First hospice centre to be built in Mississauga is long overdue, city officials say

Mississauga is getting its first hospice centre, a facility local officials say is long overdue for Canada’s seventh-largest city.

“It’s embarrassing” a city the size of Mississauga — with some 720,000 residents at last official count — has not had its own hospice for many years, Mayor Carolyn Parrish said at a council meeting last December when she was Ward 5 councillor.

At that same meeting inside council chambers at city hall, Kitrina Fex, executive director of the then-newly branded Hospice Mississauga, echoed those sentiments, noting “we are the third-largest city in the province and the largest city in Canada without a hospice.”

For 14 years prior to its renaming in November 2023, Hospice Mississauga was known as Heart House Hospice. The organization offered end-of-life care and services to those who needed it, but it was without its own dedicated facility.

It badly needed its own bricks-and-mortar location, Fex said, noting at the time Mississauga’s population was aging at a rapid rate.

Fex also said plans were in the early stages for Hospice Mississauga to get its first permanent location, a 12-bed facility she hoped would open in fall 2026.

On Thursday morning, the Ontario government said it’s providing as much as $2.5 million “to support the construction of Hospice Mississauga’s new 12-bed hospice centre, which will help patients and their loved ones connect to comfortable and dignified end-of-life care, close to home.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford added the new facility will give comfort to patients and their families “at an incredibly difficult time.”

Mississauga centre will add to number of hospice beds in region

When complete, the new hospice will be the first hospice centre in Mississauga and will provide end-of-life care to people and families living in Mississauga and Brampton, the province said in a news release on Thursday.

A completion date has not officially been set.

“The hospice will support those of all ages living with a terminal illness and their caregivers with services including palliative care and grief and bereavement programs,” provincial government officials added. 

The addition of the 12 new patient beds in Mississauga, 10 of which will be funded by the provincial government, will bring the total number of adult and pediatric hospice beds available in Peel and Halton to 30, according to the province.

Fex on Thursday described the moving along of plans for the hospice centre as an “historic milestone for Mississauga.”

She added in a news release that the achievement “is a testament to what we can accomplish when communities and government work together.”

“A profound step forward”

For nearly four decades, Fex said, “we have served this community and now we are bringing a longtime dream to life. The hospice centre will complete the continuum of care, offering the full spectrum of hospice services under one roof for the people of Mississauga.”

Karli Farrow, president and CEO of Trillium Health Partners, the health-care network that oversees Mississauga and Credit Valley hospitals in addition to the Queensway Health Centre in Etobicoke, said the new facility represents “a profound step forward” for health care in Mississauga.

The new Hospice Mississauga centre will include: