Ontario hospitals have seen a dramatic rise in spending on for-profit staffing agencies – including a 168 per cent jump in the Central East region over the last decade – according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The report, Hollowed Out: Ontario public hospitals and the rise of private staffing agencies, found hospitals across the province paid $9.2 billion to staffing agencies from 2013-14 to 2022-23. These private agencies charge up to three times more than employing in-house staff, consuming six per cent of hospital labour costs despite accounting for just 0.4 per cent of frontline hours.
In 2022-23 alone, Central East hospitals, which include Peterborough County, spent $43.5 million on agency workers – a 168 per cent increase over 10 years. In that time, real dollar spending per person on agency staff rose by 102 per cent, while investment in hospital-employed staff rose by only six per cent.
Andrew Longhurst, the report’s author, said this shift has deepened staffing shortages and hurt patient care. “The wasteful public spending on private agencies would have never emerged as a problem if Ontario’s investments in employed hospital staff kept up with patient needs,” Longhurst said.
The report also links the rise in agency use to underfunding, wage suppression, and rising job vacancies. CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions president Michael Hurley is calling for better staffing ratios and higher investments in hospital workers.
The report recommends Ontario phase out private agencies over three years, create a public staffing alternative like British Columbia’s, and increase annual hospital funding by $2 billion to stabilise the system.
(Written by: Joseph Goden)
