Ontario’s healthcare crisis did not happen overnight

Ontario Liberals played a significant role in breaking the system

QUEEN’S PARK – Ontarians deserve healthcare that’s there when they need it. Access shouldn’t depend on how much money one has in the bank. That’s why Tommy Douglas’ NDP created the framework for public universal healthcare – publicly funded and publicly delivered.

But how did we go from having a healthcare system envied around the world to the crisis we are in right now? Well, let's take a quick trip down memory lane:

• 1996: Conservative Premier Mike Harris, infamous for his austerity measures, opened competitive bidding for home care, which allowed for-profit companies to take over home care delivery. Today, we have a home care system that is beyond broken.
• 1997: Conservatives pushed hospitals to restrict in-house lab testing for hospitals, opening the market for private labs
• 2001: Harris’ Conservatives introduced their profit-driven model for building new hospitals, leading to massive public cost overruns and delays. The Auditor General found $200 million in waste for one hospital alone.
• 2003: Breaking their campaign promise, Liberals continued this path by reducing the number of services provided under OHIP in favour of for-profit healthcare
• 2013: Liberals announced plans to expand private clinics to take services out of community hospitals. Ongoing advocacy and consistent pressure from community organizations and Ontario NDP stopped the Liberal government from allowing new private healthcare providers to operate outside of the Public Hospitals Act
• 2017: Liberal mismanagement drove hallway medicine in Ontario to brutal levels. More than 4,300 patients received care in the hallways of one hospital alone.
• 2019: Ford’s Conservatives create Ontario Health, a superagency to contract public healthcare services to private companies
• 2024: The Ford government, who came into power in 2018, is now trying to take this decades-long effort to privatize our healthcare system to the finish line. As a result, Ontarians will be stuck waiting longer, experiencing poorer patient outcomes, and paying more out of pocket for healthcare that should be publicly funded and publicly delivered. All while the Conservatives’ wealthy insiders made a fortune off sick Ontarians’ backs. Marit Stiles’ Official Opposition NDP calls on the Conservatives to return the Legislature to work together to fix the health care crisis.
• 2026: Premier Marit Stiles and her Ontario NDP government prioritize health care crisis, starting by investing in staffing shortages to reduce wait times and improve care.