‘Announcements aren’t beds’: mayoral candidates slam Patrick Brown for false claims about city’s missing second hospital; after his ‘broken’ pandemic leadership
Patrick Brown has been mayor for almost eight years and one of the many promises he has failed to keep is the one that angers Brampton voters more than any other.
For almost a decade he has claimed a desperately needed second hospital is being funded and construction is about to begin. His false claims were in direct contrast to his disturbing behaviour in 2022, when he abandoned his responsibilities as mayor, chose to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, and refused to step down or take a leave from City Hall, despite criss-crossing the country campaigning to leave Brampton.
The biggest issue at the time facing local elected officials, just coming out of the COVID19 pandemic, was the badly needed second hospital. The brutal public health crisis hit Brampton harder than any other city in Canada, largely due to Brown’s failed leadership, while he was preoccupied playing hockey inside a Brampton arena with his friends even though this was not allowed during the lockdown.
Premier Doug Ford called Brown’s pandemic response and the situation in Brampton “broken” as infection rates in the city skyrocketed, at times reaching almost five times the rate in Ontario overall. The woeful lack of hospital beds in one of Canada’s largest cities was the main cause of the problem, as Brampton had about a third the number of hospital beds per capita compared to the number in Ontario.
Brown was absent during the crisis, preoccupied with his 2022 run to lead the federal Conservative Party. He misled Brampton residents in late 2020, falsely claiming the city’s COVID testing rates were the highest in the province; they were among the worst. He used figures for testing locations that were not in Brampton to make the situation look better, but was quickly called out by public health officials.
“Something is broken when you have 3 percent of the population with [almost] 40 percent of the cases (in Ontario),” Ford said during a press conference in September of 2020, singling out Brown’s failed leadership in Brampton. “I need to sit down with the mayor.” He said he tried calling Brown three times prior to addressing the province on September 4, 2020 to “find out what’s happening,” but couldn’t get through. "I gave the mayor three calls today...I need to talk to you, find out what's happening out there…I am really concerned about what is happening in Brampton,” a visibly frustrated Ford added, questioning where Brown was.
Mayoral candidate Wesley Jackson says Patrick Brown’s claims of funding for Peel Memorial’s expansion and the start of construction are misleading. After almost a decade of delays, when the project is eventually delivered, Jackson says Brampton will be even further behind due to continued growth and a dire lack of hospital beds for all the new residents. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)
Then, in 2022, while Brown was secretly using City of Brampton staff to work on his federal Conservative leadership race, a motion was brought forward at City Hall to fund the local share requirement to turn Peel Memorial into the city’s second hospital, part of a planned expansion of the outpatient facility that has no acute-care beds and serves as a preventative healthcare hub near downtown Brampton.
Brown was not in the city, busy campaigning for the Conservative Party leadership, but made it clear that he would not support any funding for Peel Memorial’s expansion, despite clear direction from the provincial government that City Hall had to provide at least $125 million for the project, what’s known as part of the local share contribution.
Without a total of $250 million for this local share (William Osler which runs Peel Memorial has to come up with the other $125 million) the PC government communicated that the project would not move to the construction phase and none of the majority of the funding needed, which comes from Queen’s Park, would be put into the provincial budget.
Brown was campaigning to hopefully become prime minister and on the election trail repeatedly claimed as mayor he refused to increase Brampton’s budget, thinking this would attract fiscally conservative supporters.
His no new taxes as mayor slogan was blasted out on Brown’s social media accounts, even though he had raised numerous taxes excessively during his time on Brampton and Peel Region council.
But he viewed any special tax brought forward to fund the hospital requirement as a blow to his claims on the campaign trail.
Brampton mayoral candidate Prabh Gill says he would introduce a transparent public dashboard to update residents on the Peel Memorial expansion project. He would also call a forensic audit to find out where the money from Brampton taxpayers for a second hospital has gone. (Supplied)
Brampton councillors pointed out it was disturbingly irresponsible of Brown to deny badly needed funding to keep the city’s residents safe, just so he could use a campaign slogan.
