Survey suggests a happy Mississauga, but not when it comes to biking and living affordably

A largely sunny survey for the City of Mississauga has shed light on issues that remain a problem for residents.

In most categories, Mississauga scored well. From libraries to quality of life, the survey portrays an image of a happy city. Most categories are at the same level as two years ago or higher, suggesting steady progress. Affordable housing and cycling, though, remain bones of contention.

The survey, conducted by Forum Research Inc. between June 3 and June 22 using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, spoke to 1,124 random Mississauga residents over the age of 18 before weighing results by ward, gender and age. Results were then broken down into “very satisfied,” “somewhat satisfied,” “neutral,” “somewhat unsatisfied” and “very unsatisfied.” The survey counts both “somewhat” and “very” as indicators of satisfaction — potentially inflating the number of happy residents. 

Results from this year’s survey, the first since 2017, are generally supportive of the city’s efforts and services, at least when counting “somewhat” as part of the satisfied category. Overall, satisfaction has improved by 1 percentage point, which is within the survey’s margin of error, to 72 percent. Just 9 percent of responders were dissatisfied in some way with the city. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, land development — which relates to the development process and affordable housing — scored relatively poorly with Mississaugans. 

As a rapidly growing and largely suburban settlement, serious pressures exist on the housing market in Mississauga. In particular, proximity to Toronto Pearson International Airport creates near-limitless demand for housing in the city, which is populated by more than 50 percent new arrivals and first-generation immigrants. Affordability has been top of mind for residents and councillors for some time, with a delegation as recently as last week begging officials to offer more support for affordable housing, rent control and homelessness.

Just 12 percent of those polled said they were “very satisfied” with the transparency of the development consultation process, with the total number of people satisfied scraping past half at 53 percent. One out of five people in Mississauga described themselves as not being satisfied with the process. 

One resident, Gay Nemeth, who lives in Mississauga’s Lakeview neighbourhood, told The Pointer she understood “how residents might be dissatisfied with the process.” Citing the everyday stresses of work and school for residents, she said it was sometimes hard for locals to get fully involved in development projects in their area.

Displeasure with the affordable housing file was even more pronounced, with just 28 percent of residents saying they were satisfied in any way with the provision of units in the city. A full 38 percent of those polled said they were dissatisfied.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie told The Pointer that her council shared residents’ stress and was working on ways to increase the number of affordable units. Though plans are yet to be finalized, Crombie said developers were already willingly giving up land in new projects for affordable housing. For example, the West Village development, which will create 150 purpose-built rental units, has given 0.8 acres of land to the Region of Peel to construct an affordable apartment building.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie

Crombie said residents are generally “satisfied,” as the survey shows. 

“In fact, I would say they are more than satisfied with the programs and services we offer in Mississauga and they believe that they get good value for taxpayer dollars in all areas,” she continued. “We are making affordable housing a part of every single new development that comes forward and requiring it to be part of every development going forward.” 

Crombie and her team have also made affordable housing an issue in the federal election through their Mississauga Matters social-media campaign. 

The city’s study also reveals residents are concerned about moving around Canada’s sixth largest city. Overall satisfaction with roads sits at 69 percent, down only one point, though road safety has declined by 6 percentage points over the past two years. More dramatically, only half of respondents were very or somewhat satisfied with the provisions in place for cyclists. Only 13 percent were very satisfied, while 21 percent were either somewhat or very dissatisfied. 

The data may come as a blow to Mississauga as it steps up its fight against climate change. Sizeable dissatisfaction with the city’s cycling infrastructure could complicate efforts to move residents away from single-occupancy vehicles. However, Crombie and her team pointed to the city’s Cycling Master Plan as evidence of proactive thinking, with plans to launch a bike-rental service underway behind the scenes. 

A city spokesperson advised caution to anyone who might treat the results as gospel. Though the survey is useful in assessing the general mood within the city, they said, other metrics are used in addition to the Satisfaction Report to accurately plan services in Mississauga.

“The survey gives the city a measure of citizen satisfaction with municipal services, city operations, customer service and service delivery at a certain point in time,” the spokesperson said.

“This year’s survey maintains a consistent and positive trend of strong results indicating that residents recognize that the city is responsive in meeting their daily needs. The survey does not speak to the factors that underlie the overall opinions and perceptions of specific services/issues like cycling or affordable housing. That detail would be gathered through other more targeted activities, such as master planning process or community consultation level.” 

While the city is pleased with the majority of the results, the message to councillors on critical issues such as sustainable transport and affordable housing is clear: It’s not time to rest on your laurels just yet.

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