Sunbeam Provides Input to Ministry of Finance Consultation for 2026 Ontario Budget

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Submission highlights the challenges faced by individuals living with developmental disabilities and their families.

This month, Sunbeam Community & Developmental Services was invited to provide input to the Ministry of Finance as part of government’s consultation for the 2026 Ontario Budget.

Sunbeam put forth 3 recommendations for consideration:

  1. Supporting the recommendation from Community Living Ontario to increase annualized developmental services base funding by 3% for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, and by 2% in each of the subsequent 5 years.
  2. Supporting the recommendations of the Ontario Ombudsman’s Report “Lost in Transition” including including calling for investments to support capital planning and funding in order to develop adequate and appropriate community infrastructure to accommodate the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities, including those with more complex needs.
  3. Support for investments to expand and better resource system capacity within the developmental services in areas such as overnight respite for adults (to enable people to continue living in community longer, keep families together, reduce caregiver burnout, alleviate pressure on group living waitlists and avoid crises), passport funding allocations, and digital transformation of the sector to enable data/information sharing within and across sectors (DS, Health, Community).

Sunbeam’s CEO, Brian Swainson adds :

“With the long waitlists in developmental services, new capital and operating investments are needed to expand system capacity – whether in areas of supportive housing, or community participation supports, or overnight respite. Developmental Services provides tailored supports and services to individuals living with developmental disabilities, which not only provide excellent quality of life, inclusion and belonging to individuals, but also avoids individuals and families experiencing crises that then put great pressures on healthcare (hospitals, long-term care) and other social services (shelters, addictions and mental health, and more).”

To view Sunbeam’s 2026 pre-budget submission, click here to open the PDF in a new tab.
2026-Sunbeam-Pre-Budget-Submission
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