Patrick Brown’s missing $8 billion: Fact checking his Build Brampton flyer that has inflated investments, unsecured funding and an unopened hospital

A flyer promoting Patrick Brown’s re-election that he mailed across Brampton touting $9.4 billion in investments he supposedly helped secure, triggered dozens of messages from The Pointer’s readers who questioned his latest election claims.

The Pointer has fact-checked the flyer which includes 11 projects with a total value of $9.4 billion, as Brown hopes to be elected for a third term as Brampton’s mayor.

The re-election flyer mailed across Brampton by Patrick Brown. It inflates costs, and announces projects that still have not been funded. (Submitted) 

In the flyer titled, “The Big Brampton Build”, Brown claims $3 billion for Brampton’s second hospital. It says the hospital has an “inpatient tower, a 24-hour Emergency Department and expanded outpatient care.” However, William Osler’s own disclosures show the Peel Memorial expansion will not include surgery, trauma or cardiac care.  

The Pointer’s direct questioning of Osler on what the expansion will actually deliver found that it will have no ICU, no maternity ward, no acute cancer treatment and no trauma or surgical units. None of the features of a general hospital. An advocate stated that the term “second hospital” is a mischaracterization of what is actually being built. 

A symbolic groundbreaking was held in March 2025, and some early site preparation work began in May 2025 after Brampton’s incumbent MPPs and MPs used the project to promote themselves ahead of the back-to-back provincial and federal elections last year. 

The symbolic groundbreaking event was held 19 months ago, despite Brampton-area PC MPPs voting down an NDP motion to finally commit funding for Memorial’s expansion in the provincial budget, weeks after the groundbreaking event, which critics described as nothing more than an election stunt complete with a misleading photo-op. 

What followed was six months of silence, as Health Minister Sylvia Jones did not reveal the project budget or provide a construction update for the still unfunded expansion. 

A Development Phase Agreement with Bird Design-Build was only signed in October 2025, and as The Pointer reported in November 2025, the project’s cost and timeline “remain unclear,” with no fixed-price construction contract finalized. The story also confirmed that Osler has acknowledged the project won’t be a full-service second hospital.

A sign outside and fencing around the perimeter were the only suggestions three weeks ago that any work is being planned at the Peel Memorial site. There is no construction and no work in preparation for any construction visible at the site, despite a groundbreaking for the project held 19 months ago. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

The design-build proposal could be rejected, or sent back by the provincial government, before any agreement is signed between Queen’s Park and a builder to move forward with construction. That has not stopped Brown from claiming, as the end of October draws closer with no signs of any construction, that the project will start this fall.

He made similar claims four years ago, when he ran for re-election in 2022. 

Patrick Brown’s flyer claims the Hazel McCallion LRT extension into downtown Brampton has secured funding from the federal government, when an announcement shows only an “intention to support” the unfunded plan. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

Brown’s second claim is about the Hazel McCallion LRT extension. His flyer claims that its $2.8 billion cost for a tunnelled line into downtown is being funded provincially and federally, and is moving forward. This is false.

The federal government’s March 2025 announcement offered only an “intention to support” the project, conditional on several unmet requirements: an Integrated Regional Plan, a signed Metro Region Agreement, housing requirements along the corridor, a completed business case from the province, and final federal approval. 

An environmental assessment has not been done and Brown has not even completed required engineering work that has to be done at the very start of a process that could take a decade, if Brown’s tunnelled LRT along and under Etobicoke Creek is even viable.

Metrolinx’s own project page describes the extension as still at the planning-and-design stage, with no environmental assessment completed and no construction date set. The Pointer reported in 2023 that Brampton’s surface LRT plan almost tripled in cost to $2.8 billion for Brown’s tunnel idea. 

In 2024, the province added the Brampton extension to its priority transit projects list, but stopped short of funding commitments. The city formally requested $1.4 billion each from the federal and provincial governments for the tunnel project, with no money coming from Brampton itself. In 2025, Brown characterized the project as an “investment” when funding was heavily conditional and nowhere near being approved for that amount. No environmental assessment had been completed, and the city had not disclosed its own required financial contribution. 

Brown’s flyer claims new Peel Police infrastructure in Brampton has been regionally funded for $1.7 billion, and that it is ongoing across Brampton. There was a groundbreaking for 23 Division in September 2025 with a targeted opening between late 2026 and early 2027, while the Sir Robert Peel Centre redevelopment (which delivers the new 22 Division) also reportedly broke ground in September 2025, with a targeted completion date in late 2028 or early 2029.

Peel Police planned to take on $714..6 million in debt to fund the new North Brampton division and repair aging facilities, including the Sir Robert Peel Centre, while budget documents left unclear when reconstruction would begin. 

Brown’s flyer claims $900 million in provincial funding for a comprehensive cancer care centre, with $3 million approved for planning. The $3 million provincial planning commitment is accurate. Queen’s Park announced that exact amount in April 2022 to help plan expanded cancer services at Brampton Civic Hospital. 

However, the total project cost has been consistently reported at roughly $365 million, a figure that was used by William Osler Health System in a November 2021 presentation to Brampton council. Brown’s claim of $900 million is not supported by provincial documents and the amount has not been included in any provincial budget. No announcement of a revised, higher cost estimate could be found.  

In 2023, Brown pushed to have the Region of Peel and Caledon/Mississauga taxpayers cover part of Brampton’s required local funding share for the cancer centre, after refusing to support a city levy himself. 

