When planning for luxury lakeside condos, a giant wastewater plant next door, radiating putrid smells across the area, is not an ideal scenario for future residents. The Region of Peel, City of Mississauga and development consortium Lakeview Community Partners are working together to upgrade the G.E. Booth wastewater treatment facility, to make it more sustainable and far less stinky.
Last week, the federal government announced $362.4 million in funding for provinces and municipalities struggling to meet demand as asylum seekers rely on overburdened shelter systems across the country. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller told reporters more details on the funding will be released in the coming days, but it remains unclear how much Peel’s overcrowded shelters will get.
In a recent 26-2 vote, Niagara Regional councillors prevented any debate on a proposed motion—which never got to the floor—calling to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Local elected officials blatantly contradicted themselves, claiming regional government is not the place to deal with geopolitical issues, after doing exactly that when they previously passed a resolution in support of Ukraine. How will they overcome charges of discrimination and rebuild broken relationships in their communities?
A month after announcing the procurement of new renewable energy contracts, the PC government announced it would be financing the refurbishment of the Pickering nuclear facility in its efforts to ensure Ontario’s energy grid can keep up with future demand.
Nuclear currently provides about 60 percent of the province’s energy supply, as experts encourage the transition to alternative sources such as wind and solar, while warning that the PC government’s investments in natural gas are moving us in the wrong direction.
At its most recent meeting, the overwhelming majority of Regional Council members refused to consider a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
While the subject was clearly outside the Region’s jurisdiction, that hasn’t stopped councillors from wading into geopolitical issues before. A previous show of support for Ukraine was not met with the same response. Frustrated community members are now demanding answers from their local elected officials.
A report to City Council Wednesday recommends a June 10 election to replace former mayor Bonnie Crombie. But the City has not confirmed a timeline for a by-election to replace Ward 5 Councillor Carolyn Parrish, who will resign her seat upon registering for the mayoral race. With rookie Councillor Alvin Tedjo also announcing his plan to run in the upcoming by-election, and two other councillors already committed, decisions will have to be made about how to fill at least two vacated seats, and possibly more.
Amid more resignations and newly surfaced emails, Premier Doug Ford is still struggling to regain support from much of his political base, after his PCs schemed to remove 7,400 acres from the protected Greenbelt. While the land has since been returned to its previous status, new information continues to emerge about the backroom deals and unethical process that caused the scandal.
A report being presented to Mississauga councillors on Wednesday outlines a timeline for the by-election to select former mayor Bonnie Crombie’s replacement now that her seat has officially been declared vacant.
June 10 is the earliest possible voting day, which will be determined at a March 6 special council meeting.
While all levels of government grapple with increasing pressure to adopt low and zero emission technologies rapidly, more homeowners are choosing heat pumps for their home’s heating and cooling systems.
Provinces in the east have seen incredible success through a series of rebates and other commitments to energy efficiency. But Ontario, which currently has a low rate of heat pump take-up, is falling behind as the province’s own rebate program is set to expire in March.
A spotlight on Algoma University’s Brampton satellite campus, after student protests over marks, exposes the egregious strategy of admitting thousands of foreign applicants to turn around the school’s flagging finances. It is now flush with money, but the students from India who bailed out the school are now asking why they are not getting the education or resources expected for the exorbitant fees they are paying, at least three times more than what their Canadian and American counterparts at the university are charged. Algoma has no housing in Brampton and almost 5,400 students (there were 540 in 2021) are forced to share 38 classrooms.
A recent letter from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is redirecting the provincially appointed Transition Board, previously meant to facilitate the dissolution of the Region of Peel, to conduct a review of major services currently handled by the Region, to hand them over to Peel’s lower-tier municipalities. Is this the beginning of the breakup Mississauga has been waiting for? Hundreds of staff could be impacted.
Two members of Caledon's Aggregate Resources Community Working Group stood before the Town’s planning and development committee last week and demanded local officials reaffirm their commitment to strengthen weak policies for the aggregate industry. The plea came after work to create better accountability over gravel companies has faltered.
