To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
In a move that has sparked outrage among Brampton residents and environmental groups, Doug Ford’s PC government has approved the expansion of a controversial waste-to-energy facility in the city, despite widespread concerns over public health and environmental impacts.
While the facility owners claim it offers a clean energy solution, critics point out the lack of meaningful public consultation, the looming health risks posed by toxic emissions and the long-term environmental consequences of turning Brampton into a waste-burning hub.
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As the curtains draw on 2025, Ontarians can look back on a year marked by challenges to the province’s environmental framework, from omnibus bills that reshaped protections for species, parks, and water, to controversies over resource development and conservation authority mergers.
Yet amid these pressures, nature and public advocacy persisted: endangered species were rediscovered, communities rallied to defend their lands and climate-positive projects gained momentum. In the words of the late Dr. Jane Goodall: “There is hope”.
In August, one Caledon resident filed a freedom of information request seeking all opposition commentary sent to the Town related to the controversial blasting quarry proposal.
The response he received has uncovered a glaring lack of transparency and accountability, and an apparent gap in the record-keeping practices inside Town Hall.
Niagara police officers investigating human trafficking often keep themselves, and their work, under wraps to maintain the required anonymity to conduct these complex investigations.
At the end of November, officers pulled back the curtain to educate residents about a crime that is increasing in the region, and let survivors know they are here to help.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing a series of its most-read stories of 2025.
The former buildings that housed the industrial operations of GM on Ontario Street in St. Catharines are crumbling. The site is pockmarked with industrial hatches and holes that threaten to swallow anyone who is unaware and wanders into the easily accessible site.
Why is the City refusing to take action as the “active demolition” has not seen significant progress for a number of years?
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
The number of Brampton home owners unable to cover their tax bill exploded under the current term of council, according to a report by City staff. While Bramptonians grapple with a cost-of-living crisis, the recent numbers show the financial strategy forced by Mayor Patrick Brown has not worked. Despite freezing the budget—which has gutted City accounts and delayed major infrastructure projects—it appears his politically motivated plan (Brown styles himself as a cost-cutting politician) has not had the intended effect of easing the financial burden on ratepayers.
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With the help of her two young daughters, Cassandra Harvey, a survivor of human trafficking, is fundraising money for Safe Hope Home, a social service agency that lost its critical shelter building for survivors in a fire earlier this year.
The What Were You Wearing? event brings together art and advocacy to debunk the harmful myth that what a victim of sexual assault is wearing during an attack somehow provokes the violence.
Brampton officials ratified the motion to implement the Residential Rental Licensing program framework across all wards in the city at the December 10 council meeting, despite unanswered questions about how bylaw officers required to enforce the program citywide will be hired, without a clear funding source for new staff needed to ensure the program’s success.
After months of sleepless nights, unanswered letters and mounting fear for their water, farms and future, Swan Lake’s neighbours arrived at Caledon council chambers on December 16 not knowing if they were coming to grieve, or celebrate.
What unfolded was an extraordinary night of poetry, song and civic pressure that ended with Town council unanimously reversing course on a controversial plan to dump construction waste into the lake — for now.
Pushback against the Ford government’s plan to merge Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven mega-regional bodies is intensifying as municipalities including those in Peel and advocacy groups rush to express their opposition before the December 22 submission deadline.
Conservation authorities stress they are already fulfilling their critical role effectively despite minimal funding currently provided by the PCs. Critics warn the proposed changes could threaten local decision-making, undermine watershed protection and curtail critical work to mitigate the increasing impacts of climate change.
Brampton’s Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh established the parent company of Niwaas Living, a not-for-profit corporation building affordable housing in Brampton. This year, City of Brampton councillors, including Singh, have approved $24 million in grants for two Niwaas Living housing projects.
Singh did not declare a conflict of interest or disclose in council his connection to the Niwaas Foundation which he created, officially incorporated and helps raise money for.
At its final meeting of the year Thursday, the Niagara Police Services Board will consider reductions to the 2026 budget which proposes an 11.5 percent increase over 2025.
The Board Chair has argued any further reductions could come at a significant risk. While regional councillors are looking for a $2.7 million reduction in police spending, options outlined by Niagara Police finance staff in a report going to the board Thursday, fall short.
For weeks, The Pointer’s attempts to get information about the state of a filtration system on the former St. Catharines GM property have been ignored by the Ministry of the Environment Conservation and Parks.
A Freedom of Information request reveals that the silence was a direct order handed down from a political staff member in the minister’s office.
