Monica Singh Soares says Brampton’s public consultation is mostly ‘token’, she wants to run Wards 7 and 8 differently

Mother of two, trumpet player, small business owner and Brampton-raised, Monica Singh Soares knows what her constituents in Wards 7 and 8 want. 

She brings 25 years of public service experience across the Ontario government, the City of Brampton and the Region of Peel. She has also founded a charity and advocates for disability inclusion. 

In 2022, she won a seat on Southgate Township Council in Grey County after what she describes as a four-week, door-to-door campaign. That term ends in November. She is one of seven candidates for a seat left without an incumbent when Rod Power moved to the regional race on nomination day. 

She proudly displays “people before politics” as her campaign slogan. What she means by this is consulting residents early and “street by street,” fixing basic services fast, and spending public money with more transparency and accountability. 

Monica Singh Soares (bottom right) was elected councillor for the Township of Southgate in 2022, served on the Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit Board, and the Grey and Bruce County Joint Detachment Police Services Board. (Township of Southgate)

She says her husband has been a staunch supporter of her campaign because she cares for the people that she serves as a public servant. 

“Making a powerful, impactful change is something that you could say I’m made to do,” she said. “So for me, this is more of a calling. I can see now why politics is something that would be important for me to continue in.”

When going door knocking, she hears about speeding near schools, overcrowded rentals and illegal dumping, and paying more for slower services. If elected, she promises traffic calming at every school, published by-law and transit performance data, more full-time by-law officers and an overhaul of rental licensing that she now says may need to “start over.”

“I’m not here to get behind a desk and sit there and cut ribbons and take photo ops,” she said. 

Soares sees that City Hall is failing Brampton residents in consulting them, describing the City’s approach as “token consultations.”

“There has to be robust consultation for major decisions, even minor, that are going to affect the quality of life of the residents in that area,” she said.  

Although Brampton’s budget page says that public transparency is important, residents have long complained that the process is rushed. Its January 2025 budget explainer noted that, under strong-mayor rules, budgets no longer go through a budget committee, and public consultations normally held ahead of the new year were not even scheduled in 2024. A May 2025 story on Mayor Patrick Brown’s tenure used council’s own tracking list to show slow progress on promised work, including a standalone whistleblower policy and a stronger complaint process involving the integrity commissioner that council requested years earlier. 

What she’s hearing from her constituents is stark. Speeding near schools is a big concern for them. 

Soares understands the provincial speed camera ban is in effect, but still supports cameras in school zones, and promises to push for traffic calming measures like speed bumps, raised crosswalks and curb extensions. Ontario ended municipal speed-camera ticketing on November 14, 2025, and told municipalities to turn to signs and other traffic-calming measures such as the ones Soares suggested. 

“There are many traffic calming measures that I have found when I was at many of the conferences I would attend as a councillor,” she said. “And they could be anywhere from showing the speed on a digital thing. I am a big supporter of technology. I think Brampton is very behind when it comes to safety and technology.” 

In October 2025, The Pointer reported that Automated Speed Enforcement data show how speed cameras significantly reduce speeding in Brampton’s school and community safety zones. Removing them could lead to worsening Brampton’s already-high auto insurance rates and fatalities, according to studies. 

Soares understands that speed cameras are no longer used in municipalities, but wants to see some anti-speeding measures like speed bumps or raised crosswalks. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer) 

Soares also wants real enforcement on Brampton’s citywide Residential Rental Licensing Program, which she calls a “start.” She supports ward-by-ward response times, annual renewals replaced by five-year licenses for good landlords, and relief for already-legal basements. She described seeing overcrowded driveways, blocked fire access in Ward 7 and no visitor parking in a large Ward 8 townhouse complex. 

“That’s why I’m starting to rethink RRL altogether,” she said. “I was trying to work within it, but it is a newer program. Maybe we need to start over.”

Brampton’s RRL pilot began in 2024 in Wards 1,3,4,5 and 7. Enhanced enforcement was slated to reach Wards 2 and 8 in 2026, and after a fatal house fire in November 2025, council took the program citywide on January 1. The Pointer has previously reported on how Brampton landlords exploited lax enforcement, putting the public health and safety of tenants at risk. 

She also describes problems she has been hearing about- people waiting for hours for a bus to arrive. She says that “People pay more and wait longer.”

Brampton Transit suspended some routes in April of this year due to “low ridership.” In 2025, the transit service reported an operating deficit of $17.5 million, reasoning that it was due to the federal government’s decision to place a cap on foreign students. 

Soares is critical of City Hall’s handling of Brampton Transit, saying that transit riders “pay more to wait longer.” (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

“A lot of people, especially a lot of Brampton Transit riders, say that they increased the ticket prices for Brampton Transit,” she said. “But we're not seeing any, like the buses are now not on time or they're slow. They get bogged down on something.” 

This follows the City of Brampton, under Mayor Brown, deciding to award a roughly $11 million contract to Argo, an on-demand transit company that had been operating for less than a year when the deal was signed. A freedom-of-information request produced nearly 1,500, with 86 percent of them fully redacted. The Town of Caledon later awarded Argo a $4.6 million contract while Brampton Transit trimmed service.

“If I could take the bus, I would love to be able to just hop on and hop off a bus knowing that it’s going to be reliable,” she said. 

Soares was also critical of the progress that Peel Memorial Phase 2 has been making, or lack thereof. She said, “Brampton shouldn’t be the reason this hospital waits.”

The much-awaited and long-delayed second hospital is a partnership between Infrastructure Ontario and William Osler Health System. A groundbreaking ceremony took place in March 2025 before a construction firm was chosen, and the province has not said when construction would begin in earnest, or what the final cost of the hospital was. In November 2025, Bird Design-Build had been selected, yet still the final cost and the timeline remained frustratingly secret. 

She also questioned the reasoning behind why Wards 7 and 8 — “a highly dense population with seniors and families” — were chosen for an incinerator expansion. 

Emerald Energy from Waste has burned garbage at 7656 Bramalea Road since 1992 and wants to expand from about 182,000 to 900,000 tonnes a year, which would make it Canada’s largest. Peel Regional Council has asked the province to reject the expansion after Peel Public Health officials warned that increased emissions may worsen air and soil pollution, raising the risk of cancer, respiratory diseases and heart conditions among nearby residents. 

The Emerald Incinerator, marked by the red pin, is located beside Highway 407 and sits in close proximity to commercial businesses, health centres, and residential subdivisions. (Google Satellite)

Brampton Councillors in February 2025 also raised concerns about air quality related to the waste-burning plant. In December 2025, the provincial government approved the project without a full environmental assessment, despite 446 requests for one, leaving Emerald to meet conditions and win a compliance approval before building. 

“So when they're making these decisions, I'm just trying to understand why they're doing what they're doing,” Soares said. 

She asserts that Brampton needs a fresh approach that puts “people before politics.”

Soares is also proud to be a disability advocate, and she says she is a part of the Ambassadors League with Ontario Disability Employment Network. She says she wants to foster a culture, not just programs, of accessibility in Brampton. 

“Brampton has the people, the businesses, the location, and the talent,” she said. “What it needs now is disciplined execution.
 

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