Parrish says Peel's request for fair share funding from Queen’s Park ‘landed with a thud’; local residents are subsidizing other parts of Ontario

After being chronically underserved for decades, the Region of Peel’s request for a fair share of funding for its social services is once again being pushed to the side by the provincial government. 

Peel residents pay their required share of provincial income tax, but instead of the money being equitably distributed back to those residents, they are effectively subsidizing other parts of Ontario, where tax dollars are being sent at a disproportionate rate compared to Peel. Local residents continue to suffer with lower service levels, less per capita funding for critical services such as public health and healthcare, fewer dollars per student in the public education system and a range of other inequities caused by unfair funding formulas. 

“Each year, additional cost pressures arise from increased demand for services resulting from Peel's population growth, increasing complexity of resident needs, and inflation. However, funding has not kept pace with any of these changes,” the Region’s website points out. “For years, Peel Region has faced chronic underfunding for these services, which has placed an unfair burden on property taxpayers.”

In an effort to highlight the Region’s concern, Peel’s 2024 advocacy priorities stressed that, “With limited revenue sources, it is unsustainable for Peel Region to make up the difference left by the provincial funding shortfall” and requested that the Province “retroactively address historic underfunding for Peel’s provincially mandated services.” 

After what seemed to be an optimistic note following an in-person meeting in July between Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish and Premier Doug Ford in his home office when the Premier assured the Province “would look at staging some help,” the PCs did not follow through during the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa last week, when requests were made to provincial officials. 

“Sadly, [it] seemed to land with a thud,” Parrish, who has made it a top priority to garner a fair share of funding for her city and the region, told The Pointer. “We won’t give up, however. Our next step is to put on a full court press. The 15-minute sessions aren’t conducive to any in-depth discussion." 

“I didn’t feel much progress was made on Peel’s underfunding for social issues.”

In Peel’s 2024 pre-budget submission to the Province, which was centered around the call for the Ontario government to address historic underfunding for provincially mandated services in Peel, the Region highlighted that, “Increased funding for provincially-mandated programs is required to adequately keep pace with inflationary pressures and to address existing funding deficits as a result of chronic provincial underfunding and increased service demands of Peel’s growing population.” The report added, “Peel Region, like many other municipalities, is facing significant fiscal challenges due to outdated funding models that no longer support community needs, limited revenue sources, and historic underfunding for provincially mandated services.” 

The submission revealed that, among several other financial challenges facing the Region, Peel will need $50 billion over the next 10 years to eliminate core housing need as well as increased funding for wrap-around supports and expanded income and social programs. Housing subsidies in Peel have also faced significant decreases over the past several years, with the Region reporting a 20 percent drop in federal and provincial funding between 2017 and 2021, creating an unfunded gap of $678 million. This underfunding, staff explained, has put “significant strain on housing services, making it challenging to address the housing needs of the community adequately.”

Funding for mental health services also sits below the provincial average with service providers in Peel receiving 50 percent less funding for services compared to the rest of the province. The lack of funding not only leads to residents waiting months, or even years, for life-saving support, it also disrupts the efficiency of care. The Region has been calling on the Province to implement a population-based approach to close the financial fracture which staff have stressed puts an increased burden on the acute care system. This, the Region explained, would “address growing waitlists and crisis level demands.”

As for its public health services, the current provincial-municipal cost-shared ratio of 70/30 for the majority of mandatory public health programs has not been a reality for Peel Public Health for years. Peel’s public health system is instead currently operating at a provincial-municipal ratio of 60/40. This resulted in a $9.5 million budgeted shortfall for 2023, though this is not a new reality for the Region. In 2013, a per capita review of all Public Health units across Ontario found Peel ranked last for provincial funding, receiving only $29.83 per capita, compared to jurisdictions at the top of the list which received more than $70 per capita. The median for all Public Health jurisdictions was about $45. 

Although the Province introduced a one percent increase to the Region’s public health funding — $500,000 annually over the next three years — it will not come close to addressing Peel’s funding gap in this service area, nor will it account for “inflation, cost-of-living increases, and population growth needs.” This financial deficit will mean reduced staff and services, limiting the ability to meet critical health needs of Peel residents. 

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says she is determined to get Peel its fair share of funding, and will not let the recent lack of interest deter her.

(The Pointer Files) 

The crippling gap in Peel’s social service funding was brought to light earlier this year when a report prepared by Peel’s Metamorphosis Network showed the impacts of inequities local residents suffer.  

The $868 million being shortchanged annually includes taxpayer-funded money for housing, childcare, educational programs and seniors care, as well as non-profit community services including mental health support and youth programs.