This is a story of two Indigenous youth who could be living the ordinary chaos of their early twenties, but instead have inherited the burden of protecting their land, their waters and their communities from a “model of prosperity” built at the expense of the natural world.
Rather than look away, they stepped forward, and said—‘Here We Stand’, picking up the torch passed down by exhausted elders.
Relying on misleading information and bolstering the stigma that haunts those who use drugs, the PC government made the decision earlier this year to shutter safe consumption sites across Ontario—one in Peel.
Since its closure at the end of March, the regional municipality has increased its harm reduction efforts to assist those who use drugs. It will hopefully lessen any spike of deadly overdoses, which many experts say is inevitable due to the closure of these life-saving facilities across the province.
An investigation by The Pointer has uncovered questionable spending on an “economic development” trip to Tokyo and Manila attended by two City staffers and Councillor Rowena Santos.
While thousands of dollars were spent on flights and accommodations, determining the full cost of the trip was complicated by poorly scanned or unreadable receipts in documents supplied by the City under a freedom of information request. It remains unclear why Santos went in the first place.
For Caledon’s Chickadee Hill and Belain Farm owners, Swan Lake represents clean water that sustains their livelihoods; a “prominent developer” sees it as a place to dump construction waste.
After a long summer, one battle seems lost—a local conservation authority’s offer to purchase the property was declined. But local advocates insist the fight is far from over: there are still options to protect the lake, hold authorities accountable and make sure the mayor follows those who put her in office, not developers who like to flex their muscle.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has for years stalled plans to redevelop the city’s beleaguered downtown, slashing budgets and pushing key staff out the door. Now, he wants investors to take on the risk of building in a floodplain, after failing to build infrastructure that would mitigate the danger.
The City is preparing an application to the provincial government that, if approved, would amend the zoning restrictions put in place decades ago to protect residents and infrastructure from flooding.
During a town hall gathering in Brampton on December 7, attended by hundreds of the city’s Sikh residents, the community raised numerous safety concerns following brazen extortion efforts and criminal threats. Evidence points to the involvement of the Indian government which has long tried to destabilize Sikhs in the country and around the world.
The RCMP and United States justice officials have linked the government of India to crimes on Canadian soil, including the high-profile assassination of a well known community leader in British Columbia. A coalition of Sikh organizations is calling on law enforcement and federal politicians to take action.
A development on Park Street in Niagara Falls could provide needed affordable rental units and spur growth in the downtown, but efforts to secure a private developer had been previously unsuccessful. A November 24th ground breaking revealed Elite Developments as the City’s partner. No information has been provided on how this came to be.
After a lack of public consultation around a proposed parking lot that threatened green space adjacent to Thorold’s prized Memorial Park, will a revised design satisfy residents?
The Auditor General of Ontario kicked off the Holiday season by delivering a stocking stuffed with hard truths about the Environmental Bill of Rights, revealing a government more eager to silence its citizens than safeguard their environment.
What should be the province’s democratic guardrails now seem like fragile ice, thinning under the weight of rushed laws, buried consultations and decisions made in the dark. With trust eroding and accountability slipping, some Ontarians are now calling on the province to strengthen the compliance requirements tied to AGO reports.
A freedom of information request by The Pointer has revealed a disturbing lack of transparency by officials with the provincial environment ministry and inside St. Catharines City Hall.
They knew for weeks that the filtration system set up on the former GM site next to downtown, to protect the public from cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic substances previously detected at levels as much as 1,000 times above allowable limits, has not been in operation. They failed to inform the public or take any action to protect residents from potential harm.
According to Diodati and University of Niagara Falls President David Gray, there are thousands of students studying in the city’s downtown. If they are, business owners aren’t seeing them.
Restrictions placed on international study permits by the federal government raised doubts about the in-person enrolment figures claimed by the institution since it opened in 2024.
During the Region of Peel’s recent budget meeting, residents demanded relief. Their stories of financial hardship are shared by taxpayers across the region, especially those struggling on a fixed income.
They were responding to 17 percent in total proposed increases (9.2 percent for Peel’s tax-supported budget and 7.8 percent for utilities). The proposed levies would add hundreds of dollars more onto residents in taxes and fees. The Peel Police budget alone could see a nearly 10 percent hike this year. With elected officials scared to take on the political power police leaders wield, it’s unclear how the region will find the relief residents are pleading for.
Despite a staff recommendation to approve a bylaw to provide increased protection for tenants, Brampton’s planning committee sent the matter back to staff for further study last month.
The delay offers advocates another opportunity to push for stronger rules that can create a safety net for tenants displaced by corporate landlords.
