Brampton council declared a climate emergency but just cut millions from environmental budget

Six years have passed since Brampton declared a climate emergency, but the latest budget once again confirms the declaration was little more than lip service.

Brampton officials continue to affirm the importance of “enhanced natural environments” in stabilizing wildlife habitats, mitigating local flood damage, combating air pollution and working to reduce the municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite these priorities being outlined in the City budgets for 2024 and 2025, funding for the programs that bring these visions to life remains inconsistent, or woefully inadequate.

“We're disappointed that the city seems to be backing away from a number of the commitments,” Brampton Environmental Alliance president David Laing said in an interview with The Pointer.

He has been a longtime advocate of active transportation in the city and an avid cyclist who has tirelessly lobbied for policies to move Brampton away from its dependency on single-occupancy vehicles.

“None of the council members or the mayor is coming out and saying, we're de-prioritizing, but let's face it, the money dictates what gets done in the city.”

With only five years left for Brampton to achieve its commitment of a 45 percent reduction in emissions below 2010 levels by 2030 (part of a total 80 percent reduction by 2050), City Hall under Mayor Patrick Brown is going in the wrong direction.

After more than six years of Brown at the helm, the City has slipped further away from reaching its critical greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. A presentation in June to Brampton’s Environmental Advisory Committee made this abundantly clear. 

The presentation, by Christopher Hong, Project Manager, and Kayden Toffolo, Engineering Intern, at WalterFedy, revealed the City’s corporate greenhouse gas emissions were 1.7 percent higher than they were in 2010. 

The City implemented its Grow Green Environmental Master Plan (EMP) in 2014, keeping in line with other municipalities that were beginning to take the climate crisis seriously. But at the plan’s first update in 2020, after two years of Brown’s leadership, the City had begun to go backward largely due to the successive budget freezes and deep cuts Brown demanded during his first term, as Brampton failed to reach the majority of its goals and was only on track for 3 of 20. 

Other than transit ridership increasing organically due to rapid population growth and minor natural heritage restoration, the City could not point to any concrete action on the 20 goals to reduce emissions through investments and major policy changes.

Instead of creating new programs to incentivize involvement, Brown continued to cut spending on environmental initiatives from successive budgets in order to deliver promised budget freezes. In the 2022 capital budget, Brown allocated more funds for a single road than every environmental initiative combined. In 2023, the budget exposed many more empty climate change promises. 

The 2025 budget reveals a continuation of the troubling trend under Brown, who has made plenty of promises, but broken almost all of them.

For example, in February 2020, almost five years ago,  Brampton Council under his leadership approved the ambitious One Million Trees Program, committing to plant them by 2040. Only 23,661 trees have been planted since, with about a third contributed by residents in Ward 1. That’s more than 90 percent short of the goal over that period.

(City of Brampton)

Early in 2024, the city launched a ‘tree inventory’ initiative to monitor and support tree-planting efforts while working to expand the urban forest canopy citywide.

(City of Brampton)

According to a 2015 study by the Region of Peel, Brampton’s urban forest canopy covered 18 percent (4,902 hectares) of the city—a figure notably lower than the 25 percent average among other communities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The gap was attributed to a combination of agricultural greenfield lands and newly developed neighbourhoods where young, small trees have not yet yielded significant environmental benefits or established themselves in the ecosystem.

Brampton currently has more than 3.6 million trees, covering approximately 18 percent of its land area, as highlighted in the 2023 Tableland Tree Assessment Guidelines report. The city’s urban forest is facing significant challenges, including the devastating Emerald Ash Borer invasion and the long-lasting effects of the 2013 ice storm, both of which have slowed its recovery.

The city’s vulnerability to flooding is well-documented, with events like the 2022 Churchville flooding and the heightened risk in the downtown core due to its location in the Etobicoke Creek floodplain—prompting City officials to finally allocate $15 million for the Riverwalk Project (a fraction of the overall cost) a major infrastructure and urban design initiative focussed on downtown flood mitigation which has suffered from a lack of funding since Patrick Brown became mayor in 2018 but has now been included in the 2025 budget.

Many areas of Brampton are vulnerable to flooding, including the Churchville neighbourhood, pictured here after flooding in 2022.

(City of Brampton)

In November 2020, the federal government committed $38.8 million toward the project contingent on significant funding from the City but Brown failed to come up with it. Finally, to safeguard the funding from Ottawa, council committed $58.2 million but the money has been slow to come forward and the project has gone nowhere despite plans to launch it more than five years ago. With a total price tag estimated at more than $300 million, the $15 million in this year’s budget is the bare minimum to keep it moving at a glacial pace.

