Patrick Brown’s $180M transportation funding gap just the beginning of pain for Brampton taxpayers

There have been warning signs that financial mismanagement under Mayor Patrick Brown would soon create dire problems for Brampton taxpayers.

In the 2019 budget, Brown’s first as mayor, a series of planned investments were pushed off so he could make good on campaign promises to freeze the City budget. 

The City’s investment in public works projects (parks, traffic calming, parking), dropped from a planned $148.3 million in the 2018 budget to $127.1 million. Road widening and resurfacing and improving active transportation infrastructure dropped from a planned $113.9 million to $94.2 million. The purchase of badly needed infrastructure for the municipal library system was delayed and almost $3 million worth of facility repairs were pushed off. Road widenings, bridge repairs and stormwater pond maintenance all felt the pinch as Brown cut back while publicly claiming he was a conservative mayor who could achieve budget freezes, part of his political persona and campaign strategy throughout his controversial career.  

“When you look at where we’re trying to find efficiencies, it’s not at the expense of infrastructure,” he said at the time. “This budget is very much an infrastructure budget.”

This did not square with a budget that clearly showed numerous key infrastructure projects were being cancelled or delayed. The long anticipated Downtown Reimagined, approved by the previous council, was torpedoed, cutting tens of millions from the budget, while the withering city centre fell further into decay.

The trend continued in 2020 with a planned $431 million in capital investments drastically scaled back to $223 million so that Brown, once again, could get his budget freeze. 

He celebrated the moves, pointing to a poll of residents that showed 67 percent were in favour of his decision, while failing to highlight how the question was worded (Brampton property owners were asked if they would like to see their taxes minimized, ensuring a positive response to the survey). His fellow councillors last term were skeptical, noting a skewed, simplistic polling question would not explain the dire long-term implications of freezing municipal revenues. 

“I find if we don’t provide residents with the information as to what these actual cuts may look like or what they may affect, then really, you could ask them if you want beer to be free in The Beer Store,” Councillor Michael Palleschi said during discussions early last term. While a critic at the time, Councillor Palleschi has since aligned with Brown, and is rarely critical of the mayor’s decision-making any more. 

During the 2022 budget discussions, councillors worried “we’re cutting everywhere to get to zero”—referring to Brown’s continued desire for budget freezes that had started to have a clear impact on the City’s growing investment gaps. The Brampton Board of Trade demanded a return to responsible budgeting that had gone AWOL under Brown. 

A long-needed transit maintenance facility, critical to address Brampton Transit’s capacity issue, was delayed; Brown’s promised “world class” cricket stadium was nowhere to be seen; the downtown continued to struggle with a lack of investment as the mayor failed to come up with an alternative to the cancelled Downtown Reimagined project; and despite false claims by Brown, the City has remained without any investment for LRT expansion. 

Tracking many of the delayed or cancelled projects and other plans at the City of Brampton is difficult; in an unprecedented move, Brown eliminated the 10-year capital plan from the budget, making it impossible for the public to know how their tax dollars are being allocated, and whether the collected funds actually get spent for the intended use.

The bill is now coming due, and it’s clear the infrastructure levy Brampton has placed on the tax bill to keep assets in working condition, has not gone far enough. A disturbing report from City staff, tabled as part of a revamp of the City’s Transportation Asset Management Plan, reveals a gap of $180 million in investments needed over ten years for Brampton’s transportation network. The City currently has no way to pay for these critical infrastructure needs such as roads, sidewalks, bridges and culverts, streetlights and traffic signals.

The report was quietly approved with full consent by council members and Brown, without any discussion during the June 4 meeting.

Over the next 10 years, there is $180 million worth of investment into roads, bridges and other transportation assets that the City of Brampton currently has no plans to pay for.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer files)

Without proper investment and finding a way to close the $180 million gap, residents will start to feel the effects of crumbling roads, cracked sidewalks and an overwhelmed transportation network. 

“The concern over an infrastructure gap is not so much its existence, but how this gap changes over the long term and whether the change affects levels of service, asset conditions, and the delivery of services,” the report notes. 

To address the funding gap, staff propose three measures: cuts; obtaining increased revenue from upper levels of government; and improving the City’s handling of its reserves and debt balance. 

None of these are actual solutions. Cuts lead to problems elsewhere; Queen’s Park and Ottawa expect municipalities to manage their own assets and finances responsibly; and reserve accounts are never supposed to be used for routine asset management (this would be the equivalent of a household dipping into an emergency savings account to pay for a leaky roof that should have been replaced a decade ago).