An altercation in November involving students at Cardinal Leger Secondary School in Brampton and a plain-clothed police officer has generated two different narratives about what happened that day. The incident has inflamed tensions between Peel’s Black communities and Peel Police while shining a light on the region’s Catholic school board which is now facing disturbing allegations of systemic anti-Black racism.
With councillors announcing their bid to replace Bonnie Crombie, a recent poll from Liaison Strategies revealed well known Mississauga political leader Carolyn Parrish would win an election held now. It shows she has a double-digit lead over her nearest potential competitor. A by-election to replace Crombie will likely be held late spring or early summer.
A report from Ontario’s Acting Auditor General Nick Stavropoulos, published last month, picks apart the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry which has essentially handed the reins to the aggregate industry, failing to enforce regulations. Community advocates across Caledon have long fought the approval of new pits and quarries, with little oversight of these operations after they are allowed by the Province.
After five years of stalling new renewable energy production, prioritizing natural gas instead, the Doug Ford government has announced the procurement of additional renewable energy that will nearly double capacity by 2035. But following the renewable energy pledge that came out of COP 28 in December, which Canada signed onto, Ontario is still out of step with the national and international policies the country is obligated to fulfill.
A recent letter from the Minister of Transportation has directed provincial transit agency Metrolinx to submit a business case for the restoration of the downtown LRT loop in Mississauga (which was removed from the project by the PCs) and extend the line into the heart of Brampton. But questions around how the move will impact the project’s construction timeline and what the costs of the extensions will be, remain unanswered.
Seven Ontario youth are refusing to back down in their fight against the Ontario government for its harmful policies which have increased emissions across the province. They were in court Monday before a panel of appeal judges who will decide whether the case can proceed after an earlier decision dismissed the youth’s claim that the PCs should be held legally responsible for harm they are causing by failing to act on climate change.
A recent presentation from the Ministry of Transportation on Highway 413 — a highly criticized project that will cause significant environmental harm — was met with frustration by Mississauga councillors. Local officials requested details on the project timeline and costs, but their questions went unanswered after PC government representatives tried to trumpet the controversial transportation plan.
Bonnie Crombie has officially moved on after nearly a decade in the Mississauga mayor’s seat. The mark she left on her city serves as a template for how she might pull Ontario into the future, with a bold, fearless style of leadership unafraid of change. She ushered in an era of municipal politics that finally allowed Mississauga’s government to catch up to the cosmopolitan swagger that had replaced decades of sleepy, homogenous suburban life.
Everyone seems to have an opinion on Canada’s carbon pricing scheme. When compared to nations like Sweden the Liberal government’s policy approach has failed to yield the same results. Trying to appease Canadians—and corporations—across the spectrum has limited the effectiveness of carbon pricing here. For the policy to succeed a line in the sand needs to be drawn, otherwise emissions will continue to rise in a country that has become a laughing stock for our woeful action on climate change.
With the last day as Mississauga Mayor upon her, Bonnie Crombie reflects on her transformational leadership. She shifted Mississauga’s suburban mindset—a way of life increasingly out of step with modern city building—after decades of sprawling growth. She spoke with The Pointer about her municipal work on cleaner, greener growth ahead of her departure to helm the Ontario Liberal Party.
Brampton’s Residential Rental Licensing Pilot Program has launched across half the city, requiring landlords with four or less units to obtain a licence and be subject to random inspections for compliance. The two-year pilot aims to protect tenants from abuse, but advocates including Peel ACORN are demanding that corporate landlords, currently excluded from the oversight measure, also be included, citing poor maintenance conditions and a lack of compliance with fire and building codes in their properties.
As councillors line up to be Mississauga’s next mayor, residents could see more than one by-election in the year ahead depending on how the eleven remaining members decide to move forward. Councillor Carolyn Parrish has already confirmed her plan to resign from her Ward 5 seat as she contends for the mayor’s chair, and wants to only see one by-election, for the mayor's job and to replace any councillor who decides to run for it. But it remains unclear if other council members who plan to run will do the same, or if they will force a second by-election later in the year if a councillor has to be replaced.
