$450M for huge new hospital too much to ask of taxpayers in Mississauga, mayor says

City officials who’ve been asked to contribute $450 million toward a new multibillion-dollar Mississauga hospital that’ll be the biggest in Canada when it opens in 2033 are hesitant to chip in that much — if any money at all.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish and councillors said on Wednesday while they fully support plans to build The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital, which will replace the current hospital at the corner of Hurontario Street and The Queensway, they don’t like the idea of sticking city taxpayers with a large chunk of the bill.

In fact, one option council is considering is to have residents pay nothing at all toward what’s being billed as a state-of-the-art regional hospital that’ll quickly become a “destination health centre” once it begins taking patients early next decade.

Earlier this month, Trillium Health Partners, the umbrella organization that oversees Mississauga Hospital and Credit Valley Hospital in addition to the Queensway Health Centre on the Etobicoke-Mississauga border, asked council for $450 million from the City of Mississauga to help get shovels in the ground next spring and build the much-needed hospital.

THP president and CEO Karli Farrow appeared before council Oct. 9 to make the health network’s case for the municipal contribution.

She told councillors the provincial government will pay 80 to 85 per cent of the yet-to-be-determined cost, which is expected to be “in the billions.”

Ward 11 Coun. Brad Butt, also chair of the city’s budget committee, says Mississauga taxpayers shouldn’t be burdened with paying for the hospital.

Farrow said the remainder of the tab will be picked up via a local plan worked out by Trillium Health Partners — from its own revenue in addition to fundraising/philanthropy and, ideally, cash from the city/taxpayers.

More specifically, she said, some $500 million will come from THP revenue with another $330 million from its fundraising initiatives. That leaves a $450-million “ask” of the city, which would be payable in 2033.

Responding to Farrow, Ward 6 Coun. Joe Horneck said at the time that while the need for the new hospital is great, the city — and residents — must get a fair shake when it comes to paying for the health-care facility.

Since it’ll be a regional hospital offering top-notch care to those outside the city as well, it “may not be fair to (have it) sit only on Mississauga’s tax base,” the councillor said, suggesting council must ensure “the city gets the best deal we can get.”

Trillium Health Partners president and CEO Karli Farrow, shown here at city council on Oct. 9, has asked the city for $450 million toward the new hospital.

On the heels of Horneck’s comments, Parrish and several other councillors echoed his sentiments — and then some — at Wednesday’s meeting of general committee, where they didn’t mince words.

Ward 11 Coun. Brad Butt, who chairs the city’s budget committee, said he’ll bring a motion to next week’s council meeting recommending the city contributes no money to the massive project.

A staff report from city manager Geoff Wright in response to Trillium Health Partners’ funding request presented councillors with four contribution options:

• $150 million
• $300 million
• $450 million (full contribution being sought by THP)
• no financial contribution

“We’re in some very significant and difficult budget times,” Butt said Wednesday. “We see what possible tax impact increases are going to be the next number of years between both the City of Mississauga and Region of Peel and I just think at this particular time given all of that, that a municipal contribution toward a capital hospital build is just not something that we can take on.”

Parrish agreed, noting there’s no legislation that requires the city to help pay for the hospital. In addition, she said, what might seem like a relatively small amount in the beginning — a $12 tax bill hike in year one — will become increasingly burdensome on the city and taxpayers as the new hospital gets closer and closer to completion.

“We have many other challenges,” Parrish began, adding it’s not fair to place such a financial burden on Mississauga’s 720,000 residents when hundreds of thousands more from other regions will use the hospital as well.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says the city has work to do to reach a funding agreement with the provincial government to get the hospital built.

The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital, and the Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children to be built within its walls, is “going to take care of the whole southwest of Ontario,” the mayor continued. “It’s building a second Sick Kids hospital; there’s a branch of (the new hospital) that’s going to be for all the kids in the province that are closer to us than downtown Toronto.

“What they’re doing (building the hospital) is wonderful, but I think it’s extremely unfair to ask us to do this because we have things coming forward in our budget discussions that we want to do for our citizens here in Mississauga that are not big items, but when you put this elephant in the room into the budget, we have to cut all of those things out, otherwise people will be overburdened.”

Council agreed to defer further discussion on the matter to a future date so councillors have time to talk it over with their constituents.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to try and negotiate with the province to see if we can adjust this in some way, if we pay anything at all,” Parrish said. “And if they’re inflexible, then we opt to” offer no financial contribution at all.

Rendering of what The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital will look like when completed in 2033. Story cover photo shows another rendering. (Images: Trillium Health Partners)

If the city is to contribute financially to the hospital, Trillium Health Partners must know definitively by January in order to keep the provincial government in the loop.

Farrow said at the earlier council meeting that construction beginning on time next spring is tied to all financial contributions being in place in early 2025.

In his report to council, Wright pointed out that Trillium Health Partners’ $450-million ask of the city (based on an estimated overall local share of $1.5 billion) is “roughly 42 per cent higher than the amounts requested in other communities” where hospitals have recently partnered with the provincial government and municipalities to build hospitals.

He also noted the City of Toronto “is not expected to contribute a local share to their hospitals. This practice only applies to hospitals outside of Toronto.”