Protecting Ontario means investing
in what we hold in common.
Land and water.
Healthcare, schools, and services.
Accountability.
This is how it's supposed to work.
Then Doug Ford showed up.
The Timeline
Policy choices since 2018 that shaped public services, Ontario's environment, and who gets held accountable—and what happened next.
Data from OFL Ford Tracker and CCPA Reports
Doug Ford takes office
Progressive Conservative government elected
Bill 124 passed
1% cap on annual wage increases for public sector workers
COVID-19 pandemic begins
Critical public services under extraordinary demand
Bill 124 ruled unconstitutional
Courts find wage suppression law violates Charter rights
Greenbelt land removed
7,400 acres taken out of protection for development; process later found biased; RCMP criminal probe launched
Bill 60 passed (Your Health Act)
For-profit facilities encouraged for publicly funded surgeries and diagnostics
Strain on public services continues
Private agency spending grows; many hospitals and related institutions in deficit
Bill 5 passed
Endangered Species Act weakened; special economic zones can bypass environmental rules; first zone declared in Ring of Fire
This wasn't an accident.
Those choices made room for privatization—of services people rely on, of land, and of water—while oversight weakened.
Explore the issues
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Three ways public money leaks outward
Patterns we see across provincial spending—not one sector in isolation
Consulting & Outsourcing
Work that once lived inside the public system moved outside it.
Service delivery
Work that used to happen inside public institutions increasingly happens through outside contracts.
The Full Picture
Underfunding public goods and expanding private control—across sectors, not one headline issue
Cuts to Public Services
The Ford government has systematically cut funding across multiple sectors
Greenbelt land removed (later reversed); planning and oversight under pressure
Species-at-risk protections weakened (Bill 5)
Education, social services, and legal aid squeezed
Environmental and public-health unit capacity reduced
Expansion of Privatization (Americanization)
While cutting public services, private spending has grown
Private staffing agencies ($9.2B over 10 years); for-profit surgical clinics (Bill 60)2
For-profit long-term care; consulting and outsourcing
Water and land opened to private control (Bill 60 water, Bill 5 special economic zones)
The Pattern
Cut funding to public services
Create pressure and capacity constraints
Introduce private alternatives
Frame privatization (Americanization) as the solution to the crisis you created
Public dollars flow to private profits
Capacity permanently leaves the public system
Protect Ontario — what the data shows
Where provincial dollars went after 2018: public capacity, private vendors, and who benefited.
Private spending grew nearly 2x faster than public funding between 2018 and 2024
For-profit payments increased 86.7% while public funding grew 46.5%1
New for-profit vendors appeared post-2018
WCG ($403M), Omni Health Care entities ($732M total), Southbridge ($175M) and others4
$9.2 billion to private staffing agencies over 10 years
Private agency costs grew 98% while public staff spending grew only 6%2
Private agencies cost 3x more than public staff
0.4% of hours but 6% of costs ($725M annually)2
Public capacity hollowed out
Once capacity leaves the public system, it doesn't return
66 of 134 hospitals had deficits in 2023-24
49% of Ontario hospitals ended the year in deficit2
Ontario ranked 33 out of 38 OECD countries
Staffed hospital beds per capita2
Bill 60 accelerated surgical privatization
For-profit surgical clinics paid 2-3x more than public hospitals for the same procedures3
System-wide staff shortages
Created by wage suppression and underfunding
Every dollar here is a dollar not strengthening the things we share.
Once public capacity leaves, it doesn't quietly return.
This wasn't announced.
It was invoiced.