The PC Party and Premier Doug Ford are betting two major highway projects, pushed by developers, will pave their way to reelection in June next year.
But with a public more and more attuned to a worsening climate crisis, will the environmentally destructive move and his misleading remarks be seen by voters for what they are—old ideas to fix a modern problem?
The City of Brampton’s 2022 budget proposal has been released, promising key investments and a 2.8 percent increase in the City’s share of the annual property tax bill.
However, the numbers, which may be crushed further down as Mayor Patrick Brown searches for a fourth consecutive tax freeze by hiking up other costs that hit taxpayers even harder, are grim reading for future Bramptonians. The budget has slashed more than $65 million that had been earmarked for buildings and infrastructure in the city, and is propped up by plans to issue more debt.
The waitlist for adult day care and senior dental work in Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga has ballooned over the past 18 months.
The number of seniors waiting for drop-in support at the Region’s long-term care homes shot up 50 percent between 2020 and August 2021, while there is a dental backlog of 5,000 people. The concerning trend follows a year where the plight of senior citizens was a major public issue, with little done to help them.
A charity is trying to plug the gaps international students too often fall through in Peel by preparing newcomers for the harsh reality of studying abroad, before they get here.
Moved by the deadly consequences of students being repeatedly failed by the system, three Canadians have set out to counter the rosy narrative peddled by education agents in India. Their charity, Sunoh, mentors youth and paints a realistic picture for prospective international students, often deceived by a predatory industry operating around post-secondary education in Canada.
After years of discussions on plans and expectations, Mississauga City Council approved the final master plan for Lakeview Village. The developers and residents have found some compromises along the way and have cohesively put together a vision.
As much of the design work begins, the stretch of waterfront offers architects and planners a once in a lifetime opportunity—to create a truly iconic space for all the world to see.
Council members, residents and the Opposition NDP are voicing their frustration over just revealed plans for the second phase of Peel Memorial’s development, after Mayor Patrick Brown and Premier Doug Ford claimed a funding announcement by the PC government would finally see a second full-service hospital in Brampton.
Now, it appears the city’s taxpayers will have to pay $125 million for a local share of a project that will be far from what was promised.
Mississauga council members are set to vote on the future of the city’s eastern lakefront. Elected officials will weigh the concerns of their community against the demands of a powerful development consortium building Lakeview Village.
A resident-driven plan helped by a councillor who passed away has been quietly changed by the developers, whose employees and their family members donated thousands of dollars to Mississauga municipal election campaigns in 2018.
The Region of Peel’s ongoing housing problems were brought to the attention of councillors, again, through a harrowing tale of a woman who fled an abusive relationship.
With tears running down her face, she begged the region’s elected officials to find the strength to help people suffering in their own communities. Staff reports highlighted how dire the situation is and what Peel could do if council members finally start allocating sufficient funding.
Following the advice of its executive director, who has no experience in policing or equity and inclusion, the Peel Regional Police Services Board has decided against the formation of a committee that would have provided guidance around the force’s engagement with Black communities across Mississauga and Brampton.
Despite the advice of experts and community members the board has instead decided to form a one-size-fits-all diversity committee similar to others that have proven ineffective in some of Peel’s public institutions.
Brampton Council, which has ignored raising revenue for a local share of future healthcare expansion in the city, will contemplate a special tax to help pay for the Phase 2 construction of Peel Memorial.
A special levy is one of the options, says Councillor Pat Fortini, who is pushing for a responsible move by council to address Brampton’s ongoing healthcare crisis.
Juliet Jackson, the president of Peel Children’s Aid Society’s board of directors, has promised major changes to the organization’s workplace culture. Two reviews, one backed by the Province, found a “seriously troubled” workplace, where staff are marginalized by senior management.
Despite the dysfunctional culture, Jackson defended the lavish pay increases bestowed upon embattled CEO Rav Bains, who has seen his salary grow by almost $74,000 between 2013 and 2020.
The City of Brampton has submitted six requests for Minister’s Zoning Orders to supercharge the development timelines of several major projects. Four of the six requests were walked onto the agenda with no notice, stopping the public from having any time to consider the impacts they could have.
Mayor Patrick Brown says the sudden rush comes from a provincial deadline set by Steve Clark, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. It’s a claim the Province flatly denies.