“I’m sick and tired with playing political games with people’s health,” former Brampton councillor Pat Fortini said, after he was forced to take his wife outside Brampton when she was rushed to the city’s only hospital, Brampton Civic, which was in a prolonged crisis since the start of the pandemic due to the lack of beds, with patients who died as a result.
Councillor Michael Palleschi, one of Brown’s most loyal allies, admitted the reason the mayor refused to support the required funding for desperately needed healthcare expansion was because a special levy would ruin his election claim. He accused some of his colleagues of trying to sabotage Brown’s political ambitions.
“The only political games that are being played here is to make Mayor Brown look bad in front of the residents of Canada when he's trying to get his bid in for leadership of the Conservative Party to be hopefully the future prime minister,” Palleschi said in April of 2022, in response to Fortini’s comment.
Fortini responded.
“Councillor Palleschi… this has nothing to do with it. And if Mayor Brown wants to go for leadership, he can. He’s gone and we’re stuck with a problem, if you want to put it that way. And I don’t want my residents being stuck with a problem without a second hospital.”
Councillors told The Pointer that the special hospital levy, to raise part of the $125 million, had nothing to do with ruining Brown’s leadership slogan, pointing out they tried to get the levy into the budget in 2021, when the mayor did everything he could to prevent the move.
“Last term as well as this term healthcare has been a priority for council,” former councillor Jeff Bowman said at the time. “To hear members speak against the levy which we need, to show the Province we’re serious, I just don’t understand it. I don’t think healthcare should be politicized in our city.”
Councillor Martin Medeiros, who is running for re-election, came out hard against Brown at the time, calling his priorities “very irresponsible”, adding that, “Our job is to keep our residents safe. Anyone’s personal ambitions or interests should never be put above the needs of our community, especially in a high growth city like Brampton where healthcare is our top priority. We declared a healthcare emergency in 2020 to address the dire need to improve the healthcare for our residents, who don’t deserve to be treated in hallways.”
The vote in 2022 went ahead, with Brown absent while he was out of the city campaigning. The lone vote against the special levy for the hospital was Palleschi, who is running for re-election.
But what has changed, as the next municipal election, on October 26, draws near?
There is still no second hospital, and despite Brown’s repeated claims that it is on its way, and repeatedly telling Brampton voters construction is about to start, there is still not one cent of funding for the capital cost from Queen’s Park, which has to cover the lion’s share of the project.
There is no price tag. There is no date for the start of construction. There is no opening date.
Since Brown trumpeted a groundbreaking ceremony that was widely described as an election stunt around the provincial and federal elections last year, the project still has not been included in the Ontario budget.
Infrastructure Ontario lists the project details as “to be announced,” and William Osler’s project page has posted no update since October 2025.
What Brampton seems to be getting, once the project finally moves forward, is much smaller than the 850 acute care beds council asked for when it declared a healthcare emergency during the previous term of office. The expansion plan outlined by Osler and the PC government is for a new patient tower with 242 inpatient beds that, according to a previous presentation by Osler to council, would not be for acute care.
City council had demanded an 850-bed, full-service hospital when it declared Brampton’s healthcare emergency in 2020. The Pointer reported in 2023 that the plans included no intensive care unit, maternity ward, trauma unit or surgical operating rooms, and in November 2025 that Osler had confirmed the expansion would not include surgery, trauma, cancer or cardiac wards.
Infrastructure Ontario issued a request for proposals for the construction in October 2024, and the bids closed in April 2025. In late October 2025, Infrastructure Ontario and Osler signed a Development Phase Agreement with Bird Design-Build.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in March 2025, but news of the construction, and its final cost have remained frustratingly elusive. There is no sign of major capital construction at the site. (The Pointer/Alexis Wright)
Osler will decide whether to sign any agreement to trigger the start of construction only after the development design phase is completed, according to Infrastructure Ontario.
There has been no announcement of a final agreement or a final price. The Ministry of Health did not respond to questions.
This has not stopped Brown from claiming, ahead of the municipal election, falsely, that the project is funded and construction will begin this year. This is blatantly misleading.
