New multibillion-dollar hospital will get no money from Mississauga taxpayers: city

Mississauga officials have decided the city won’t pay any money — let alone the $450 million being asked of it — toward construction of a new multibillion-dollar Mississauga hospital that’ll be the biggest in Canada when it opens in 2033.

Citing a list of existing budget pressures and burden on Mississauga taxpayers, city councillors said on Wednesday a financial contribution to the massive hospital build isn’t feasible.

Instead, they asked the provincial government, already committed to as much as 85 per cent of the funding, to pick up a larger chunk of the bill, which is expected to be “in the billions” of dollars.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish and councillors said 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’re not willing to put an additional financial burden on taxpayers.

Ward 11 Coun. Brad Butt, who also chairs the City of Mississauga’s budget committee, said “no matter how we would finance it,” the additional pressure on residents’ property tax bills would be too much.

“We’re looking at some significant pressures on our property taxes in 2025 (and beyond),” said Butt, whose motion to decline the hospital’s request for $450 million received unanimous support at city council on Wednesday. “And even though this contribution may not start until a year or two after (2025), it’s still going to put tremendous pressure on us.”

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.

Butt said the new hospital will be an important addition to Mississauga, and to much of southern Ontario as well, but “the city just does not have the capacity to contribute financially at this time.”

Ward 8 Coun. Matt Mahoney, also the city’s deputy mayor, said he and his council colleagues “understand the need to invest in health care and to invest in the hospital,” but the Ontario government must bring more cash to the table for this project.

“This is a hospital in Mississauga, but it will serve not only the region, the GTA, the GTHA, the province of Ontario and in many cases, with the services that will be provided, it will provide health care for Canadians, so to put this on the Mississauga property tax base, on Mississauga taxpayers isn’t fair to our taxpayers.”

City already “doing quite a bit”

Butt added the city has already contributed to the hospital build — and will continue to — in ways other than financial. In quickly issuing building permits to date for the project, for example, in addition to other contributions, “our staff have gone out of their way to be supportive of this project and helping to hustle it along because the province wants to move along quickly” as well.

“The City of Mississauga is doing quite a bit, and the Region of Peel to some degree, … to support this hospital build in other ways, not just financially, but in working really, really hard to make sure this project is truly successful, is built on time and hopefully on budget.”

In an email to INsauga.com, Trillium Health Partners spokesperson Megan Primeau said the $450 million ask of the City of Mississauga is, on a per capita basis, “below the median when compared to other municipal contributions for large-scale health-care infrastructure projects. The size of the request is a result of this being the largest health infrastructure investment, by the government of Ontario, in the province’s history.”

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, first asked council for the $450 million three weeks ago.

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

The organization said at the time firming up such a municipal contribution would help get shovels in the ground next spring and build the much-needed hospital on time.

THP has confirmed commitments of over $825 million toward the local share through contributions from the hospital and donations via its fundraising arm, the Trillium Health Partners Foundation.

Primeau also noted in her email the local share “is a standard part of the process for larger health-care infrastructure projects like ours.”

She added “our municipal request has been presented to Mississauga city council and is with them to decide the next steps. We will continue working with the City of Mississauga and all our partners to make this generational infrastructure project a reality.”

On Oct. 9, THP president and CEO Karli Farrow appeared before council to make the health network’s case for a municipal contribution to the state-of-the-art, 22-storey hospital.

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.”

Farrow said at the time the remainder of the tab would 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.

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)