The Network’s analysis ultimately found Peel’s social services are being carelessly underfunded and, in turn, the region’s 1.5 million residents are being underserved. It warned the Region will not be able to keep up with its present level of service under the current status quo, adding that “the full impact of the funding gap on non-profit service delivery in Peel Region has yet to be felt.”

These shortfalls mean longer wait times and insufficient access to services for Peel residents, despite their hard-earned tax dollars working to cover similar services in other parts of the province. The unfair distribution leaves the Region with inadequate resources to handle call volumes, longer wait times, decreased quality of care, and a limited ability to meet community needs, all while pushing residents onto waitlists for critical services such as affordable housing, mental health counselling and basic health services.

At the same time, Ford and his PCs continue to force Peel to accept an outsized number of new residents, with almost 250,000 new homes mandated for the region by 2031 under Bill 23. That will put the exploding region’s population over the 2 million mark, without sending a fair share of funding back to Peel’s taxpayers, whose contributions to Queen’s Park coffers continue to be redistributed to other parts of Ontario where residents enjoy higher service levels.  

Closing, or at least trying to ease Peel’s financial gap means larger contributions from local revenue sources like property taxes to cover the funding deficit, while Peel’s taxpayers continue to put money into the province, dollars that are not being returned back to the region, while local residents instead subsidize social services and other critical costs in other municipalities.  

Peel’s Metamorphosis Network has been demanding Ford and his PC government provide equitable funding and create a new deal for Peel, similar to new deals secured earlier this year by Toronto and Ottawa for housing and transit support that has allowed those municipalities to shift revenues and prioritize other key services.

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

(Metamorphosis Network)

The City of Mississauga passed a motion in June to join the Metamorphosis Network in its advocacy efforts and demand the Province commit to a fair funding model. The motion, introduced by Councillor Brad Butt, pointed out that of the $868 million gap across Peel, Mississauga’s shortfall is almost half a billion dollars. The Town of Caledon also passed a similar motion.

Butt, who was also in attendance at last week’s AMO conference in Ottawa, felt more optimistic about the Province’s response following breakout meetings. 

“It's not an easy or immediate solution to this problem. It's going to take some time, but… my sense is they were listening and they were taking it seriously,” he told The Pointer. “I think they understand that there's been this historic problem in equity for a long time, and I think they truly would like to see the problem rectified, but it is obviously a timing issue and obviously money. That's the key part of this, and it has to be done in a responsible way.”

The Councillor added he is hopeful the PC government will take a look and see if they can repair the funding gap which he suggested could be done through a long-term response spread over a reasonable time period. This, he explained, would gradually bring Peel closer to the provincial average, so Mississauga receives similar funding for specific needs compared to other municipalities. 

“Obviously they can't close the gap overnight. If the Province could come back and make a commitment to us to say, ‘listen, over the next three to five years, as an example, we will work towards closing that gap to bring Peel up to the provincial average.’ I think that would be a very reasonable response.” 

While Peel’s population growth has skyrocketed over the last several decades, funding from upper levels of government has not kept up with the pace of growth and previous financial formulas that were already inadequate have created widening gaps in the system. Costs absorbed by Peel’s social services have gradually increased with inflation while provincial funding has not accelerated at the same rate and, when compared to other Ontario municipalities/Regions with populations over 500,000 — Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, York, Durham, Waterloo and Halton — the report found financial support in Peel remained consistently low. The region finished last among other comparable municipalities for municipal social service funding, nonprofit community service funding, and Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) community health funding. Peel also ranked below average for public school board funding.  

“All those agencies that are doing all of that great work, they're overwhelmed right now,” Councillor Butt explained. “They're turning people away. They're not able to provide an adequate level of service because our funding just didn't keep up with the growth and the demands.”

“The funding that they have, they can't keep up. So it's not just that we should be treated the same as everybody else in the province, it's that there is a true need. The need is there.”

Councillor Brad Butt is hopeful the PC government will step up and provide Peel with the necessary funding to close the Region’s alarming gap.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer Files) 

With the region’s population projected to reach more than 2 million over the next two decades, it is critical that the Province step up to provide a more modernized funding model, catered to Peel’s demographic needs.  

“This is a long-standing issue that has just grown over time, and it's come to a head now. It really is at a serious juncture now with these tremendous pressures we have to deliver these services to folks,” Councillor Butt said, pointing to the incoming growth mandated by the Province that will increase Peel’s already rapid  population growth over the next decade. 

“How are we going to provide services to those folks? Not to mention the ones that we have right now where we can't adequately serve them. So we do have tremendous challenges,” he said. “To put these services and costs on the backs of property taxpayers is really unfair, and that's why we need the senior levels of government to be stepping up, providing funding to us so that we can, we can then adequately provide these services to our residents.”

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Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock

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