The Ontario government’s 2026 budget announced a series of investments that target sports and recreation infrastructure and new hospitals and educational facilities across the province.
A $300-million top-up over six years to the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund (CSRIF) will support repairs, upgrades, and the construction of local facilities to train next-generation athletes and promote healthy living.
Combined with a prior $200-million commitment, it marks the province’s largest investment in sport and recreation infrastructure. The first round of funding has already supported nearly 100 projects, including the construction of 17 new facilities and the revitalization of 77 more. Local communities have been grappling with the increasing pressure from aging buildings and higher participation demands.
“Across Ontario, we have seen the positive impact that the previous funds have provided, ensuring older or newly built facilities are accessible and up to current AODA standards,” explained James Murphy, executive director of ParaSport Ontario. “This continued investment will ensure more facilities remove physical barriers to inclusion for people with disabilities and is an important first step to offer adapted sport programming that is available and welcoming to all!”
Funding health infrastructure
Ontario is also pledging to spend about $64 billion over the next decade on new health infrastructure, with $50 billion in capital grants being directed to more than 50 major hospital projects that will add an estimated 3,000 beds.
This includes the new Fancsy Family Hospital project in Windsor and Essex County that aims to consolidate acute care services from two hospitals into one site with a capacity of 594 beds (including 101 new beds). The project is currently accepting request for qualifications, and will ultimately rise across three building phases.
East of that region, the William Osler Health System’s Peel Memorial Hospital will advance work on its phase 2 redevelopment, which includes a 12-storey tower to accommodate nonacute inpatient services. Lakeridge Health’s Bowmanville Hospital redevelopment will more than double the hospital’s capacity by adding 32 new beds and expanding inpatient and ambulatory care services and the emergency department.
The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital will continue building the largest teaching hospital in Canada, tripling the size of the existing facility to care to an estimated 2.2 million people.
Further east, the Ottawa Hospital is aiming to build a Civic Campus, which will serve as the lead acute care centre for Ottawa and Eastern Ontario.
The funding will also help build a new Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital and a new South Niagara Hospital which, once completed in summer 2028, will feature 469 beds and expand 24/7 emergency, diagnostic, surgical, and therapeutic services for patients and families across that region.
The plan to build 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds by 2028 is still on track with a $6.4 billion investment that has been in place since 2019. As of February 2026, nearly 26,000 beds (164 projects) are either open, under construction or approved to start construction.
A capital plan for educational facilities
A new funding model will inject $6.4 billion over four years into the post-secondary sector, boosting annual operating funding to $7 billion—a 30 per cent increase and record high. It will add 70,000 in-demand seats and support rural, Northern, French-language and Indigenous institutions, building on previous investments.
As part of this investment, the province already committed $57 million over three years to nine Indigenous Institutes, as it announced last month.
Three Institutes supporting Anishinabek Nation communities in Anishinabek-led post-secondary learning: Kenjgewin Teg, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, and the Anishinabek Educational Institute, welcomed the news.
“At a critical time, this funding provides greater stability beyond short-term project funding and strengthens our ability to deliver culturally grounded, wraparound supports that are essential to the success and wellbeing of First Nations and urban Indigenous learners,” said Mary Wabano-McKay, president and CAO of Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig. “Rooted in Anishinaabe aadziwin, our approach connects mental health, culture, and community—ensuring students are supported not only academically, but holistically.”
Also in the budget, a 10-year, $30-billion boost for educational spaces includes $22 billion in capital grants for new and redeveloped schools and child care projects, such as a new English public elementary school in Savant Lake, a French Catholic elementary school in Orléans, an English Catholic elementary and secondary school in Kitchener, a new French public elementary school in North York and an addition to Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
The postsecondary education sector is on the receiving end of a $5.5-billion investment over ten years, with more than $2.2 billion in capital grants to help colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes make critical repairs, improve energy efficiency and modernize facilities by upgrading technology.
