Think tank and Niagara Health clash over healthcare system performance

A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a left-wing think tank, suggests that wait-times have increased by 40 per cent at the Niagara Health System in recent years. 

CCPA Senior Researcher Andrew Longhurst says that wait-times at the Niagara Health System have increased 40 per cent since 2020-21, with 90 per cent of patients in emergency departments waiting 73.8 hours (an increase from 52.9 hours previously). 

Longhurst argues that funding increases for hospitals are needed at six per cent or higher per year. Without funding increases that high, the CCPA argues that healthcare needs go unmet. 

To try to illustrate what the CCPA claims is underfunding, Longhurst pointed to the fact that the Niagara Health System had a $20.16-million deficit in 2024-25, which is significantly higher than the $2.47-million deficit it ran in 2022-23.

“Over the last three years, our research shows that predictable increases in Ontario hospital costs are being met with consistent underfunding from the provincial government,” argued Longhurst. “When hospital funding increases fall below the required six percent, the health care needs of the population go unmet. It’s a preventable crisis, and it’s only deepening.” 

Total healthcare spending in the province represented 7.6 per cent of GDP in 2023, up from 7.4 per cent in 2014. Still, the CCPA argues that the funding is not enough. 

However, Niagara Health is pushing back on the CCPA’s numbers. 

Niagara Health told the Welland Tribune that 90 per cent of patients are assessed, treated, and (if needed) admitted within 15.3 hours or less. And, contrary to what the CCPA is arguing, those numbers are improving rather than worsening.

It is not clear how the CCPA and Niagara Health could have such different numbers, both in terms of wait-times and overall deterioration/improvement in patient care. 

Still, the CCPA argues that more spending on healthcare is needed, particularly with an aging population. 

Although funding increases of six per cent per year may appear to be financially unsustainable, the CCPA argues that such increases are needed to maintain present service levels while meeting population growth, aging, and inflationary pressures. Yet this year’s Ontario budget plans to increase health funding by 3.5 per cent in 2026-27. 

It is also unclear how the CCPA would propose to pay for such significant spending increases, given the province’s present sizable deficit of $13.8 billion.