Mississauga’s shift to density pushes explosive growth to almost 800,000 residents, foils Ford’s jabs at Bonnie Crombie

Despite claims by Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Carolyn Parrish, Mississauga’s housing development sector is booming.

Contrary to the narrative pushed by PC politicians, who have tried to frame Bonnie Crombie’s time as mayor by claiming she slowed housing starts, new data shows the opposite.

Statistics Canada released new population figures that show the city grew from 745,000 residents in 2022 to almost 781,000 last year (according to the 2021 Census the city had just under 718,000 residents, which equates to a 9 percent increase in three years). And new figures from Ontario’s Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) show Mississauga was second in the province to Toronto last year in the assessed value of new condos. 

The latest annual assessment roll from MPAC — delivered annually to municipalities and the province to determine property and education taxes — revealed development and new growth for the City of Mississauga is on a steep upswing, with $1.56 billion in new assessment value last year, more than $300 million higher than each of the two previous years (for all housing types combined).  

Downtown Mississauga has seen an explosion of new high-rises over the past decade.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)
 

The city had $1.18 billion in new assessed homes in 2023 and $1.2 billion in 2022. Mississauga’s new assessed value for condos alone last year was $826 million — a big leap from $387.8 million in 2023 and $370 million the year before, illustrating the recent shift to dense vertical growth pushed by Crombie, who had eschewed the sprawling development that had for decades defined the city. 

The City of Mississauga ranked second among Ontario’s municipalities in assessment value of new residential condos last year.

(Municipal Property Assessment Corporation)

“Mississauga is certainly a thriving municipality when it comes to new assessment capture,” Dan DeVellis, vice-president of valuation and assessment operations at MPAC, told The Pointer. “If you look at the landscape in Mississauga, you're seeing a lot of the development as a result of high rise and condos that's occurring.”

“For Mississauga proper we have seen over the last several years a number of condo developments where we're capturing new assessment. Year over year [the city] is one of the leading municipalities where we're seeing significant growth attributed to condo development.” 

Crombie, who was mayor from 2014 until Parrish took over following a by-election last year after her predecessor won the Ontario Liberal leadership, had implemented a number of policies to move the city away from its sprawling past, into a more urban future. She oversaw historic new urban developments now underway including Lakeview Village and Brightwater, which will redefine the city’s waterfront and add even more condos to the rapidly densifying housing stock.

Crombie ushered in bylaws to replace single-family homes with medium or high-density developments. Master plans were adapted to create urban growth where Mississauga’s car-centric sprawl model from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s had established a distinct suburban landscape. 

“In addition to running out of greenfield lands, the City has long recognized the importance of becoming truly vibrant by creating complete communities that provide our residents with opportunities to live, work, learn and play,” a Mississauga spokesperson told The Pointer. “Our city structure is designed around focusing growth in key strategic locations to ensure efficient use of lands and the continued success and prosperity of the city.”

Mississauga, now built out to its boundaries, can only grow up from here.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer) 

The City has since shifted its planning approach to intensification areas, such as Mississauga’s downtown, along major transportation routes—primarily up and down the Hurontario Street corridor where the LRT is being built—urban community nodes and in areas that “are encouraged to develop into compact, mixed use areas that can maximize existing and planned community infrastructure and transit to encourage walkability and reduce car dependency.”

The latest assessments by MPAC push back against Ford’s attacks on Crombie, claiming housing had not gone in the right direction under her leadership. They are currently opponents in the provincial election race.

When rewarding municipalities across the province early last year for meeting or exceeding housing targets imposed under the PCs’ Bill 23, which legislates the creation of 1.5 million homes by 2031, Mississauga was excluded from the pot of funding. A letter from the City last February revealed the municipality had been denied the much-needed funding because the PC government claimed “insufficient housing starts” across Mississauga. Critics said it was a political ploy to make Crombie, who had just become the Liberal leader, look bad. The MPAC figures for 2024 suggest the funding denial was not based on actual data on new housing growth in Mississauga, which lost out on tens of millions of dollars in funding for infrastructure to support new homes. 

Ford and former housing minister Paul Calandra claimed Crombie had “failed” to meet the housing targets. The Pointer’s reporting later revealed the PCs' claims were flawed, with regional data showing Mississauga had the highest number of housing starts in Peel, much higher than Brampton which received the funding.

While Mississauga was second in the province last year in assessment value for new condos, Brampton was not on MPAC’s list of the top ten municipalities.  

The City spokesperson pointed to recent examples of shifting to new ways of planning for future growth which include Mississauga’s updated housing action plan and the updated draft of the City’s new Official Plan, finalized in January. The revised strategy, which guides how Mississauga will develop, expands on the type and number of homes permitted in low rise neighbourhoods and seeks to promote a greater mix of land uses.

“This helps to optimize existing infrastructure” such as schools, libraries, parks, sewers, water mains, community centres, roadways and transit, the spokesperson noted. “Greater maximum building heights are also proposed along the Hurontario LRT corridor and around other transit stations. There are new policies that allow commercial plazas to be redeveloped with mixed-use, mid-rise buildings that include residential units.” 

Staff anticipate the new plans will allow for approximately 370,000 additional residential units across Mississauga in the not-too-distant future, adding more than half-a-million residents to a population that is already booming.

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock 

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you