Mississauga waits for critical funding while upper levels of government are in political limbo

In the midst of a provincial election and while the federal government remains suspended, officials in the country’s seventh largest city wait on pins and needles as they navigate the booming municipality’s future. 

Funding described as “essential” from upper levels of government is needed to move critical projects forward. 

In the last year, Mississauga has been confronted with two extreme weather events that swamped major sections of the city causing tens of millions of dollars in flood damage. An estimated $65 million in operating costs to run a major transit line that continues to be backlogged is needed. City Hall had to reject a $450 million ask as part of the local share contribution for a major hospital expansion — one of the largest ever in Canada — and a $868 million shortfall in provincial funding for Peel’s social services, more than half of which impacts Mississauga’s residents, has not been filled.

(Photo by Tiago Louvize on Unsplash) 
 

For several years the City of Mississauga has prepared documents for upper levels of government highlighting the highest priority requests for housing assistance, transit and major infrastructure projects, ahead of the spring budget season.

This year’s list includes assistance from the provincial and federal governments for investments in flood mitigation infrastructure, after two “once in a century storms” a month apart this summer that left much of the city submerged. Mississauga’s food insecurity crisis and the unprecedented use of food banks in the city are also highlighted in this year’s request. The provincial government has also been asked to provide the $450 million local share funding portion that City Hall could not cover for the Mississauga Hospital redevelopment project — a request that if fulfilled, “ensures Mississauga’s contribution is fair and balanced,” according to the latest submission. 

The political instability in Queen’s Park and Ottawa leaves Mississauga in a state of limbo, unclear when, or if, critical funding for these urgent needs will flow. 

The federal budget is typically tabled in Parliament in February or March each year, in advance of the fiscal year beginning on April 1. With a federal election most likely to take place before the summer and Parliament currently suspended ahead of a looming Liberal leadership vote to choose the next prime minister, who will guide the Party into the election, help for municipalities will not likely be high on the list of federal government priorities, unless local candidates can successfully lobby for funding as part of their election, or re-election strategy.

At Queen’s Park the PCs have been in “caretaker mode” since Party leader Doug Ford dissolved the legislature and called an early election set for February 27. The province’s budget process, which as in Ottawa would typically happen in March, will now be delayed as Ontario’s political parties focus on campaigning ahead of the vote at the end of the month.

PC Party leader Doug Ford has triggered an early election, delaying the provincial pre-budget process.

(Government of Ontario) 
 

“Both orders of government still have to pass budgets soon and so at the conclusion of the provincial election it won’t be a surprise for whoever forms government provincially that these are the concerns in Mississauga and this is what we need to see in the next budget for municipalities, and for Mississauga specifically, especially when it comes to supporting housing, infrastructure, and addressing affordability,” Councillor Alvin Tedjo told The Pointer. “We also need transit investments, we need food insecurity investments [and] we need hospital investments.”

“Those are the things that we want to make sure that they know and aren’t going to be surprised about.”

As has been done in recent years during provincial and federal election periods, the City has shifted the latest pre-budget requests and reframed them as campaign priorities under the title “Mississauga Matters”. The list of needs will be shared with local candidates and party leaders. Responding to two major themes in Mississauga and municipalities across the province over the last several years, the latest submissions have been divided into two categories: support for housing-enabling infrastructure; and improving affordability. 

As the third largest city in Ontario, under the leadership of Mayor Carolyn Parrish, local officials are asking the provincial government to sign a new funding deal for Mississauga, as has been done for Toronto and Ottawa. It was a main campaign priority for Parrish during the mayoral by-election last spring and she has sat down with Ford to advocate on behalf of the city. According to the recent budget submission, the agreement “must ensure financial support” for the first three years of the Hurontario LRT’s operating costs. It also requests funding for the Lakeshore bus rapid transit project, the Dundas bus rapid transit line and a new transit storage facility, “to support long-term infrastructure growth and regional development.” 

The Dundas Bus Rapid Transit Line is among the requests featured in Mississauga’s latest budget submission to Queen’s Park.

(Metrolinx) 

The City is also looking for fair share funding of Peel Region, which continues to see explosive growth that has not been matched by adequate funding from Ottawa or Queen’s Park for decades, despite the critical need for infrastructure to support the booming population, much of which is mandated by the Province and created by federal immigration policy. 

The request for a population-based, per-capita funding formula for social services has been reiterated repeatedly over the past year after a report from Peel’s Metamorphosis Network revealed the region’s social services are currently staring at an $868 million shortfall in funding — equal to $578 per resident in Peel. The PC government is effectively using tax dollars from Mississauga to subsidize services in other parts of the province.

According to the City’s submission, the region’s lower-tier municipalities have had to reallocate $138 per person from the local property taxes each year to cover the provincial funding gap for essential services as a result of the PCs’ glaring funding shortfall. 

Tedjo acknowledged that the City’s priorities have shifted in recent years, especially when it comes to housing and transit, which he said both need significantly more support. Transit, specifically, he says, has been largely underfunded compared to other regions where population growth is substantially lower than Peel’s.

For infrastructure that will help spur more housing in Mississauga, where the PC government wants 120,000 new homes by 2031, the 2025 submission includes money for transit expansion to support Mississauga’s growth, including a $2 million ask for the development of a business case and further studies for the extension of the Dundas Bus Rapid Transit corridor and a clear timeline for expanding all-day, two-way GO service along the Milton rail line — something the PCs committed to in their 2024 budget, though no cost or money was provided. 

“Both orders of government provincially and federally have talked about more investment in Mississauga for transit projects. Both have committed to the Milton Go Line which is the most significant project that we could be investing in in the City of Mississauga,” Tedjo said. “They both kind of made announcements but we haven’t seen enough progress on that so we need to push harder to make sure that those commitments result in actual action and investment and have the project move forward quicker.” 

“These things happen slowly and sometimes the priorities change and we need to adjust with that. But when it comes to that type of infrastructure we still desperately need more action and not sure words.”

A new request to the province is for a $500 million transit facility to support expanding the city’s MiWay service, which has been seeing ridership increase year over year. Queen’s Park has also been asked to expedite the approval of Mississauga’s applications for the Housing Enabling Water Systems Fund and the Housing Enabling Core Services Stream to improve the city’s flood resiliency following the two “100-year” storms that hit Mississauga, and many parts of the GTA, this past summer. 

Funding for food banks is a new addition to this year’s pre-budget submission. Given the severity of food insecurity in Mississauga right now, with Food Banks Mississauga estimating over 100,000 people will rely on the organization’s services by 2027, the City is requesting the province prioritize funding to provide assistance to local food banks and support for the Groceries and Essentials Benefit introduced by Food Banks Canada, which aims to help struggling households.

“We’re always concerned about how quickly governments can respond to needs in the city. These elections and leadership races obviously delay that a little bit,” Tedjo acknowledged, adding, “I think at the end of the day they’ll still meet the timelines they should meet, we’re just going to have a more condensed consultation period in which we can formally submit our needs to those levels of government.” 

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock 

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