With a budget largely locked into salaries mandated by police union contracts, Chief Nishan Duraiappah has the difficult task of managing the expectations of a public demanding changes to an archaic policing model, with the realities of protecting a growing community.
The 2022 document marks the third budget Chief Duraiappah has overseen, and there are signs his vision for change, heralded upon his arrival in 2019, could be starting to take hold.
In the sweep of Mississauga’s history, the relationship with the original stewards of the land has been similar to Canada’s—somewhere between criminal and non-existent. Only recently has there been a collective reckoning over our tragic legacy.
But the Indigenous peoples of our country, including our First Nations members, are still waiting for a meaningful reconciliation. In Mississauga, a minor hockey club still uses an insulting logo and name of a great First Nations leader more than five years after community members asked for a change.
A funeral home in Etobicoke has the grim responsibility of repatriating the bodies of international students who have died in Brampton, and elsewhere across Canada. International students arrive in Peel and other parts of the GTA full of hope, carrying the aspirations of an entire family, but more and more are being failed by a system that has a predatory dimension.
Community leaders believe the plight of these young people in Ontario has reached a crisis point.
After Mayor Patrick Brown cancelled the long-awaited Downtown Reimagined plan to pump life into Brampton’s withering city centre, a last-minute alternative should achieve some of the badly needed improvements, but many of the previously approved investments won’t be made.
The project means businesses will have to deal with disruptions for work that was supposed to have been completed by now. Many store owners already reeling from the pandemic will have to put up with construction to recreate the streetscape, but it could finally attract customers to a downtown that has struggled for more than a decade.
A movement is sweeping libraries across North America, as an increasing number of systems abolish late fees.
Brampton Library temporarily took part in the idea during the pandemic, scrapping its fines until the end of 2021. As the next budget season approaches, councillors and Brampton Library will decide if they make this equity-focused move a permanent feature.
The City of Brampton requested two Minister’s Zoning Orders at a council meeting last week, after asking for four at the end of September. If approved, the requests will cut the public out of key decisions about Brampton’s future.
One MZO would trigger the development of a master-planned community to house 12,500 residents at full build out. Similar projects in other cities have taken years of consultation and negotiation before approval.
The embattled CEO is facing questions about his use of public funds for personal development seminars aimed at improving his financial standing before retirement.
Bains was a regular client of two individual-success coaches and attended multiple workshops across North America. He even billed taxpayers for the flights to an event in Arizona, before paying the money back after a provincial probe was launched.
Anyone who attempts to cycle outside of hemmed-in residential areas across Mississauga knows the challenges in front of them. Often there are no bike lanes, poorly maintained roadways or giant boulevards teeming with commercial trucks and speeding vehicles.
Many residents want to join the cycling movement but barriers such as the postponement of infrastructure repair work are leaving Mississauga behind.
When residents riding Brampton Transit’s Queen Street buses change to the Toronto subway in Vaughan, they pay a second fare. A lack of integration between two municipal transit systems means they compete instead of complementing.
Now, a motion passed by Brampton Council could prove to be the first step to fixing the issue and allowing residents to transfer seamlessly between buses, subways and streetcars. GO Transit integration is the logical next step.
Regular and reliable train service from Brampton to Toronto and Kitchener could be revolutionary for the city. The commuter-rail project, which has been on the agenda for years, would unlock new labour markets and help convince residents to leave the car at home.
After years of slow progress, Metrolinx says it is continuing to push the project forward, despite the chaotic leadership inside City Hall.
Trustees at the Peel District School Board have been sidelined from their roles for more than a year, after they admitted they were incapable of tackling systemic anti-Black racism and other forms of deeply harmful discrimination within their organization. In their absence, the board has made strides toward equity that, in recent months, have slowed.
Now, trustees are lobbying publicly and privately to be returned to power, while simultaneously demonstrating an unwillingness to dismantle a harmful culture they helped create.
To curb enthusiastic speeders, Mississauga opted for automated speed enforcement cameras. After the first month with two of the 22 cameras already policing city streets, some drivers are being caught more than once. What more can the City do to make people slow down?
Early warnings that the Doug Ford government and his supporters in the development industry would have their way with Ontario’s protected Greenbelt, the world’s largest ecologically sensitive area covered by special conservation legislation, are coming to fruition.