During the recent COP28 conference in Dubai, the federal government presented a framework for a cap on emissions by the oil and gas industry, an announcement that has been long awaited by environmental groups across Canada. But the lack of urgency in implementing draft regulations as well as lackluster penalties for exceeding thresholds have organizations worried that government efforts to limit climate change will once again be unsuccessful.
As snowy, frigid winters of the past give way to rain and fluctuating temperatures, Canada’s winter tourism sector is balancing the challenges of adapting to a shorter, warmer season. Technology, according to tourism and sustainability expert Michelle Rutty, will help Canadians enjoy their beloved winter activities—we just have to learn to adapt.
Standing in front of Mississauga councillors and City staff last April, Metrolinx assured officials the Hurontario LRT, one of the largest construction projects in the city’s history, was on track to meet its 2024 completion date, despite a series of pandemic-related delays that caused supply-chain issues. Now, as 2024 has arrived, the agency has not confirmed it will meet the latest completion date; the original timeline was to launch in 2022. The Province also remains silent on restoring funding for the downtown loop, which the City says is critical for future growth.
Mississauga City Council recently approved a resolution to raise the standards of a five-year pilot program that holds the city’s landlords accountable, after a survey by a local tenant advocacy group revealed several landlords are failing to comply with basic maintenance standards. As a result of the findings, Peel ACORN members have made a series of demands to councillors to improve the program aimed at protecting renters against unethical property managers.
The Metamorphosis Network is an umbrella group of Peel Region’s most vital social services organizations, brought together to safeguard critical work after the breakup of regional government. With the surprise reversal decision by the PC government to keep Peel’s government intact, the consortium wants to build upon its work, and use the lifeline extended to the Region as an opportunity to dramatically improve support for Peel’s most vulnerable residents.
A groundbreaking approach being adopted by municipalities across North America will be implemented in St. Catharines. “Social Procurement” is the use of public funds—tax dollars provided by the residents of an area—to procure products, services and human resources that directly create social and economic benefits for the community.
The City of Brampton and Sheridan College, along with local social service groups, government bodies and other post-secondary institutions, signed the Guiding Principles of the Brampton Charter for Improving the International Student Experience on December 18. The City has failed to provide adequate affordable student housing for years, while colleges have targeted international students, who pay much higher fees, without creating a safe learning and living environment for them.
After almost three decades of climate negotiations, for the first time at COP28, nations agreed that fossil fuel production is limiting global ability to keep within temperature targets set in Paris in 2015. But once the initial joy over the novel agreement wore off, groups began to identify loopholes that would allow bad actors profiting from oil & gas to continue harming our planet.
Fifteen young Canadians from across the country, brought together by their climate activism to safeguard a sustainable future, are tweaking their arguments after a recent decision by the federal court of appeal allowed the case against the Liberal government, alleging its failure to ensure their safety, to proceed to trial. The decision comes at the end of a year that saw major progress in climate litigation across North America.
Canada has rolled out its standards for adoption of electric vehicles across the country.
While the policy provides ambitious targets for EV takeup, industry experts say costs need to come down, charging infrastructure has to be ramped up and the domestic supply chain won’t be able to compete with foreign players if the market grows too fast for our fledgling EV industry.
After years of financial neglect by City staff and elected officials, Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services will see $29.8 million in capital spending as part of the City’s 2024 budget.
Fire union president Chris Varcoe says there is a sense of relief among staff who for decades have worked in stations that are in desperate need of upgrades.
This article highlighting the ongoing struggles of international students was originally published in September: The Region of Peel had issued a letter to the federal and provincial government requesting stronger support systems for international students in Peel. Ongoing issues continue to put young people at risk with little action for more than a decade. A lack of housing, falling prey to sex traffickers and the absence of support from colleges and governments that gladly accept money from families, has created an ongoing crisis that often leads to tragic consequences.
People like St. Catharines’ Gertrud Liho are not looking forward to opening their municipal tax bill in 2024. The City passed an alarming 10.5 percent property levy increase late this year, with hardly any consultation and long after the usual public approval process. In an economic climate that is putting pressure on residents from every direction, with costs rising well above salaries, those like Liho, who lives on a fixed income, want municipal leaders to be extra cautious when spending the taxpayers’ money.
