunding and employers that are cutting corners on patient care to save money."

Nurses and health-care professionals are working against the odds to provide high-quality, timely care across the province, and in every sector of health care. They are often working with less staff, fewer resources, and increasingly complex care needs. The provincial government has done little to address working conditions that will help retain staff and has once again failed to fund safe staffing ratios or other recruitment and retention measures in this year's budget.

"Instead of funding capital projects, or the expansion of private health-care, the Ford Conservatives must ensure mandatory safe staffing levels and adequately funded public health care," states Ariss.

"It's time for the Ford government to stop their dangerous push towards private health care. Nurses and health-care professionals know the real solution: Ontarians need accountability and a public health-care system with guaranteed safe staffing levels – not more buildings and unstaffed beds. We demand nothing less."

ONA is the union representing 68,000 health-care professionals, along with 18,000 nursing student affiliates, who provide care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, community settings, clinics, and industry.

SOURCE Ontario Nurses' Association

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