Brown’s flyer claims $298 million for the Cadetta Johnston Transit Facility, funded by the City, province and federal government.

The City of Brampton broke ground on the facility in October 2024, with construction underway and a completion targeted for 2027. Reported total funding for Phase One is $282-283 million from the federal and provincial governments through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program ($69.9 million federal, $58.2 million provincial), and $154.8 million from the City. It is unclear if the City portion has actually been funded through any of the budgets Brown has presented. 

Electrification infrastructure needed for a green bus fleet, which is supposed to be part of the plan for the new facility, was excluded from that funding, as The Pointer reported in 2024.

This came following the facility’s history of delays since being cut from the budget in Brown’s first year as mayor. Brampton’s transit system was operating over capacity while the badly needed third maintenance facility sat underfunded for years. 

The Pointer also found that Brown removed $135 million that was supposed to go toward the facility from the capital budget in his first year in office, delaying the project for years before federal ICIP funding in 2021 got it underway. 

Brown claims the TMU School of Medicine opened in 2025, with $225 million funded by the City, province, and federal government. TMU’s School of Medicine officially opened in Brampton on September 3, 2025. 

Brown’s claim regarding Brampton’s TMU medical school is mostly true, as it opened its doors in 2025. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

Public funding for the project includes close to $180 million from the province, covering planning and multi-year operating support, and $25 million in new federal capital funding announced in November 2025, totalling roughly $205 million. The City separately approved transferring $48 million for nominal consideration, with no disclosed capital or operating funding plan for the medical school itself, while taxpayers absorbed roughly $7.3 million in transition costs. 

The flyer claims the Embleton Community Centre is under construction with $160 million funded by the City and federal government. While the project is in fact under construction, jointly funded by the City and Ottawa, the dollar figures are not accurate. 

Brampton City Council approved $148 million toward the project, while Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a further $64 million in federal funding in April 2026 as an early project under the new Build Communities Strong Fund. 

The project has seen consistent obstacles. In 2023, Brampton’s budget passed with a 2.9 percent tax increase and $24 million being pulled from the Howden Recreation Centre to the $60 million Embleton project instead. 

In 2025, The Pointer reported that of the $124 million allocated for the Embleton Community Centre, 94 percent had gone unused. This was part of a broader pattern of Brown’s council routinely collecting tax dollars for projects it then stalled for years or cancelled, despite taxpayers handing over the money. 

Brown claims in his flyer that the Riverwalk project is under construction, with $138 million funded by the City, federal and provincial governments. The Pointer reported in 2023 that Brown had “pushed off the budget” the Riverwalk project. The City of Brampton had only budgeted $20 million for the project, which stakeholders have said could eventually cost more than $1 billion, due to a decade of delays caused by Brown’s refusal to fund it. He cancelled the entire Downtown Reimagined redevelopment plan immediately after becoming mayor in 2018, despite the project’s approval by the previous council. 

Patrick Brown cancelled the Downtown Reimagined plan shortly after becoming mayor in 2018. He has since repeatedly made false claims of downtown funding to rehabilitate the decaying city centre. (The Pointer file photo)

Brampton residents whose properties were needed for the Riverwalk project learned of the pending expropriation with little communication from the city in 2024. Other than tree clearing that angered residents, with claims work was going to start around the spring this year, the Riverwalk project is still nowhere to be seen. 

Brown’s flyer also claims that construction on the Howden Recreation Centre and Library is set to begin soon for $80 million. This claim is mostly false. The project has faced a series of repeated delays. City Council pulled a $24 million version of the Howden redevelopment from the 2023 budget entirely, and in February 2025 the City’s own news release on adding a library branch referenced only $9.8 million allocated over five years of rebuilding. 

Downtown Brampton has seen construction delays for a decade, with businesses closing as a result. (The Pointer Files)

Downtown revitalization is another claim Brown’s Flyer makes, with $45 million allocated for the project by the City and province. This claim is half false. The Main and Queen Street streetscaping project at the centre of this claim has grown steadily more expensive over the years. 

From $16.6 million approved in 2021, to about $23.1 million after a 2024 budget increase, to roughly $28 million after a further increase reported by the City in September 2025. The amount falls far short of the $45 million the flyer claims. 

The Downtown revitalization has a turbulent history. In 2021, downtown business owners expressed frustration over years of council inaction on revitalizing Main and Queen Streets. Some business owners even considered leaving following repeated delays. Brown, after taking office in 2018 initially cancelled the earlier “Downtown Reimagined” plan. This was despite years of consultation and public promotion already invested in the original plan. 

Six years after Downtown Reimagined was cancelled, its replacement, the Integrated Downtown Plan moved at a glacial pace, with council still needing to fund a master plan for the broader downtown redevelopment vision. Construction timelines are unclear, with the much trumpeted new “Innovation Centre” still not underway. 

Brown’s final claim is the Brampton Orangeville Rail Trail, which he describes as “moving forward” with funding to the tune of $16 million. The trail still remains in the design, environmental study and public consultation phase, and has yet to be built. 

The City of Brampton paid over $24 million in 2025 to purchase more than five acres of former rail corridor from the Orangeville Railway Development Corporation. In 2024, the trail remained in Stage One of planning in Brampton, with no set completion timeline. 

In total, almost $8 billion in investments that Brown claims in his flyer, of the $9.4 billion total figure, is not funded ($6.6 billion), is part of commitments that have not yet seen any money flow to the city, or includes amounts that cannot be verified. 

Brown did not respond to questions about his funding claims. 

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