Brampton’s push for a second hospital grew out of years of overcrowding at Brampton Civic. After council declared in January 2020 a healthcare emergency, a year later, in March 2021, the provincial government announced that Peel Memorial would become an inpatient facility, but never committed to a full hospital with acute care beds and all the major wards needed for the designation.
Osler’s project page says the local community covers 10 percent of the capital cost, while the province covers 90 percent, according to details on its website. The local share was estimated at $250 million, split between the City and Osler.
An earlier hospital levy had ended in 2019, after taxpayers contributed about $60 million toward Peel Memorial’s first phase and planning.
In March 2025, Ford, Brown and Osler officials held a ceremony billed as a groundbreaking at the Memorial site, before any contractor had been chosen. Osler said early pre-construction work, such as a temporary road, had begun. Six months later, the provincial government still would not say when capital construction money would appear in its budget.
Brampton had $90.4 million in its dedicated hospital reserve at the end of 2025 (which includes money from the special levy Brown would not support), The Pointer reported from the City’s budget documents. A one percent levy raises about $4.9 million a year. Council kept the levy at one per cent in its 2026 budget, which needed to drain $19.4 million from internal reserve accounts to avoid a larger tax increase. Critics have said this amounts to a shell game, with taxes having to be increased to cover the costs that would have come out of reserve accounts.
The amount the provincial government will contribute to the Memorial expansion project has not been made public, with only $46.8 million designated for pre-construction planning. The 2025 and 2026 provincial budgets had no line item for Memorial’s capital project.
Brown has widely distributed an election flyer claiming the province has committed “nearly $2 billion”. This is misleading. No funding has been put in the provincial budget.
With Brown seeking a third term, his challengers and critics say the problem is not only the lack of progress, but how little residents are told.
Mayoral candidates Prabh Gill, Jagruti Bhatt and Sandeep Somal have each promised more accountability on Peel Memorial, from audits to a public dashboard to regular town halls on delays. (The Pointer/Alexis Wright)
Wesley Jackson, a Brampton lawyer who ran for mayor in 2018, and is seeking the job again, says years of announcements have not translated into construction. “Announcements aren’t beds,” he told The Pointer. Jackson says Brown’s claims that construction is about to begin are misleading because there are still no signs of major work at the site. He also blames City Hall’s handling of the special levy. “This council cancelled the hospital levy only years later to realize that we should have had it all along, and had to reintroduce it,” Jackson said. “Some of that kind of financial mismanagement has been a step backwards.”
Tracy Pepe, running for the councillor position for Wards 1 and 5 against incumbent Rowena Santos, Brown’s loudest ally on council, says she would commit to a full audit of hospital levy funds and a public town hall to review the findings. She ties the delay to how taxpayer dollars have been spent under Brown and Santos. “No wonder we don’t have the shovels in the ground,” Pepe said. “A lot of promises, a lot of photo ops, but I’m about deliverables.”
Mayoral candidate Prabh Gill, who works as an arbitrator and on human rights cases, would go further, committing to a forensic audit. “I need to know where the money is going, or where the money (that was already raised from taxpayers for Peel Memorial) went.” He would also publish a public dashboard, updated every quarter, showing “the total cost and how much of (City Hall’s) $125 million share…has been collected…every milestone with its original date and its current date. Every dollar that leaves the reserve (accounts) and where it went.”
Mayoral candidate Jagruti Bhatt says a second hospital would have been treated as a priority had she been in charge. “I would have made Brampton’s Second Hospital a standing public priority, not an announcement that disappears when the cameras leave.” She would bring provincial officials, Osler, council and local representatives together to demand confirmed funding, milestones and an opening date. She blames what she calls the failures of Brown and his council allies for Brampton’s missing second hospital.
Sandeep Somal, a non-profit worker who is also running for mayor, says a second hospital alone will not fix Brampton’s healthcare problems. “The second hospital won’t solve the issues we’re having...there’s a staffing issue, there’s a patient flow-through issue; primary care is lacking in Brampton and after-care is lacking as well. I would commit to keeping that 1 percent hospital levy.”
Jackson put the stakes plainly.
“By the time the second hospital is built, we will be further behind our bed-to-citizen ratio than we are today.”
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