Peel social service collective demands change after being shortchanged millions; Mississauga mayor sits down with Premier to demand fair share for region

A report released earlier this year from a network of over 100 of Peel’s non-profit organizations and community groups emphasized the alarming reality that the Region’s 1.5 million residents are being recklessly underserved.  

Prepared by Peel’s Metamorphosis Network and presented to regional councillors in May, the report revealed a troubling reality: Peel’s current level of social service delivery is insufficient to meet the needs of its residents and without change, many of the social issues in Peel will only continue to worsen. It underlined just how underfunded social services in Peel are compared to other Ontario municipalities. 

Peel is shortchanged $868 million annually in community service funding from Queen’s Park. Meanwhile, the provincial government continues to push extreme growth without providing the required support for critical services. The breakdown of this alarming figure translates to an annual gap of $578 less for every person in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, compared to other municipalities of the region’s size. It accounts for municipal services such as housing, childcare, educational programs and seniors care, as well as non-profit community services including mental health support and youth programs. These shortfalls mean longer wait times and insufficient access to services for Peel residents. 

It leaves residents out in the cold due to overcrowded shelters; wallowing on waitlists for affordable housing; waiting months, sometimes years, for mental health counselling.

The consequences of this gap “suggest that the nonprofit sector is growing less financially sustainable, and that municipal taxpayers are increasingly burdened with the costs of social services.”

A report released in May from Peel’s Metamorphosis Network revealed the true extent of the dire shortfall in annual funding from the Province.

(Metamorphosis Network) 

For years, social services like housing, childcare, elderly care, public health, shelter support, and emergency family support in Peel have been overlooked by upper levels of government. Federal and provincial funding have not kept up with Peel’s booming population and previous funding formulas that were already inadequate have fallen further behind. 

“We continue to see a huge lack of affordable housing, increases in problems around homelessness and barriers for the settlement,” Gurpreet Malhotra, CEO of Indus Community Services and member of the Metamorphosis Network Leadership Team, told The Pointer.  “And the cost of living, as we all know, is increasing all over the country, but we have an enormous gap in the amount of services we're supposed to be receiving.”

Funding for Peel’s public health system has been frozen, housing subsidies have faced significant decline, sliding by 20 percent between 2017 and 2021 (creating an unfunded gap of $678 million), the paramedic services budget has faced financial strains under the current cost-sharing model and senior services are increasingly relying on property taxes to fund their operating budget. The financial pressure facing each of these services has been intensified by the hypergrowth mandated by the Province.

The costs borne by Peel’s critical services are increasing substantially while funding from the Province has not grown at the same rate. When compared with the seven other municipalities in Ontario with populations over 500,000 — Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, York, Durham, Waterloo and Halton — funding in Peel remained consistently low, according to the report, with the region finishing last among other municipalities of its scale for municipal social service funding, nonprofit community service funding, and Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) community health funding.

Base funding for Peel Public Health was frozen from 2018 to 2021 and while there was a one percent increase in funding in 2022, it only reduced the funding gap from $8.5 million to $8.1 million, a report from the Region explained. Past reporting from The Pointer has underscored how chronically underfunded Peel’s public health system is, leaving many experiencing mental health struggles in the dark, waiting years to get desperately needed support. 

If adequate and equitable funding is not provided, Peel will slip further behind as more residents come to call the region home over the next decade. 

But a recent commitment from the Premier signals Peel’s days of being overlooked could be over. 

Since stepping into her role as Mississauga’s mayor, Carolyn Parrish has made it her mission to address the provincial underfunding of municipal and social services in Peel with Premier Doug Ford. In June, the city’s new leader said her first order of business was to sit down with Premier Ford to finally secure fair share funding for her city and the rest of Peel. At the time, she told The Pointer she planned to “present the Metamorphosis report and ask for the Premier to phase in a fair increase over three years.” 

Last week, she did just that.  

After meeting with the Province’s Housing Minister the day after the celebration of Canada’s birthday, Parrish secured a meeting with Ford in his home office. During the meeting, Parrish brought forward the shortfall in regional funding for social services. The day after she met with the Premier, she told The Pointer Ford said the Province “would look at staging some help.”

Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish has made it a top priority to demand a fair share of funding for the Region of Peel from the Province.

(City of Mississauga) 

In recent months, the cities of Toronto and Ottawa have secured new deals from the Province for housing support that allows the municipalities to shift revenues to other needs. To help support the Metamorphosis Network in its mission, the City of Mississauga passed a motion in June to advocate for a fair funding model. The motion also pointed out that of the $868 million, Mississauga’s shortfall is almost half a billion dollars. The Town of Caledon past a similar motion last month.

Peel’s financial gap also means increased contributions to social services from local revenue sources, such as property taxes and user fees, to cover provincial funding shortfalls. This means while Peel’s taxpayers are paying into provincial taxes, those dollars are not being returned to the community. Residents are instead subsidizing social services in other municipalities.

“We're paying our fair share, but we are not receiving supports,” Malhotra explained. “The more and more things that are absent, the bigger the gaps become, and the tougher the time is for the people that live here.” 

Malhotra told The Pointer earlier this year the disruption caused by Peel’s looming dissolution, which was scrapped in the final weeks of 2023, helped the Network realize there are significant gaps in how services are being provided in the region. The dissolution process, which impacted several critical services provided by the Region, brought to light the need to do more to address the growing fractures in the current system.

“Peel Region will be unable to maintain its current level of service provision under the provincial funding status quo,” the Network’s report states. “The full impact of the funding gap on non-profit service delivery in Peel Region has yet to be felt.”

Adequate funding for Peel’s social services, including child care, has been overlooked by upper levels of government for decades.

(Kelli McClintock/Unsplash) 

This reality is not unknown to the Region of Peel staff or its elected officials. Previous reports on the Region’s advocacy priorities to the Province have highlighted the lack of funding flowing from upper levels of government. 

Meanwhile, Queen’s Park has ignored the growing crisis. 

“We've really tried hard to figure out what makes Peel different,” Malhotra said. “The more you look at it, and then you realize, ‘wait,’ our big difference is we’re 70 percent racialized. So is that why? For some unclear reason, potentially systemic discrimination, it hasn't stuck in Peel. It hasn't kept up, and it never will.”

“Why is it that for programs that, by law, have to be provided by the municipality, are getting less? Is this tied to systemic discrimination? Is this what's driving that problem?” 

Peel’s 2021 Census data shows 69 percent of the region’s residents identify as a visible minority, more than twice the level of Ontario as a whole (34 percent). Adding to the upper-tier municipality’s diverse makeup, 52 percent of Peel residents are immigrants to Canada, compared to 30 percent in the province as a whole. Peel’s racialized population has increased by 72 percent since 2006.

Malhotra said the Network’s groups are calling on the Ford government to put in place a formula to correct past financial wrongs before going on to enhance new services in other better-funded areas.

“Once that gets corrected, then we can go back to raising the bar for everybody. But you can't leave us behind like this. It's not right. It's immoral,” he asserted.

“It's only fair that a new deal be cut for Peel so that these services can be put in place for our residents. This needs to be corrected. It's about time for a new deal for Peel.”

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you