After decades of tax freezes under former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, compounded by recent hyper-inflation, impacts of the pandemic and a provincial government downloading tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure costs developers traditionally paid for, the City of Mississauga has its hands tied as the latest municipal budget season kicks off.
With few initiatives proposed under the 2023 budget, the City will be gearing its capital spending toward maintaining crumbling infrastructure and trying to stay ahead of climate-related needs.
For three seasons, any hunter with a small game licence and a shotgun has been allowed to kill up to 15 double-crested cormorants a day between September and December.
The PC government, which approved this hunt in 2020, says it is a sound wildlife management practice. However, a closer look at the science behind the decision, or lack thereof, and the near total absence of monitoring of cormorant populations, raises significant concern about the Ford government’s reasons for targeting a native Canadian species.
As the Town of Erin continues to push forward with pre-construction on the wastewater treatment facility, set to be fully operational by 2028, residents of the Town and nearby communities are rallying against the project.
Citizens within the Town are concerned about connection costs while those on the outskirts are worried about depreciated property values. Many are also worried about the threat caused by sending effluent discharge into the West Credit River and what it will do to the surrounding ecosystems.
The City of Mississauga is making a name for itself as a sustainable municipality by investing more than half of the funds in its capital budget toward green initiatives.
The majority is to transition to cleaner transit alternatives—hybrid electric buses and both bus rapid transit and light rail transit lines. Other initiatives include the expansion of parks and trails, management of invasive species and improvements in stormwater infrastructure.
Peel police have struggled with mental health calls that have escalated into violent interactions. Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Teams and Crisis Outreach Assessment Support Teams have helped immensely, but the complexity of cases continues to pose a challenge.
The Canadian Mental Health Association Peel Dufferin is adding another layer to crisis response in Peel with the launch of its new pilot program, aimed at providing support to individuals in mental health crisis before police intervention is required.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is once again fighting to pull the City out of Peel Region, a crusade that’s been mired in controversy over the years and was previously turned down by the PC government in 2019.
After once again centering her October reelection campaign on the promise of Mississauga’s independence, making it a single-tier municipality like many cities much smaller than hers, Crombie has made it clear she is not backing down.
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The consequences of the PC government’s plan to build 1.5 million new homes, regardless of the environmental impacts—driven by the legislative engine known as Bill 23—have been well documented.
But in Niagara, a region flanked by two Great Lakes, the geographic reality means accommodations for development will trigger a domino of impacts in the unique watershed.
Two former Peel Children’s Aid Society employees have been charged with numerous offences in relation to an alleged purchase and reimbursement scheme, which allegedly defrauded the child welfare organization of more than $250,000.
The former employees were expected to make their first appearance in court on January 9, but the date has now been pushed to February to allow for more evidence to be gathered.
At a time when the online exploitation of children is reaching historic levels, a new report details how schools across Canada are failing to protect kids from potential abuse by those who are meant to be mentors in their lives.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is calling on governments of all levels to implement new systems to protect children from abuse by educators at school.
When the announcement broke recently that scientists had achieved “ignition” for the first time ever, creating more energy output than the energy used to create the gain, physicists around the world heralded the dawn of a new era in our fight to prevent catastrophic climate change.
As the initial euphoria around nuclear fusion has worn off experts are reminding the world that renewable sources of energy are still the key to dramatically reducing carbon emissions. Fusion should be added to our toolbox for emissions free energy but it might not reach our grid for decades.
The National Wildlife Centre is set to start construction on its first permanent medical facility in Caledon East in 2023. Dr. Sherri Cox co-founded the organization nine years ago, building a vast network of professionals throughout Canada and beyond. In phase one of the construction, a fully operational field hospital will be built for surrounding wildlife centres and the public.
Phase two will come later, with a focus on providing a cutting-edge facility for teaching wildlife medicine to veterinarians and rescuers across the world.
During a press conference late last year, Peel police celebrated the success of Project Zucaritas, an 11-month investigation that led to the seizure of $25 million worth of illegal narcotics – the largest drug bust in the region’s history, police said.
Officials claimed the bust will significantly disrupt the region's drug trafficking networks; it was the latest proof that these insidious criminal organizations have a growing presence in Peel.
Driven by his authoritarian tendencies and disdain for urbanites, Ontario’s Premier is determined to wrest power from large municipalities. Former Brampton councillor Terry Miller warns Peel and other regions that local decision making based on community values is under threat by a man who has his own agenda. He does not care about what the people want.
A recent report from Niagara Region’s planning commissioner, Michelle Sergi, and the subsequent Council decision on it, were a disturbing start to the new municipal term of office. She failed to represent the voices of residents fighting to protect the Greenbelt, instead supporting the Doug Ford government’s desire to remove Niagara portions of the protected land, and even recommended two more parcels of the Greenbelt in the region also be removed for sprawl-style development.
