Hospice Palliative Helpline: 905-667-1865
Hospice Palliative Helpline: 905-667-1865
Hospice Mississauga appreciates the opportunity to contribute to the Government of Ontario’s pre-budget consultations and to highlight the critical role hospices play in delivering compassionate, cost-effective, and patient-centred end-of-life care.
Hospice Mississauga serves one of Ontario’s fastest-growing and most diverse communities. Demand for hospice services in Mississauga continues to rise, driven by population growth, aging demographics, and increasing pressure on hospitals and acute care settings.
On January 12, 2026, Hospice Mississauga began construction on a new 12-bed Hospice Centre. This project represents a significant milestone for our community and the health system.
The City of Mississauga has demonstrated strong leadership by providing the construction financing required to allow this project to move forward. However, this financing is a loan, not a donation, and Hospice Mississauga must still raise the remaining funds required to complete the project.
Construction is underway. The critical question now is whether the current funding and staffing model will allow the hospice to open and sustain care once construction is complete.
Hospices are an essential component of Ontario’s health system and the continuum of care. Hospice Mississauga provides compassionate, specialized, person-centred care that enhances choice for patients and families at end of life.
Hospice care delivers strong value for the health system:
Hospice Mississauga also provides bereavement support for families, including children and youth, helping them process grief and loss in healthy ways and reducing longer-term impacts on well-being.
Despite the demonstrated value of hospice care, the current funding model remains fundamentally misaligned and inequitable.
Unlike hospitals and other publicly funded health institutions, hospices must fundraise:
This level of reliance on donations is increasingly unsustainable in today’s economic environment and contributes to uneven access to hospice care across communities, based not on need, but on local fundraising capacity.
Workforce sustainability represents a significant and growing risk to hospice operations.
Hospices deliver complex clinical care, yet compensation funding has not kept pace with hospitals and other system partners. Without funding that supports competitive wages and benefits:
Capital investments alone are insufficient if staffing models do not allow services to operate safely and fully.
As the province prepares its next budget, Hospice Mississauga respectfully recommends a more equitable and sustainable hospice funding framework that includes:
These changes would allow hospices to staff beds, stabilize operations, and fully realize the return on both community and provincial investment.
Hospice Mississauga is ready to do its part—delivering high-quality, compassionate care, enhancing choice for patients and families, and supporting the long-term sustainability of Ontario’s health system.
A modernized hospice funding model will ensure that investments made today translate into accessible, reliable care for Ontarians tomorrow.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this submission.
Kitrina Fex
Chief Executive Officer
Hospice Mississauga
1-855 Matheson Blvd E, Mississauga, ON L4W 4L6 | (905) 712-8119 | info@hospicemississauga.ca
Charitable Registration Number: 132155011 RR 0001
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