At the same time, the recent $1 million cut to the Urban Forest Canopy Program and a $50,000 cut to Engineering and Parkland Studies, paired with substantial reductions to stormwater management funding, is hard to justify, especially when numerous studies and experts continue to emphasize that expanding the urban tree canopy is one of the most effective, cost-efficient and sustainable solutions for managing stormwater and reducing flood risks.

Stormwater and environmental monitoring, essential for maintaining infrastructure and mitigating flood risks, have been slashed from $400,000 to just $75,000. Stormwater asset management funding, originally budgeted at $4.54 million, has been reduced to zero dollars and is now dependent on unspecified “Other” funding sources for 2025.

Figures are in thousands (000s).

(City of Brampton)

Additional cuts include $7,000,000 from stormwater pond retrofits, stormwater management restoration, which dropped from a planned $3,550,000 to just $40,000, and a stormwater management study, which now has only $200,000 allocated for 2026, with no funding for 2025. 

This sharply contrasts with Mississauga’s proactive approach following the severe flooding in July and August 2024. 

“Since 2016, we have invested over $231 million in stormwater infrastructure,” Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish had told The Pointer while highlighting that the city’s 10-year plan also includes an additional $340 million for ongoing upgrades and maintenance to enhance resilience against future storms.

As previously reported by The Pointer, the financial toll of climate change-fueled natural disasters, measured in billions, far outweighs the comparatively modest investments of mere millions.

And if there’s one thing we know for certain is that climate change is not going anywhere.

(The Atmospheric Fund)

In 2023, Brampton was the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Peel, with buildings and transportation accounting for over 83 percent of total emissions.

As the seventh largest city in Canada, Brampton, home to a large population of newcomers who depend on public transportation amid the affordability crisis, saw over 40 million riders in 2023. 

Ignoring this demand and despite blatantly false claims by Brown when he campaigned for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership in 2022 as mayor of the city with the first fully electrified bus fleet, he has done next to nothing to transition Brampton Transit to a clean future. 

Unlike large cities across the country making hundreds of millions of dollars in investments to purchase electric and hybrid buses, Brown has refused to do the same, with Brampton continuing to depend on heavily polluting diesel vehicles. 

A sobering presentation last year highlighted the city’s neglect, and the future costs it will force on taxpayers.

“There is simply no way to decarbonize without more buses,” Josipa Petrunic, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), told council in June, warning that the City’s emissions reductions targets could not be achieved if Brampton continues to rely exclusively on dirty diesel buses (a handful of electric buses are part of a federal government pilot program through funding from Ottawa).

Under Mayor Patrick Brown, money to electrify the City’s transit fleet, a critical step toward a sustainable future for the municipality, has not been budgeted.

(CUTRIC)

She told council members that the fleet of 476 buses (almost all diesel) would have to be replaced with almost 1,200 clean buses, depending on the technology chosen. 

“Diesel will no longer be an option.”

In her presentation, she said a rapid transformation needs to begin now.

“Hopefully, we have the answers for you here today. They're big, they're expensive. They're complicated, but they have to be done.” 

The option CUTRIC presented would cost $8.94 billion over 18 years for the buses, the energy source (a mix of hydrogen and electricity), charging infrastructure, operation costs, maintenance, battery/hydrogen fuel cell replacement, engine overhaul costs, insurance and fleet expansion costs. 

Council was told it has to immediately start budgeting “hundreds of millions of dollars” each year to catch up.

Brown has known about the need to transition the bus fleet for years, and once again, has done the opposite. 

His 2025 budget, brought forward by the mayor under new powers, did not include one word of pre-budget deliberations or council debate over the hundreds of millions needed every year for almost two decades to make the critical investments for a new green transit system. 

Instead, Brown’s now approved 2025 budget has cut badly needed new bus purchases (for dirty diesel vehicles) almost in half from a planned $89.7 million to $55.3 million; and $15.4 million in bus refurbishments have been removed, along with $300,000 worth of work on bus shelters, pads and stops, and $400,000 in minor capital transit investments. There is no money in the budget for electric or hybrid bus purchases. 

He also removed a $1.5 million contribution to bring high-order transit to the Bovaird corridor and $17.8 million for Zum service expansion to the Bramalea Corridor has been cut. 

Overall, the mayor has decimated investments planned for active transportation, slashing $460,000 from Active Transportation Plans and Studies and reducing Active Transportation Road Operations funding from $800,000 to $293,000.

“I take the Züm bus each and every day to get to work, and back home. It’s freezing cold here in Brampton, and there’s a need for more frequent buses…To know that the city has cut budget for these buses feels like a disappointment.,” Brampton resident Isha Pasrija told The Pointer while waiting for a Züm bus on a recent snowy afternoon.

