Brightshores Gets Smallest Increase as Province Allocates $10.2M to Three Local Hospitals
Brightshores draws the largest share of $10.2M for three Grey-Bruce hospitals but the smallest percentage increase, as the sector warns 4% falls short of rising costs.
The Ontario government will give three Grey-Bruce hospitals a combined $10.2-million funding increase for 2026-27 — and Owen Sound’s regional hospital, the largest of the three, is getting the smallest percentage increase.
Brightshores Health System, which runs the Owen Sound hospital and five rural sites, will receive $7,263,100, a 3.4% increase.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre will receive $2,096,900 and Hanover and District Hospital $850,000, each a 4.0% increase, according to a news release issued by Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Paul Vickers’ office.
Base funding, not a one-time grant
Asked whether the money was new or an annual stream, the hospital said in an email that the funding goes into its base budget, and provided a statement from president and CEO Ann Ford. She said the funding will help the hospital maintain critical services and “invest in our people” while meeting regional needs, and welcomed the province's recognition of what she called "the increasing pressures facing Ontario hospitals."
The allocation is the local share of a province-wide increase set in the 2026 budget, tabled March 26.
The release describes it as part of a $1.1-billion investment and “a 4 per cent increase in annual support for the fourth year in a row.” The budget sets the figure at “up to” 4% in base and targeted funding — a ceiling Brightshores’ 3.4% increase falls under.
A near-identical release went out from other government MPPs with their own local hospitals and numbers, including a $6.2-million version covering hospitals in Perth and Wellington counties.
What the sector asked for
The increase arrives below what hospitals say they need. In its pre-budget submission in January, the Ontario Hospital Association said the sector faced a $1-billion structural deficit and put annual cost growth at about 6%, driven by a growing and aging population and inflation.
In March, the association said the sector required a $2.7-billion cash infusion. The budget delivered $1.1 billion, less than half.
A May report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found 55% of Ontario’s hospitals ran operating deficits in 2024-25, and that hospitals in the province’s northern and western regions were more likely than others to be in the red. The report’s author, health researcher Andrew Longhurst, wrote that the 4% increase falls short of the roughly 6% needed to maintain existing service levels.
The three hospitals enter the year in different financial shape.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre ran surpluses in each of its two most recent years — about $3 million in 2024-25 and $1.2 million in 2025-26, its audited statements show.
Hanover and District Hospital ran a deficit of about $476,500 in 2024-25 and came in essentially break-even the next year, its statements show.
Brightshores, the largest of the three, posted a surplus of about $158,000 on $301.8 million in revenue in the year ended March 31, 2025 — roughly break-even — after a deficit of about $10.9 million the year before, its statements show. Its return to balance followed an 18% jump in Ministry of Health revenue that included $13.5 million the province classified as one-time funding.
Brightshores has not yet posted statements for 2025-26; the other two have. The release does not explain why Brightshores’ increase is lower than the two smaller hospitals’. The province distributes the money as a mix of base and targeted funding, but the split between the two for each hospital was not provided.
What the funding is meant to cover
The release says the money will help keep emergency departments open, address wage pressures and reduce wait times for diagnostic imaging and procedures including MRI, CT, cardiac, stroke, orthopedic and cataract care.
It also points to province-wide capital commitments — roughly $64 billion over 10 years for hospital infrastructure and about 3,000 new beds — that are separate from the operating funding flowing to the three local hospitals.
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