Black leaders have for generations warned others about the often crippling price they continue to pay just to protect their communities from harm. Former Brampton Citizen of the Year Danielle Dowdy has worked tirelessly for years and says focussing on her well-being will allow her to rejuvinate, with so much work still to be done.
With a recent history of having to fill vacancies, St. Catharines City Council contemplates a revised policy considered un-democratic by some, while others see it as an opportunity to improve equity and diversity in municipal representation.
With a perfect storm of fiscal pressures challenging municipal finances, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, through the use of her strong mayor powers, approved the 2024 budget on Tuesday including a 2.3 percent tax increase on the local share for residential property owners. Combined with the Region of Peel’s tax and utility increase, Mississauga homeowners will pay an additional $473, on average, next year.
The federal government announced on Monday the City of Mississauga will receive $112.9 million through its Housing Accelerator Fund—an incentive that aims to help deliver more homes and improve affordability. The funding deal comes less than two weeks after council approved Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s Mayoral Directive, through her strong mayor powers granted by the province, to permit four-plexes “as of right” city-wide to increase Mississauga’s dense housing supply.
After damning internal probes forced the PCs to walk back much of the destructive land use policy the Doug Ford government rammed through, Housing Minister Paul Calandra announced Peel could reverse its heavily influenced, controversial decision to open up 11,000 acres for future development.
But the Council-approved plan, passed under fear the PCs could make things even worse, has yet to be revisited.
Premier Doug Ford is refusing to release a review of provincial work on implementation of Ontario’s landmark accessibility legislation, despite a legal obligation to do so.
Previous investigations have detailed widespread failures by successive governments to improve accessibility across Ontario, leaving nearly 3 million residents living with disabilities to navigate “soul-crushing barriers” on a daily basis.
In a press conference where he provided no evidence to support the government’s decision, and made false or misleading claims, Housing Minister Paul Calandra announced Wednesday the dissolution of the Region of Peel will no longer move forward as mandated under legislation.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie took an optimistic tone, viewing the work already done as the first phase toward Peel’s break up and Mississauga’s disentanglement from ongoing financial mismanagement in Brampton.
Tuesday’s grand opening of a new youth hub in the community of Malton, which has long been isolated from the rest of Mississauga by Pearson Airport and industrial barriers, signals a positive change for the area’s youth population.
The project to convert the former Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School pool surfaced after a 2016 staff report identified a critical need for a dedicated space for youth, with sufficient programming and services lacking in the community.
Brampton’s Goreway Power Station and Emerald Energy from Waste incinerator are the two largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions across the city. While repeated calls from environmental organizations stress the local need to reduce GHGs, both of these operations are slated for massive expansions. If approved, Brampton can kiss its emissions reduction targets goodbye.
The federal government announced the Global Methane Pledge at COP 28 Monday, solidifying a previous commitment to decrease the gas sector’s methane emissions by 75 percent by 2030, and 40 to 45 percent overall below 2012 levels.
Ontario, meanwhile, is moving in the opposite direction, expanding natural gas use for electricity production.
Jane and her family are suing the government of Ontario and senior administrators of the province’s schools for the deaf and blind, detailing years of abuse and mismanagement in a statement of claim filed last year and previously detailed by The Pointer.
Now, the family has received further information about Jane’s treatment, raising concern over the alleged lack of action when explicit images of their underage daughter were found on the device of a fellow student.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who will challenge Doug Ford for the premier’s job when she takes over the Liberal leadership, is asking him for clarity on the future of Peel’s regional government, after Patrick Brown once again used the work for a compromised Deloitte report—discredited by regional councillors when behind-the-scenes interference by senior staff was exposed—to justify keeping regional government intact.
With the Province offering limited information on Minister’s Zoning Order reversals following legislation introduced in October by Housing Minister Paul Calandra, the surprise decision to double Mississauga’s Lakeview Village development from 8,000 to 16,000 units could be overturned, or left as is.
City Council hopes the PC government’s admission of interference and subsequent legislation will allow the huge project to be scaled back to what was originally agreed upon.