Brampton aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, but how the city plans to achieve this while slashing funding for key initiatives, including the Environmental Master Plan which has zero dollars for this year and only $200,000 for 2026, remains unclear.

Laing, who is also a board member for the Centre for Community Energy Transformation (CCET), expressed concern about the underfunding of non-profits like CCET, which depend on taxpayer support and were started by the City “to advance local climate action.”

“We don’t think it’s appropriately funded,” Laing, who is also a board member for CCET, said.

For Tony Iacobelli, an ecologist and CCET’s executive director, the mission of fostering community engagement in sustainable energy practices is deeply personal. 

He has been actively encouraging residents in the Region of Peel to adopt eco-friendly energy solutions, such as heat pumps and low-carbon district energy systems, while advocating for home energy retrofits which not only “saves money on utility bills but also improves air quality” compared to a natural gas furnace.

“We want everybody to be on a journey to a net zero energy home,” he added while sharing that CCET offers free 45-minute consultations with an energy coach to help Peel residents achieve this goal.

Iacobelli understands better than most the challenges of sustainability. At CCET, he has worked to balance the message of energy efficiency with economic development, particularly through district energy systems.

“Environmental sustainability is also financial sustainability,” Iacobelli emphasizes. By approaching solutions through a “twin lens of decarbonization and economic development,” CCET aims to inspire change.

“A climate plan is an economic development plan,” Iacobelli asserts, noting that renewable energy sources like solar and wind are “much more cost-effective than fossil fuels.”

Laing believes CCET’s work is important because there’s already “no appetite” in the public for “large increases in taxes.” 

“With a 2.9 percent local tax hike and a 5.5 percent regional increase projected, homeowners are stretched thin,” Laing said. “People want climate action but balk when asked to pay for it. Tools like the carbon tax, which has proven to be most efficient and effective at reducing carbon emissions at source, face resistance because no one wants higher taxes, even for environmental protection.”

The concerning trend of higher emissions in Brampton due to certain key sectors appears unlikely to reverse with the expansion of Brampton’s Goreway gas plant, which produces electricity from heavily polluting sources; it is moving forward under the Doug Ford PC government, and is expected to pump out an additional 48,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. 

Brampton’s Goreway Power Station, located near Highway 407, is an 875-megawatt natural gas power plant owned by Capital Power.

(The Pointer file photo) 

Compounding the concern is the proposed large-scale expansion of a private waste incinerator in Bramalea, in the city’s east end just west of Toronto. The facility, owned by Emerald Energy From Waste, has quietly revealed plans to more than quadruple its capacity for burning garbage from households and businesses.

Under current Ontario regulations, projects like this are no longer required to undergo a full Environmental Assessment. 

In the 2025 budget, the City of Brampton has allocated zero dollars for environmental assessments, despite claiming $3.5 million would be allocated, until Brown cut it out of this year’s financial plan.

Emerald Energy From Waste, therefore, conducts its own assessments and consultations, submits the documentation and assumes automatic approval which eliminates essential oversight and scrutiny, creating significant risks to both the environment and public health.

“Incinerators are the most expensive and toxic way to deal with waste,” Emily Alfred, Senior Waste Campaigner at the Toronto Environmental Alliance said. “They are dirty and greedy—constantly needing a source of waste for years on end to cover their massive cost. This works against efforts to reduce waste. There are better waste solutions that cost less, create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More than half of the typical bag of garbage in Ontario is recyclable or compostable material. Burning this material is terrible for the environment and for the health of local residents.”

“The existing Emerald incinerator is one of the biggest industrial sources of nitrogen dioxide emissions in Brampton—a community already overburdened with air pollution from industrial and transportation emissions. Trucking in over four times more garbage to burn will certainly not make things better,” Environmental Defence’s Associate Director Ashley Wallis added.

Municipalities are already struggling to address deferred maintenance on infrastructure and recreation facilities, while Ontario’s revised development charge strategy has significantly reduced non-property tax revenues.

The reluctance to invest in environmental programs has been worsened by the provincial government’s systematic dismantling of environmental protections over the past six years. 

“Our provincial government is going in the exact opposite direction,” he said. “They’ve systematically undone many protections that took decades to establish, some of which were led by progressive conservative leaders like Bill Davis. We seem to have abandoned and forgotten about all those hard-won gains.”

“All of these factors are creating a perfect storm,” Laing said. He is determined to address these challenges as part of the City of Brampton’s committee working on the climate change adaptation plan.

“With climate change, we’re heading for some real nasty outcomes, whether it’s in the next year or the next decade. We’ve got to pull our heads out of the sand.”

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