TORONTO (CP) The Ontario government will provide $154 million more for hospitals this year to shorten wait times for a host of critical-care procedures, including cancer surgeries, hip replacements and cardiac care.

But even the premier admitted that it remains unclear how much those funds will cut down on clogged waiting lists.

The money, expected to pay for more than 67,000 additional procedures, was billed as the single-largest increase aimed at reducing wait times in the province in more than a decade.

"This is really all about seniors who will stay mobile and active, or be able to continue to see the wonders around them,'' said Premier Dalton McGuinty.

"It's about cancer patients who will be diagnosed sooner and get surgery, if necessary, faster. And it's about cardiac patients who can return to a normal life that much earlier.''

But he said ``an information deficit'' in government data collection means the province does not know how much the money will reduce wait times.

"It's been particularly challenging to get good, reliable information when it comes to our cancer procedures,'' he said.

Health Minister George Smitherman said the government is working on that problem. The province hopes to have an online registry of some waiting lists available by the end of 2006, with the eventual hope of posting the wait times for all surgeries.

The data collection initiative is particularly positive since anecdotes or complaints from patients are often the only way to know there's a problem, according to a group of doctors targeting wait times across Canada.

 "These are good first steps,'' said Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai, a spokeswoman for the Wait Time Alliance.

The alliance plans to outline appropriate wait times for key surgeries this August, so provinces have a benchmark to measure themselves against.

In a survey carried out last summer, the government found the waits for MRIs ranged from four to 50 weeks, depending on the hospital, Smitherman said.

"That's not a system, it's a crapshoot, and we're changing that,'' he said.

The funds will allow Ontario hospitals to perform 2,900 more cancer surgeries, 4,300 additional hip and knee joint replacements, 7,000 more cardiac procedures and 14,000 more cataract surgeries than last year, McGuinty said. The additional procedures are expected to exceed growth in demand.

The availability of MRIs will also increase 24 per cent over last year, the government said.

Some 39,500 more MRI exams will be performed as a result of extended hours of operation for existing  machines, McGuinty said Friday. Those will come on top of an additional 37,260 scans already pledged for this year.

Smitherman called the announcement a ``huge step forward'' in the government's battle to shorten wait times before the end of its mandate, a central plank in the election platform that lifted the iberals to power in 2003.

The money is part of a $600-million increase in hospital operating funding for this year, included in the provincial budget introduced two weeks ago by Finance Minister Greg Sorbara.

New Democrat deputy leader Marilyn Churley welcomed the establishment of a wait times registry, but said it won't help much in the face of layoffs of health-care staff.

"We know that nurses are being laid off as we speak,'' she said. "And we know that you have to have nurses to be there to conduct these procedures and surgeries.''

Conservative member John Baird said hospitals will have to cut back in surgeries in other areas in order to ensure more cardiac and cancer procedures are conducted, thereby only reshuffling the problem of lengthy waiting lists.