CUPE Ontario urges government to change course ahead of 2026 budget

NIAGARA FALLS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn called on the Ford government to reverse course on its budget priorities Thursday, warning that years of underfunding public services have deepened inequality and harmed workers and communities across the province.

Hahn spoke at a press conference and later before the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs as part of the 2026 pre-budget consultations.

With more than 300,000 members, CUPE Ontario is the largest union in the province. A significant number of its members work in social services, including developmental services, child welfare, child care, community health centres and safe consumption sites.

“These workers — often the lowest-paid women and often racialized women — who serve Ontario’s most vulnerable have been deliberately targeted and devalued by Premier Doug Ford’s government,” Hahn said. “Make no mistake: these are deliberate choices to cut funding and supports for those who need it most.”

Hahn said successive Conservative budgets have prioritized tax cuts for the wealthy and government advertising over meaningful action on affordability and public services.

“Budgets are about choices. They are about priorities,” he said. “This direction is bad for people, bad for Niagara and bad for the wider economy. The people of Ontario desperately need this government to change course in the upcoming budget, and focus instead on raising revenues.”

Hahn was joined by NDP MPPs Jennie Stevens and Wayne Gates, as well as Rory Bourgeois, president of CUPE Local 150, which represents outside municipal workers in St. Catharines. Bourgeois warned that privatization threatens essential public infrastructure, including Niagara’s water system.

"Whether it’s patients waiting hours, or even days, in the St. Catharines emergency department, or communities across Niagara being held back by aging wastewater systems, the common thread is clear: Doug Ford isn’t funding the infrastructure our communities rely on, says MPP Stevens. “Our residents deserve timely health care and safe, modern infrastructure - and this government is failing on both.”

CUPE Ontario is calling on the government to raise corporate tax rates and invest in public services, address staffing shortages, improve wages and working conditions, and ensure communities have access to safe, reliable services.