‘Stop shortchanging our community,’ Mississauga social services group tells province

A Mississauga social services advocate told the provincial government today to “stop shortchanging our community” when it comes to funding crucial supports for city residents and those in Peel’s two other municipalities as well.

“We need the Ontario government to step up, stop shortchanging our community and invest in Peel the way they invest in every other community,” Priyanka Sheth, executive director of Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre, told Mississauga city council in a deputation on Wednesday morning.

Sheth is also a member of Peel’s Metamorphosis Network, an umbrella group comprised of more than 100 non-profit community services agencies that have joined forces to ensure services are “fully funded, effective and meet the needs of the community.”

Appearing before council as it was poised to approve a motion to once again apply pressure to the province for fair funding for social services in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, Sheth applauded councillors and emphasized the importance of reliable and accessible social services.

“People in Peel know what makes our community strong. People come here from all over the world to build a good life for their family,” she said. “And together, we’ve built the most vibrant communities you could imagine. We are the most diverse and fastest-growing region in Ontario, home to over 1.5 million people and full of opportunity. But no matter where a person lives, we all need public services we can count on — from housing to schools, child care to seniors’ care.”

Priyanka Sheth, executive director of Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre, speaks at city council on Wednesday morning.

Not long after Sheth spoke, councillors voted unanimously in favour of a motion that called for Mississauga officials to pressure the province for additional cash and to meet with city brass to get the ball quickly rolling on more funding.

In what has been an ongoing battle for some three decades, Mississauga is again pushing the provincial government for hundreds of millions of dollars to help fix what the city sees as an ongoing and massive underfunding of social and municipal services both in Canada’s seventh-largest city and across Peel.

City officials have said chronic funding shortfalls have, among other impacts, led to longer wait times and less equitable access to services for Mississauga residents and local communities.

A recent report from the Metamorphosis Network found residents of the region’s three municipalities “receive less provincial funding for municipal and social services than the average resident of Ontario municipalities, receiving an average of $578 less, annually, per person.”

The report also noted the cumulative gap in funding “amounts to over $868 million in underfunding across Peel, on average each year, and almost half a billion dollars for Mississauga alone.”

The approved motion, introduced by Ward 11 Coun. Brad Butt, asked that:

• council push the province, Premier Doug Ford, ministers and local MPPs “to make an immediate commitment to providing a fair, new deal for Mississauga to ensure municipal and social services in Mississauga receive an equitable share of provincial investment”
• council call on the province to meet with the city and non-profit groups “to work together on a plan to address provincial underfunding of municipal and social services in Mississauga”

In the notice of motion, Butt again pushes for recognition by the provincial government that both Mississauga and Peel are significantly underfunded and action to address the matter by sending more dollars the city and region’s way.

Butt noted that as a “world-class city that’s an economic engine for Ontario and Canada,” Mississauga and its residents must be able “to access and rely upon appropriate social services and supports such as child care, seniors care, mental health care” and other services in order to “thrive and succeed.”

To help cover the cash shortfall over the years, Mississauga has increased property taxes and introduced user fees, Butt’s motion pointed out.