Social service collective wants to breathe new life into fight for Peel’s fair share after years of underfunding

The Metamorphosis Network, a collective of more than 100 social service agencies in Peel, is trying to get the attention of the provincial government. 

In May last year, the organization released a disturbing report exposing an annual funding shortfall of $868 million in community service funding, Healthcare, education, mental health and addictions, and other core municipal services have all been underfunded by the Ontario government for years. This nearly $1 billion gap is evident in Peel’s overcrowded emergency rooms, the waitlist for critical services like seniors dental care, affordable housing and youth therapy options. While more and more teens and young adults are reporting mental health struggles, last year it was reported the waitlist for such assistance in Peel has ballooned 133 percent in four years, and some young people are being forced to wait up to 737 days for assistance. 

On November 12, members of the Metamorphosis Network appeared before Brampton council seeking assistance for a renewed round of research and its “What Matters To You” public awareness campaign. The campaign also includes a survey to engage residents and gather data on their priorities and what social services matter most to them. 

Early in 2026, Metamorphosis plans to release a second research report that will be presented to the Peel Regional Council, with detailed information on funding gaps in specific programs, including long-term care, childcare, affordable housing, and mental health.

To assist with their efforts, Metamorphosis requested $250,000 in advertising space for its “What Matters to You” campaign from Brampton to match Mississauga’s contribution. Brampton Council members appeared to support the idea and referred it to staff for further information.

"Regarding the specific request, we are fully supportive, and we'll see what staff comes back with in terms of recommendations," Councillor Martin Medeiros told the delegation. “A lot of the services you're talking about really contribute to our health and wellbeing here in our community, and they are so critical. When you think about the lack of support we get in our region—and I'm not trying to sort of blame one government or another—it's an opportunity for us to address it collectively and work together."

The campaign posters, if the funding is approved, will be displayed on buses, digital screens in community spaces, and highway overpasses.

The advertising space would be in addition to the funding approved by Region of Peel last year. In late 2024, Peel approved $850,000 for Metamorphosis over the period of two years. The group has received $450,000 in 2025 and will get $400,000 in 2026, to support its awareness efforts and research.

Despite the disturbing findings of the Metamorphosis report, Gurpreet Malhotra, the CEO of Indus Community Services and member of the Metamorphosis Leadership Team, says the provincial government has provided no indication it is working to update the funding formulas that dole out critical funding to municipalities. 

"Since May 2024, we have shared all our data with every relevant government department and ministry so they could review it and point out any errors. We were promised by ministers and departments that they would get back to us, but so far, they haven’t indicated any errors or provided feedback,” he says. “It’s disappointing that despite our efforts and promises of engagement from the province, we still haven’t had a meaningful response. We now expect that the actual numbers could be even worse than what we initially reported."

The funding shortfall identified in the Metamorphosis report represents a $578 yearly gap for every person in Brampton, Mississauga, and Caledon. It also found that nonprofit services receive $258 per capita less in grant funding from upper levels of government. Despite these revelations, the repeated requests to the province for a fair share of funding for its social services have continued to fall on deaf ears.

"If you look at healthcare, we're receiving half the dollars that the average Ontarian receives," Malhotra said.

A report released in May 2024 from Peel’s Metamorphosis Network revealed the extent of the shortfall in annual funding from Queen’s Park.

(Metamorphosis Network)

"So you cross the 427, or you go to London or Barrie or Ottawa, and you will have many more long-term care beds. You will have more money put into affordable housing, employment programs, more money for violence prevention programs for families, and mental health programs. People become quite stunned at how this is happening and what's going on because the assumption is that the province treats all of its regions fairly, and we have proof that we've shared with the province, and they have not been able to counter or point out where we made the mistake or anything."

Gurpreet Malhotra, CEO of Indus Community Services, first informed The Pointer about the impact of the funding shortfall on Peel’s residents.

(Submitted)

The enormous growth of Peel over the last five decades, which has been almost entirely mandated by the province, has not been matched by the proportional tax dollars that should be returned to the residents who provide that funding. Statistics have shown that Peel’s public school system students only get about 90 cents on the dollar compared to Toronto, and much less compared to the children in the other parts of the province. When it comes to healthcare funding, the situation is even worse, as Brampton has less than half the hospital beds as compared to the rest of the province.

In 1971, Peel had 260,000 residents; it has almost 1.6 million now, a more than 500 percent increase in less than five and a half decades, which is projected to reach 2 million in the next 15 years, and the funding gap might get worse if the province keeps neglecting the region.

Last year, The Pointer reported that the funding for mental health services in Peel sits below the provincial average, with service providers receiving 50 percent less funding compared to the rest of the province. For 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’s system, which has instead been operating at a provincial-municipal ratio of 60/40. This resulted in a $9.5 million budgeted shortfall for 2023. A decade ago, 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.

The province has repeatedly ignored the local calls for change. 

Despite a commitment from Premier Doug Ford to Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish in the summer of 2024 that he would “look at staging some help” to address the funding shortfall; that brief flicker of hope was extinguished only weeks later when Parrish said the issue “landed with a thud” when Peel’s elected officials raised it with PC Cabinet minister at the annual AMO conference. 

Since that time, the PC government has avoided discussion on the issue. 

Ahead of the provincial election in February, PC candidates in Peel refused to sign a pledge from the Metamorphosis Network that would have committed them to drastically reducing the multi-million dollar funding shortfall.

During the 2025 AMO conference in Ottawa this past August, the delegation of regional councillors in attendance once again raised the issue.

In an acknowledgement letter from Todd McCarthy, the Acting Minister of Infrastructure, sent to regional council at the end of October, he wrote: “Delegates had requested staff-level discussions regarding funding formulas and funding models…The ministry will reach out to municipalities to set up these meetings.”

McCarthy did not respond to questions about any progress.

Peel’s representatives at AMO—Nando Iannicca, Chair of the Region, Brampton Councillor Paul Vicente and Caledon Councillor Mario Russo—were also silent when asked about any progress since the issue was raised.

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