Ottawa hospital workers gathered outside Bruyère Health's Saint-Vincent Hospital site at 60 Cambridge St. N. on September 10, rallying against a wave of job cuts and handing hospital management a petition signed by 1,400 people calling to "Stop the Cuts."
The rally was organized by CUPE Local 4540, which represents 875 staff at Bruyère Health. The union used the event to formally present the worker-community petition to hospital administration, part of a campaign it has been building for weeks.
What's being cut
Bruyère Health is eliminating 55 frontline positions in total: 9 registered practical nurse (RPN) roles and 46 personal care aide (PCA) roles. The hospital first announced the cuts back in March 2026, and the September 10 rally marked the union's most visible pushback yet.
The PCA cuts are especially steep. According to CUPE, the 46 eliminated positions represent 30 percent of the workers who help patients with basic daily activities like walking, toileting and bathing, tasks that are central to care at a hospital like Bruyère, which specializes in complex, palliative and rehabilitative care.
"More injuries, workplace violence and poorer quality of care"
CUPE 4540 president Douglas Currier, himself an RPN at the hospital, said the cuts are already being felt on the floor. "These changes are intensifying workloads and will lead to more injuries and workplace violence, and poorer quality of care," Currier said.
Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, the union's hospital council, framed the cuts as part of a broader funding problem facing hospitals in the region. "The population in this community is growing and aging, but their local hospitals are being choked of funding," Hurley said.
A funding gap the union says explains the cuts
CUPE points to a widening gap between what hospitals say they need and what the province is providing. Hospitals report their costs are rising by about 6 percent a year, while the Ford government's funding increase for hospitals in 2026-27 works out to 3.3 percent. That shortfall, the union argues, is what's forcing facilities like Bruyère to cut frontline staff rather than expand services to keep pace with an aging population.
For patients and families relying on Bruyère's nursing and personal care services, particularly those in long-term rehabilitation or palliative care, fewer PCAs and RPNs could mean longer waits for help with basic needs and heavier workloads for the staff who remain.
What led here
Bruyère has been in Ottawa's local news before for less contentious reasons: earlier this year, ottown's earlier report covered a tattoo artist making house calls to patients at the hospital's Centretown campus, a small bright spot amid what has otherwise been a difficult year for the institution's staffing.
As of the rally, Bruyère Health had not publicly responded to the petition or to CUPE's characterization of the cuts' impact on care. The union has not indicated further job action beyond the September 10 rally.
Sources: CUPE (official union site), OCHU-CUPE (official union site)