Through a partnership between Osprey Valley and Golf Canada, Caledon will become Canada’s new home for the sport’s national headquarters.
But public and private courses and those owned by municipalities are facing unique challenges, from the demands of the game in a time-starved world to the impacts on greenspaces at a time when sustainability is crucial to the planet’s future.
Countless stories of love, loss and politics are encased within a historical building in downtown Brampton. Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives (PAMA) collects and preserves the Region’s history to ensure the stories of the past are never lost.
Staff work tirelessly to showcase the rich culture that has shaped Peel over more than a century. The work can be tricky, requiring a gentle hand to preserve historic documents vulnerable to the vagaries of time.
The slew of legislation imposed by the Ford government, in its effort to push the subdivision development industry’s agenda, will cause wide-ranging damage to the various natural water systems across Ontario.
The consequences to ecosystems and the human population that depends on them will be devastating.
Proactive policing.
It’s not Minority Report, but a reality for specialized police officers across the country trying to catch child predators in an increasingly vast and secretive online world.
Two landmark rulings from Canada’s most powerful court—one at the end of November—have helped level the playing field, giving detectives the green light to continue luring those seeking to do irreparable harm to children.
Canada’s first fully electric vehicle manufacturing plant opened its doors two weeks ago after receiving significant funding from both the federal and provincial government. As the pace of EV take-up seems poised to dramatically accelerate, municipalities need to invest in infrastructure so the public can shift away from carbon-based vehicles.
In March 2020, the provincial Ministry of Education issued a report containing 27 directives, with over 54 actions, intended to hold Peel District School Board accountable and restore good governance while eradicating anti-Black racism and other systemic discrimination embedded in the board after years of harmful inaction by senior educators and upper-level decision makers.
Nearly three years later, the board has shown a commitment to complete these directives and create a new culture in the province’s second largest school board with 17 of the 27 directives completed and the remaining 10 slated to be finished by the end of the school year.
As COP15 came to a close, nearly 200 nations signed onto the Kunming—Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework which lays out four broad goals and 23 specific targets to achieve worldwide by 2030.
While the 30 by 30 goal — 30 percent of the Earth’s land, oceans, coastal areas and inland waters protected by 2030 — is being celebrated, many remain skeptical about the political and corporate will to achieve the targets.
As public uproar continues in opposition to Bill 23 and changes to Greenbelt legislation, the head of Ontario’s government agency responsible for protecting species at risk has resigned.
It is the latest message aimed at Doug Ford and his PC government, which continues to push aside environmental safeguards to make way for sprawl-style development.
Brampton residents will no longer be allowed to display outdoor election signs, an unprecedented move by Council, led by Rowena Santos, who tried a similar move in 2019, but after failing to do her homework the decision was widely criticized as an underhanded attempt to stifle future candidates.
The councillor, who received less than ten percent of the eligible vote in October, had her outdoor election sign ban passed recently, but the by-law is now being challenged.
Bill 23 has upended urban planning in Ontario, forcing municipalities to take action against legislation aimed at usurping their authority over local land use.
Environmental organizations and other advocates are trying to fill the knowledge gap so local officials can make the best decisions to protect the province’s remaining greenspaces.
Just weeks before the holidays, 15 CUPE emergency dispatchers employed by the City of Mississauga were told they were immediately being laid off as a private company has been given a contract that replaces them.
The ex-dispatchers are reeling from the news and questioning how it will impact the City’s response to emergency calls.
One of the key themes of COP 15 in Montreal is the role that cities can play in protecting biodiversity. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante formed the Montreal Pledge encouraging cities to take action to protect the natural environment instead of waiting for direction from higher levels of government.
Every day, the human trafficking unit of the Niagara Police tries to find a needle in a haystack. Traffickers, bringing their victims to Niagara to cash in on the transient, bustling tourist scene, are easily able to blend in with the crowd, using one of the region’s hundreds of hotels or motels to conduct their illegal business.
It will take buy-in from across the region and its many tourism sector stakeholders to stop the scourge.
After two years of internal strife and damning allegations about the mismanagement of Peel’s child welfare organization, the Peel Children’s Aid Society board of directors has discreetly announced Rav Bains is retiring from his role as CEO.
The move comes over a year after the former CEO was placed on administrative leave following a provincial review that revealed a toxic work environment and financial mismanagement.
While some residents have framed their opposition to the proposed addition of the new Brampton and Regional Islamic Centre as a safety issue—citing concerns about traffic and noise—Muslim residents say they just want a peaceful place for families to practice their faith, free from the intolerance being expressed mostly by residents with the same background.