On Tuesday, Caledon council’s pro-developer members paved the way for a provincial planning veto that would allow the construction of a 2.2-million square-foot warehouse in the Greenbelt without the usual local approval process.
The staff who work in Brampton’s communications department take home hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money every year. Public servants, their job is to protect the city’s hard-working residents, not their boss, Jason Tamming, recently fired from Niagara Region after his corrupt behaviour there.
With corruption allegations now swirling inside City Hall, they have worked against the public interest, to protect the very bureaucrats named in the accusations. The department, under Tamming’s control, has morphed into a spin-room, working furiously to protect those accused of wrongdoing.
As Canadians struggled with the discombobulating waves of the COVID pandemic, many Albertans said welcome to our world. The province over the past decade has seen its economic engine seize, tens of thousands of workers thrown into the unemployment lines and a boom and bust cycle that has turned everything from real estate to municipal planning and projections for future infrastructure into a rollercoaster from hell.
Two men, Don Iveson and Naheed Nenshi, were instrumental in pulling two of Canada’s largest cities through a tumultuous time, and as they officially pass the baton today, their vision should serve as a guidelight for Mississauga and Brampton.
A survey of staff at the Region of Peel shows that they, like the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, do not look like the diverse residents of the region.
A census, that polled half of the Region’s staff, shows the majority of employees are white in a region where around two-thirds of residents are visible minorities. The predictable and discouraging findings were received by councillors (80 percent of whom are white) Thursday without barely any comment.
The Ontario PCs have allowed the widespread killing of the recently endangered double-crested cormorant for two seasons now. Wildlife experts say there is no evidence to support the need to destroy these animals.
Putting hunters ahead of our natural world is another sign the Doug Ford government is a danger to the environment.
Brampton City council has delayed the decision on a $35-million cricket stadium after members expressed concern the project is being rushed through without proper information.
Mayor Patrick Brown appears to be circumventing proper council decision making while critics accuse him of vote pandering at a time when the city desperately needs a second hospital, a university and other key pieces of infrastructure.
A hastily arranged special council meeting on the future growth of the Town of Caledon has blocked members of the public from taking part.
Originally a planning workshop, all but one council member refused to allow public deputations, before heading behind closed doors for almost an hour. Key matters on the table included advocacy for the controversial GTA West Highway. The lack of transparency prompted one resident, who ran in the recent federal election, to report council members to Ontario’s municipal watchdog.
Evidence brought forward by the whistleblower who triggered the Brampton City Hall corruption investigation shows Mayor Patrick Brown used City resources to campaign for Conservative leadership candidate Peter MacKay in 2020. At the end of the same year, months before being retained to conduct the investigation into the allegations, Deloitte hired MacKay.
The firm’s final report makes no mention of the allegation, which it did not investigate, or the evidence of misconduct by the mayor, and there is no mention of a possible conflict.
Vaccine certificates and passports have been implemented across Canada and the Region of Peel. After protests at some hospitals and other public places, those screaming the loudest seem to be part of a vocal minority.
Peel residents and businesses have been, for the most part, respectful of the rules while others have been a minor inconvenience for bylaw and police officers, as new case numbers are on the decline, possibly in part because of the new rules.
Dr. Emmett Brown in the famous Back to the Future movie had it right: “We don’t need roads.” For him it was because he built a flying car that used waste to fuel it through time, something our technology hasn’t achieved yet. But scientists have come up with ideas on how to maximize roads and mitigate many effects of climate change.
There might be some truth in Doc’s claim.
In a historic move, the Peel District School Board became the first—not only in the Greater Toronto Area but in the entire province—to call for an anti-Islamophobia strategy.
The move follows a successful motion by board Trustee Nokha Dakroub and the work of community leaders like Samya Hasan.
An investigation into Peel Children’s Aid Society launched by the Province shows an organization where out-of-touch leaders take credit for the work of frontline staff whose discrimination complaints are dismissed.
The deeply disturbing findings suggest a need for swift action to fix an organization that cares for vulnerable children across the region.
An investigation into Peel Children’s Aid Society, triggered by complaints of anti-Black racism, has revealed its CEO, Rav Bains, spent taxpayer dollars on a trip to San Francisco.
He was also given exorbitant salary increases of five percent a year, on average, pushing his compensation way beyond what other CAS heads make.
