Hamilton Health Sciences is planning to eliminate more than 400 jobs, a move it is directly tying to provincial marching orders to balance budgets that have seen other hospitals across the province make similar cuts.
An internal hospital memo says the hospital network is looking at a $150 million deficit for 2026-27 and has put about 413 union and non-union jobs on the chopping block, with a third of those positions currently vacant.
“Some staffing capacity introduced during and following the pandemic was established to respond to exceptional circumstances and is not supported by ongoing funding,” president and CEO Tracey MacArthur wrote.
“While demand for hospital care remains significant, we need to adjust this temporary capacity to a level that can be sustained within the funding available to HHS.”
The Ministry of Health last year tasked hospitals in the red – which covers the majority in Ontario – with setting three-year plans to eliminate their deficits, telling them to implement any “low-risk” measures immediately.
MacArthur said in the memo that the hospital network set savings targets of two per cent for clinical budgets and five per cent for administrative budgets this year, as part of that provincial budget balancing process.
“HHS has a strong track record of operating efficiently,” MacArthur wrote.
“However, like many hospitals, we are facing rising costs and a growing demand for care. In addition to $40M of cost reductions achieved last year, further action is required to operate within the funding available to us.”
A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Hamilton Health Sciences’ changes will not impact patient services or access to care.
“As we continue to modernize and strengthen the delivery of hospital care, we have asked hospitals to plan for their long-term stability, ensuring the delivery of high-quality care in their community for generations to come,” Lily Barnes wrote in a statement.
Ontario increased hospital funding by four per cent this year, Barnes noted.
While the funding boost amounted to $1.1 billion, the Ontario Hospital Association had said the need was more than double that.
Jillian Watt, the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ local representing more than 4,700 workers at Hamilton Health Sciences, said the job cuts will certainly affect patient care.
“You’re still leaving people short,” she said. “The work still exists; it’s just existing with less and less people.”
The Hamilton Health Sciences memo said it expects to eliminate about 143 nursing positions and 84 health-care aide positions, though with a high number of vacancies in those roles it expects “few if any” individuals to lose their jobs.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association represents registered nurses at the hospital network and said the cuts are another blow to safe patient care.
“ONA condemns the cuts, which continue to grow in both Hamilton and across Ontario and are due to the underfunding of public health care by the Ford government,” provincial president Erin Ariss wrote in a statement.
“The magnitude of RN cuts we are now seeing will have devastating consequences. Patient care is knowingly being compromised.”
Their announcement is the latest in a string of Ontario hospitals announcing cuts as they balance their budgets.
The Ottawa Hospital earlier this year said it would be reducing its workforce by three per cent, which would amount to hundreds of jobs, but said it would work to limit the number of layoffs through vacancy management and early retirements.
That process is ongoing, the hospital said this week, but so far it has been able to limit the number of “involuntary departures” to 17 people.
London Health Sciences Centre had said it was cutting nursing positions through attrition, and Chatham-Kent Health Alliance said it planned to cut 49 positions by not filling vacancies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.
By Allison Jones | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.