Ontario Construction News staff writer
The union representing 2,500 frontline workers at Scarborough Health Network (SHN) says the province’s plan to build a new emergency department at Centenary Hospital must be accompanied by increased operating funding and staffing to improve patient care.
Comments came after Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Tuesday that construction will begin on the expanded emergency department, an $82-million project that will quadruple the department’s size to help meet growing demand for emergency services.
A groundbreaking was held one week after SHN workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) held a rally over chronic understaffing, workplace violence and the hospital network’s financial challenges.
CUPE claims SHN is running a $36-million operating deficit while facing staffing shortages that have contributed to longer wait times and increased pressure on hospital workers.
“Expanding the emergency department won’t fix wait-times if staffing remains unaddressed,” Stacy James, president of CUPE Local 5852, said in a statement. “Lack of resources and staff shortages are creating unsafe conditions for workers and patients alike.
“Staff are mentally and physically exhausted from carrying the load. We need to invest in fixing these issues before building new infrastructure.”
In September 2025, the Ontario government directed hospitals operating in deficit to submit three-year plans to eliminate shortfalls and balance their budgets, a requirement CUPE says forced 1,300 hospital job cuts across Ontario over the past year, while some hospitals have borrowed money to cover payroll and other operating expenses.
The union is now calling on the province to eliminate hospital deficits and increase operating funding.
“You can’t leapfrog the hospital staffing crisis by pouring money into new infrastructure, while cutting existing hospital operating budgets in real terms,” Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), said in a statement. “Scarborough is densely populated and underserviced in hospital care and these additional beds are needed, but not as an alternative to properly funding the existing services.
“Without their deficit being covered, SHN will have to cut staff and services. In that respect this announcement is a cruel distraction, not a solution.”
CUPE also raised concerns about workplace violence, pointing to a survey conducted among SHN workers in late 2025 which found 42 per cent of respondents had experienced violence on the job and 20 per cent reported being physically assaulted.
The union says incidents increase when patients face long waits and overcrowded hospital units.
This week OCHU/CUPE released a report, Pushed Over the Brink: The Escalating Assault on Ontario’s Hospitals, which found hospital working capital in Ontario has declined by more than $2.2 billion over the past six years.
Construction of the expanded emergency department is expected to be completed in 2031. According to the province, the project will add more than 36,000 square feet of space and increase capacity at one of Scarborough’s busiest hospitals.