Parvasi Radio, a current events show hosted by founder and CEO Rajinder Saini, which reached thousands of Punjabi-speaking Canadians over CJMR airwaves, was suddenly removed by the station after 17 years, over a financial misunderstanding.
Saini says a new deal with a different radio licence holder has been struck but the drastic move highlights how precarious things are for ethnic media sources that play a crucial role in Peel.
An investigation into explosive corruption allegations at the heart of Brampton’s local government has been swept past the public by democratically elected council members and the top bureaucrat at the centre of the accusations. A publicly funded report into allegations levelled mainly at CAO David Barrick was barely discussed in public, after hours of private discussion that taxpayers were locked out of. Councillors Jeff Bowman and Martin Medeiros say the matter is not over.
Mississauga’s bus system is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year and a half later. MiWay has a plan to move forward but inconsistent ridership and lack of funding is holding it back. The frustrating combination threatens ambitious transit expansion plans that are key to the city’s future. Creative marketing could help draw eyeballs… and commuters.
Peel’s Healthy Babies Healthy Children program is unable to provide support to as many families. Hiring specific public health nurses and training them to assist vulnerable residents is something the program wants to do but cannot because of the current nursing shortage. These highly trained professionals are needed on the frontlines to deal with the lingering pandemic. Behind the scenes many of our youngest residents are suffering due to the lack of help for babies and toddlers in need of support.
Vaccination rates are plateauing in Ontario and Peel Region is trying to push the number of fully vaccinated residents as high as it can. Creative efforts including the Region’s Vax Bus and a similar one provided by GO Transit are just some of the initiatives to reach specific communities that could be facing barriers preventing inoculation. Mandates and the vaccine passport have increased take-up rates but what more can governments do to entice residents to get the jab?
A report into wide-ranging corruption allegations at the City of Brampton has been published, after months of waiting. The investigation, completed by Deloitte, clears inexperienced CAO David Barrick of wrongdoing under the technicalities of Brampton’s disorganized internal policy documents.
It also offers glimpses of an administration in disarray.
A dedicated stadium in Brampton could accelerate cricket’s growth in the city, bring international tournaments to Canada and nurture domestic talent.
But with the city still reeling from the pandemic and its mayor forcing tax freezes, is a legacy sports facility a priority for many struggling taxpayers?
An investigation into allegations of corruption within Brampton City Hall, implicating Mayor Patrick Brown and his handpicked CAO David Barrick, has finally been published, the evening before councillors must discuss and scrutinize its findings.
Now, with no chance for the public to review it, some councillors want to defer debate on the report to allow elected officials and residents time to digest its contents.
Once again, the Peel police services board, which includes no Black members, has displayed an alarming lack of awareness toward issues faced by Black residents in two of Canada’s most diverse cities.
Friday, board members were presented with a history of racial profiling by school police officers but instead of offering leadership to restore trust, they remained silent.
In 2015, Darren John, aka Avalanche the Architect, was convicted for uttering threats after releasing a song that included controversial language following a falling out with his former music promoter.
John is appealing to the Supreme Court pointing out that evidence used against him in the case was lost and has yet to be found, evidence he says could have made a difference in his initial trial.
There are more roads in a single square kilometre in Southern Ontario than in any other part of Canada. It means the natural world is slashed, paved over and divided, leaving very few corridors for wildlife to migrate, search for food or suitable places to breed.
Habitat fragmentation is a leading cause of species decline, and now the Ontario government wants to build a 400-series highway along the edge of the Greenbelt, compromising the homes of countless animals, and the province’s fight against climate change.
A rush of delegations and advocacy demanding more be done to help international students is gaining traction.
After pressure and a comprehensive report on the problem, Brampton City Councillors have agreed to address the issue but remain reluctant to take a true leadership role. The city is home to thousands of foreign students hoping to live and study in Canada. All arrive expecting the Canadian dream, but too many see it morph into a nightmare.
The court case for a horrific Brampton crash that left a Caledon mother and her three daughters dead is set to resume November 1. The trial will determine if 21-year-old Brady Robertson will be convicted of impaired driving causing death. The Judge ruled Wednesday that critical evidence showing THC and fentanyl in Robertson’s system, along with drugs police seized from his car, will be admissible in the case.
