Ontario’s hospital association is challenging a recent policy think tank report claiming hospitals spent billions on private staffing agencies, calling the analysis deeply flawed and demanding its withdrawal.
The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) said a May 12 report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives significantly misrepresents hospital spending on private agency staff by combining agency staffing with all purchased services and using improper inflation adjustments.
“The OHA’s analysis found that the Report includes misleading claims on private agency usage that are significant,” said Kirk LeMessurier, chief of communications and public affairs at the OHA.
According to the OHA, the report incorrectly stated Ontario hospitals paid private staffing agencies $9.2 billion over a decade. The association contends this figure erroneously includes costs for housekeeping, food services, security, and logistics.
Accounting discrepancies
The OHA states that actual expenditures for all purchased services, including agency costs, totaled $3 billion between 2013-14 and 2022-23 – roughly one-third of the amount claimed in the report.
The association also criticized the report’s methodology, noting it failed to account for approximately 20 percent of additional hospital compensation costs by excluding pension and benefits when calculating employed staff expenses.
Workforce improvements
Despite challenges during the pandemic, the OHA emphasized significant progress in strengthening Ontario’s healthcare workforce. Hospital staff has grown by more than 40,000 healthcare workers since 2019-20, reaching a total of over 280,000 workers.
Vacancy rates at hospitals have improved substantially, decreasing from 10.74 percent in October 2022 to 4.97 percent in March 2025, according to the association’s data.
Agency usage context
While acknowledging growth in agency nurse usage, the OHA maintains such staffing is used “primarily as a last resort” to address staffing challenges and maintain care quality.
“Hospitals in smaller, rural and northern communities continue to face unique and multifaceted staffing challenges due to their size and have a greater need for staffing agency solutions,” said LeMessurier.
The association stated Ontario hospitals are working to reduce reliance on staffing agencies while collaborating with the provincial government to strengthen their workforce with stable, in-house staffing solutions.