The word “cut” appears nowhere in the staff report; instead staff note savings will be achieved by “reducing expenditures” and improving efficiency through “enhanced data quality” (unclear what this means) or “adjusting service levels where appropriate, implementing non-infrastructure solutions, and minimizing the size of the asset portfolio”. In other words, cutting services and cutting back on capital investments that residents will desperately need over the next 10 years.

Brown has often claimed higher levels of government are responsible for bailing the city out. In Brampton, mismanagement has routinely hampered the municipality’s ability to secure investments from Ottawa and Queen’s Park. When they don’t come, Brown turns to another common tactic in his playbook, misleading the public. 

While Brown’s budget freezes were politically popular in his early tenure, it remains unclear how the general population feels in 2025 as essential infrastructure projects remain in limbo, such as the Riverwalk flood mitigation initiative and the downtown extension of the Hurontario LRT. Both will require significant municipal investment that Brampton currently does not have. 

"Yeah, so tax freezes were done because they're popular. Eventually, the finance department had to have a conversation with Patrick Brown, with the mayor, that if you continue doing this, the City budget is going to implode," Sylvia Roberts, a Brampton community advocate who posts online about council meetings, said.

"Because, as you can see from all the delayed projects, like there are a lot of delayed projects, things that we announced and money was allocated for, and then was removed, and that's caused all sorts of issues. So there are large parts of the city that are underfunded. Capital repairs are also significantly underfunded."

She criticizes Brown’s fiscal policies for lacking long-term planning in each year’s budget and concealing the financial realities from the public.

"So the budgets are kind of made up each year, and there's not that much long-term planning," Roberts said. "And part of the reason for the lack of long-term planning, at least documented in the budget, is because I have repeatedly asked them about numbers, and then the more I ask them about the financial numbers, the more the financial numbers just disappear from the public view.”

She lamented Brown’s decision shortly after first becoming mayor to scrap the longer-term financial planning process used in every other city across the country. "The 10-year capital forecast was in place when Patrick Brown became mayor, and then the mayor ordered them to scrap it.”

Roberts said that because the City has not allocated enough to transit infrastructure for years, the property tax base will eventually be forced to cover huge deficits. 

"There isn't a plan for how to pay for this stuff…And because they have not done money for the transit levy, they have been significantly underfunding it. There's a gigantic hole in the budget.”

She’s worried about the pressure this puts on taxpayers. 

“The problem is, the City needs a number of major property tax increases for, like, a decade to fix the hole it's in, because it doesn't need to just get the amount per year up to where it should have been. It also has to backfill all of that money that should have been collected, which, by the time they catch up, is going to be like half a billion dollars or more. So we're going to need a number of major increases per year, and I don't know how that's actually going to happen."

What Roberts highlights about mismanaged transit finances is expressed routinely on social media, which is flooded with complaints from regular Brampton Transit users.

According to Shahla Siddiqui’s Facebook page, “Brampton transit is the worst bus service specialy (sic) route 15.” Chris Draper expressed similar frustration.

(Brampton Transit Facebook)

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of Brampton’s Interim Financial Master Plan from 2023 outlined several weaknesses and threats that could significantly impact Brampton’s fiscal outlook in the coming years. The slow development of the Downtown Urban Growth Centre and a continued market preference for residential development in key areas have hindered the city’s urban and economic growth. Competition from other, more successful GTA municipalities such as Mississauga immediately to the south, Oakville and Burlington to the west and Vaughan to the east, an aging population that requires expanded investments in recreation and transportation services and rising asset management obligations present substantial risks. Under Brown, many of these areas have suffered. 

Investments in the City’s transit system have failed to meet rising ridership demand. Since Brown’s arrival in the city, widespread complaints have been received from residents forced to ride overcrowded buses while many routes suffer from a woeful lack of service.

Residents raised concerns on social media platforms over Brampton’s unreliable and overcrowded transit system.

(X)

Brampton families also suffer with no standalone university, as many are forced to send children elsewhere, despite election promises by Brown, who has failed to explain what happened to his abandoned Brampton University plan, which handed over $600,000 in contracts to friends of his and Councillor Rowena Santos. 

Mayor Patrick Brown has refused to discuss a $180 million gap in critical investments over the next decade. His revenue freezes have directly led to the current problems.

(City of Brampton)

The Pointer reached out to the mayor’s office for comment on the recent report highlighting the $180 million infrastructure shortfall. Brown did not respond. 

The Pointer approached the Mayor in person at City Hall. Brown referred questions to City communications staff. City communications staff did not respond to requests for comment. 

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