North York Health Strike Pauses Rally Amid New Talks, 95,000 Patients Wait

TORONTO, ON – January 09, 2026 – A high-profile rally and picket scheduled for this coming Monday, which was set to feature Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, has been abruptly cancelled, signaling a potential breakthrough in a grueling 12-week strike that has left 95,000 patients in North York without full access to primary care.

Forty-four primary care workers from the North York Family Health Team (NYFHT), represented by the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), walked off the job on October 20, 2025. They are demanding their first-ever collective agreement, citing the need for fair wage increases. The cancellation of the rally, planned for outside the office of Board Chair Dr. Timothy Li, comes after what sources describe as a new "development in bargaining."

Despite this glimmer of hope, the strike continues, and the core issues that pushed registered nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, and dietitians to the picket line remain unresolved. The prolonged dispute has shut down a wide array of essential services, forcing patients into an already overburdened acute care system during a particularly severe flu season.

The Human Cost of a System in Limbo

The impact on the 95,000 patients registered with the NYFHT has been profound. For over three months, crucial preventative and chronic care programs have been shuttered. According to the ONA, this includes vital services such as vaccinations, high-risk foot and wound care, diabetes management programs, mental health support, and cancer screenings.

"The responsibility for this lies with employers like North York Family Health Team," stated Rita Ha, the Bargaining Unit President for the striking workers, in a statement released before the rally's cancellation. Ha, a pharmacist, has been a vocal advocate for her colleagues, who she says have endured years of wage stagnation.

The strike has created a ripple effect across the local healthcare landscape. With primary care access severely limited, patients requiring attention for non-emergency but urgent issues have increasingly turned to local emergency departments, including at North York General Hospital. This surge comes at a perilous time, as Ontario grapples with a potent flu season, characterized by a spike in Influenza A (H3N2) cases that has pushed many hospitals to their capacity limits.

The striking workers are fighting for what they call a fair first contract, having rejected an offer from NYFHT that the union characterized as a "zero percent" wage increase. In an era of high inflation, ONA argues this amounts to a significant pay cut for professionals who earn considerably less than their counterparts in hospitals and other healthcare sectors.

A Battle Over Funding and Accountability

At the heart of the dispute is a bitter disagreement over the use of provincial funds. The ONA alleges that the NYFHT Board of Directors mismanaged money specifically allocated by the province for the recruitment and retention of healthcare workers. The union claims that instead of directing these funds to staff wages to combat workforce shortages, the NYFHT used the money to pay down its own operational deficit.

This funding stems from the Ontario government's Primary Care Action Plan, which designated millions to help stabilize primary care teams that had faced years of frozen budgets. The ONA points out that other family health teams across the province correctly used these funds to provide much-needed wage enhancements for their staff.

The NYFHT administration has vehemently denied these allegations. In public statements, both Interim Executive Director and CEO Nureen Ladha and Board Chair Dr. Tim Li have insisted that all provincial funds were administered in full compliance with Ministry of Health guidelines. They maintain that their financial practices are transparent and subject to regular audits. While expressing a desire to see their staff compensated competitively, they have also pointed to the need for increased funding and more flexibility from the province to address the systemic financial pressures on family health teams.

The controversy has led the ONA to call for a formal investigation by the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health into how the funds were used, turning the labour dispute into a broader question of public accountability.

Political Pressure Mounts as Talks Resume

The planned appearance of ONDP Leader Marit Stiles at the Monday rally underscored the growing political dimension of the strike. Stiles has been a staunch critic of the current government's handling of the healthcare portfolio, frequently linking underfunding and privatization to staff burnout and declining patient care. Her presence was intended to amplify the workers' message and increase pressure on both the NYFHT board and the provincial government.

The ONDP has built a platform centered on strengthening public healthcare, including proposals to hire more healthcare professionals and improve working conditions. The party's support for the striking workers aligns with its long-standing position on labour rights within the public sector. The last-minute cancellation of the event suggests that the added political pressure may have been a catalyst for a return to good-faith negotiations.

While the public rally is off, the underlying tensions remain. The strike is a stark example of the challenges facing Ontario's primary care model, which relies on inter-professional teams to divert pressure from hospitals. Similar labour disputes have occurred in the past, including a two-month strike by public health nurses in Windsor-Essex in 2019, demonstrating that resolutions can be protracted and hard-won. As negotiators for the ONA and NYFHT return to the table, 44 striking workers and a community of 95,000 patients are anxiously awaiting a final agreement that could restore the care they depend on.