A piece of paper uncovered at the 11th hour has saved portions of Thorold’s Memorial Park from being paved over for a parking lot.
Prior to the discovery, residents were concerned about the lack of consultation for a project with the potential to impact such a prized piece of city history. While the proposal has been scaled back “considerably”, questions about how the process unfolded remain.
After the November 20 tragedy which left five people dead, Mayor Patrick Brown ran to the media with accusations, which the landlord refutes.
Meanwhile, the former councillor who tried for years to reform fire safety measures in the city—warning that more lives would be lost—wants to know why Brown and council allies, suddenly calling for changes, ignored his efforts for years.
The Ontario government was set to “face the music” at the province’s Superior Court of Justice on December 2 over its lagging climate record. In the eleventh hour, the Doug Ford government quietly rewrote the rules with the passage of its Fall Economic Statement, stalling the Mathur case once again after a historic six-year legal battle.
Ecojustice lawyers representing the seven young Ontarians say the move reveals a government more committed to avoiding accountability than confronting a crisis.
Azad Goyat, a longtime Brampton resident and a vocal critic of Mayor Patrick Brown, was arrested earlier this month in Garden Square, where he was handcuffed and charged with trespassing, right after he protested across from City Hall. He alleges Brown is running Brampton like a dictator and claims widespread corruption has become the new normal under the controversial mayor.
Marking a year since Bill 212 was pushed through, November 25 serves as a stark reminder of how the legislation simultaneously weakened Ontario’s environmental safeguards and cleared political space for Highway 413.
One expert says it was only the beginning: the first in a wave of laws that left species, watersheds and entire communities more vulnerable than ever.
Failed municipal housing policy and a strained home construction market have cost the City of Brampton $25 million, after it failed to hit the target for new starts imposed by the PC government. The lost grant that would have been funded by Queen’s Park will now force City Hall to make up the money as it prepares the budget for 2026.
Mayor Patrick Brown and his council colleagues have ignored pressure from the province and Ottawa to shift away from sprawling single-family homes, to more dense forms of housing easily serviced by transit.
Despite growing calls from a group of advocates and regional councillors demanding Peel’s fair share of funding from Queen’s Park, the PC government continues to ignore the issue. The crisis has left social service organizations struggling to meet increased demand for housing, mental health and other critical supports, while many vulnerable residents have few places to turn as services become overburdened.
On November 25, the Niagara Police are hosting an information session to educate parents, teens and community members about human trafficking.
The rapidly increasing crime is happening in the Niagara Region at a rate nearly twice the provincial average.
Led by Mayor Patrick Brown, Brampton councillors approved a multi-million deal with Argo, a private bus operator, to launch a 12-month pilot project. There were none of the usual staff reports detailing the plan and why taxpayers should pay millions for it—it was dealt with behind closed doors.
Since its approval, The Pointer has attempted to get information about the deal that cost Brampton taxpayers almost $11 million. An initial Freedom of Information request returned nearly 1,500 pages of records—more than 1,200 of them were fully redacted.
In Doug Ford’s Ontario, sustainability never stood a chance. Years of stripping away environmental safeguards led to an inevitable conclusion. On November 6, his PC government unveiled its Fall Economic Statement, completely abandoning its legally binding emissions targets and shelving its climate plan. Mark Carney might have had a role in it.
Experts warn this mix of fiscal recklessness and environmental backsliding risks pushing Ontario residents into ecological and economic crises.
So far in 2025, Peel Police laid two or more charges for impaired driving, every single day. On Monday, the force launched its annual Festive RIDE campaign which increases patrols and roadside stopping points in an attempt to counteract the increase in impaired driving over the holiday season. Labeled an “epidemic”, police officials and advocates are urging drivers to think of those killed when getting behind the wheel drunk.
Can a “generational” budget truly protect Canada’s future when political maneuvering and corporate lobbying dictate the pace of climate action? As federal politicians zero in on economic competitiveness and market-driven solutions, the science of a rapidly warming planet was an afterthought in Carney's first financial blueprint for the country which was narrowly approved Monday evening.
The contaminated former General Motors property next to downtown continues to pose potential risks to residents. It was recently learned that a system meant to contain toxins is now offline. Local elected officials, meanwhile, have been paralyzed by inaction.
The hazards created by these types of brownfields are well documented in research, but council members have still refused to use their powers to safeguard St. Catharines residents.
In the Municipality of Huron Shores, the Dean Lake Bridge remains closed. Now, after a vote cast by Council on November 12, it is set to never again reopen.
This is no longer just a story about infrastructure; it is a story about governance, responsibility and public trust.
As Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the Caribbean, the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ meeting in Toronto wrapped with ambitious plans on AI, critical minerals and energy security. Environmental experts criticized Ottawa for its continued backing of fossil fuels, and overhyped carbon capture claims, highlighting how far Canada and the world still are from meaningful climate action ahead of COP30.
The Canadian government has initiated a process to pressure Stellantis after the Netherlands-based auto manufacturer announced it would shift vehicle production from Brampton to the U.S..
Few details about the 30-day “dispute resolution process” are known, but as it unfolds, thousands of autoworkers are left in limbo, wondering if Ottawa can force the company to keep their jobs safe.
Following a ceremony last week to celebrate the opening of the new Centre for Black Excellence, David Green, Chair of the Peel District School Board, made false claims about why the facility was not named after Kola Iluyomade—as the board previously promised. Iluyomade, a dedicated advocate who passed away in 2021, was instrumental in exposing systemic anti-Black racism within the board.
Green claimed the provincial government prevented the board from honouring its commitment. Draft versions of the policy show the clause prohibiting school facilities from being named after “identifiable individuals” was added by PDSB officials—not the Ministry of Education.
A motion approved by St. Catharines councillors last week regarding the former General Motors property on Ontario Street has once again left residents and advocates shaking their heads. While requesting information from the provincial government, local elected officials made no mention of the legal powers they have to force a clean-up of the contaminated industrial site.
Just days before five of Ontario’s top conservation leaders were honoured for decades of work to protect the one element that sustains all life, the PC government announced plans to merge the province’s 36 conservation authorities into seven mega-agencies.
The move, pitched as a way to speed up housing and infrastructure approvals, has sparked alarm among municipal leaders, environmental and legal experts who warn it could dismantle the system that protects Ontario’s water.
What if the heat wasted from our water, sewers, and even nuclear plants could warm our homes, power our offices, and shrink our carbon footprint? That’s the vision unfolding at Mississauga’s Lakeview Village, where lessons from Sweden’s pioneering district energy systems are turning ambient heat into a community-wide resource.
Could district energy power Ontario in the years ahead? A longtime advocate and expert weighs in on the opportunities, and the obstacles.
More than seven months after health officials and politicians, including Premier Doug Ford, congregated in Brampton for a “groundbreaking” to expand Peel Memorial into more than a wellness centre, the project finally has a contractor.
The William Osler Health System has finalized the proponent for design and construction of the expanded healthcare facility, which still will not feature acute care beds. The provincial government and Osler are still refusing to share the budget and timelines for the long overdue expansion.
Brampton councillors continue to attack Regeneration Outreach, a local social service agency housed at a downtown church, blaming its lifesaving work for ongoing issues in the city centre that they have refused to address through budgets and other priorities that have been ignored at the council table.
Regeneration Outreach has been looking for a new location for years; instead of offering assistance, Brampton’s legal department and the city’s council members claim Regeneration should solve the crime problems and social ills plaguing Brampton’s downtown.
Two area NDP MPPs are calling for transparency after a filtration system meant to remove toxic chemicals appears to have been disconnected on the former GM site due to non-payment, and a demolition permit was cancelled.
The provincial environment ministry has indicated an investigation might be launched to find out what needs to be done to finally address potential public health and safety risks at the sprawling dormant industrial property near downtown St. Catharines.
Without notifying the advocates who fought for its creation, the Peel District School Board will be officially opening its Centre for Black Excellence on Wednesday. Instead of a moment of celebration, advocates are criticizing the board for failing to fulfill its promise to name the centre after late community leader Kola Iluyomade.
The blatantly political tactics used by elected trustees to keep his name off the new facility, perfectly illustrated PDSB’s deeply entrenched culture of anti-Black racism, advocates say.
Ontario’s push to accelerate road and mining development in the Ring of Fire has been framed through a series of negotiations with First Nations, including the recent Community Partnership Agreement with Webequie First Nation.
The Doug Ford government portrays these deals as pathways to economic growth and jobs; Indigenous leaders warn that consultation remains incomplete, and critical environmental and cultural concerns have been sidelined.
New data from Peel Police show officers used force in 2024 at more than double the rate compared to the previous year—and they continue to disproportionately use it against the region’s Black communities. Instead of promising swift action to address the ongoing harm, Peel police leaders have instead suggested the blame does not fall to them and their culture of anti-Black racism that has permeated the force for decades.
A new analysis, which has been criticized by experts and advocates as blatantly racist, shifts the focus to social problems in the community as the reason why Peel police use so much force against Peel’s Black population, not the discriminatory behaviour of officers.
