Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones marked the start of construction on a new emergency department at Scarborough's Centenary Hospital, joined by several of her Progressive Conservative colleagues, according to CBC News. In a reminder of how busy the hospital has become, a serious code blue interrupted the news conference as the announcement was being made.
The minister noted that the hospital is now seeing over 30 per cent more visits this year than it did five years ago. She framed the new emergency department as part of the government's wider health commitments, saying that increasing health care spending is a priority for Doug Ford's government, according to the broadcaster.
Defending the level of investment being made, Jones said that a billion dollars a year for the last four years is not an insignificant sum of money for continuing to invest in the province's health care system, according to the broadcaster. She presented the figure as evidence of the government's ongoing commitment to hospitals.
Her message, however, was met with calls for significantly more money. Hours earlier, the head of the public health care union had called for much more, an extra five billion dollars a year, citing the aging population and staff cuts at hospitals that are struggling to balance their budgets, CBC News reported.
The union representative acknowledged that the figure might sound like an astronomical number, but argued that such spending would only bring Ontario up to the average per capita spending of the other provinces, adding that the province could surely manage it, according to CBC News.
Officials noted that the expansion is not a new idea. The province first unveiled the expansion plan for Scarborough's Centenary four years ago, as part of a larger plan for the area, with a stated commitment to invest over one billion dollars in a number of significant projects across the Scarborough Health Network.
The opposition was quick to question the announcement. The NDP's health critic called it simply a re-announcement of funding first promised in 2022, with no timelines and no plan to address the staffing crisis, saying Ontario's hospitals are already beyond the breaking point, according to CBC News.