The Province has confirmed to The Pointer that no Record of Site Condition report was submitted by the developer prior to the residential zoning switch last year. The report is required before land-use is changed for a former industrial property, and is supposed to ensure contaminants are identified as part of work to remediate the land to keep the public safe. The Ministry of Environment has confirmed earlier findings of high levels of toxic PCBs leaking from what was formerly a 50-acre manufacturing site.
After the land was bought in 2014, the property owner is finally proposing to mitigate the contamination and limit further leakage from the former GM site, but no official record of the property’s condition has been submitted to the Province.
The Liberals held onto their seat in Mississauga—Lakeshore following Monday’s byelection.
Former MPP Charles Sousa, who served as Ontario’s finance minister and is widely known in the South Mississauga community, will now join the federal government. As is the case in many byelections, voter turnout was low.
It has been an inspiring December for sports devotees in Brampton, with the Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League moving to the CAA Centre, and Council launching an expression of interest for a world class cricket stadium on the same property to host professional tournaments and matches.
As The Mississauga Food Bank hits the halfway mark of its annual holiday food drive, CEO Meghan Nicholls says the demand for assistance to feed families is starting to outpace the organization’s ability to meet increasing needs.
Recent reports reveal skyrocketing food bank use not only in Mississauga but across the country. People here might be turned away or given less food this holiday season.
A report released by Environmental Defence shows Canada will not meet its goal of zero plastic waste by 2030.
Plastic plays a major role in our lives; it’s the responsibility of all levels of government to find creative solutions.
A recent study commissioned by The Atmospheric Fund has exposed the impacts of the PC government’s actions.
While it buys up new environmentally harmful natural gas resources as part of its energy plan, the report shows clean solutions are viable, affordable and reliable alternatives, and the time to act is now.
Closing remarks by the Premier following a transportation announcement in Brampton Wednesday morning strayed from the topic as Doug Ford launched into an attack on Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, described as misogynistic by many on social media.
She has criticized the PC government's housing plan under Bill 23, which could force the construction of 120,000 new homes in Mississauga by 2031, with property taxpayers on the hook to cover certain infrastructure related costs previously paid by developers. Crombie has decried Ford’s loyalty to powerful builders while ignoring property taxpayers.
Through its three phases, Brampton’s ambitious Riverwalk urban development master plan will address flood prevention along the Etobicoke Creek corridor, connect parts of the city and provide a showpiece that promises to animate the withering downtown core.
Regional councillors will appoint an individual to the Peel Police Services Board on Thursday.
Members of Peel’s Black communities are calling for representation around the table as they continue to face disproportionate harm at the hands of police.
Ontario’s Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has published a stinging audit that determined the Doug Ford PC government is doing very little to fund stormwater infrastructure and provide necessary data for flood mapping, both of which are critical to protecting the province’s 444 municipalities from the increasing risk of flooding due to climate change—a risk that will be exacerbated by the PCs’ misguided housing strategy which will make it easier to destroy wetlands and build subdivisions in floodplains.
Bill 7, The More Beds, Better Care Act, is being constitutionally challenged by the Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, who argue the purpose of the legislation is to intimidate and coerce older adults into giving up their hospital bed.
The Ford government’s plan to carve out certain parcels of land from the Greenbelt is facing scrutiny from a range of stakeholders.
Two MPPs have asked for an investigation by both the Auditor General and the Integrity Commissioner into lobbying actions by developers who bought up land in the Greenbelt, then saw the PCs identify those properties for future subdivisions.
After what she describes as “Feeling frightened, concerned for her safety and entirely unsupported by City Management,” former councillor Karen Ras has filed a damning lawsuit against the City of Mississauga and former council member Ron Starr. She alleges City Manager Paul Mitcham and Mayor Bonnie Crombie ignored her requests for support while she was allegedly being repeatedly harassed by Starr, who has denied the allegations against him.
Voters are once again heading to the polls to select their MP for the Mississauga—Lakeshore riding, a position that’s been vacant for several months since the resignation of former Liberal representative Sven Spengemann.
Now, 40 candidates—the largest number to run in any single electoral district in a federal election or byelection—are vying for the vacant position to represent Mississauga on Parliament Hill.
An environmentally significant forest in Welland is at risk of being destroyed by a developer, after the municipality broke its commitment to preserve the land for future generations. The proposal for a three-storey condominium is the latest threat to the area's oasis of greenery and wildlife.
Neighbourhood residents are now fighting back.
Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act is yet another example of the Ford government violating Indigenous and Treaty rights with destructive legislation that has been reported to benefit the developers or land owners involved. Countless First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples have come forward in the last few years alone making statements citing disrespect and lack of consultation by the PC government, leading to legal battles.
The Chiefs of Ontario and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation are the latest to speak out against Bill 23, citing clear violations and blatant disregard for rights over their ancestral and traditional territories.
The PC’s controversial housing legislation has passed at Queen’s Park, mandating urban sprawl onto Ontario’s largest municipalities, compromising climate change goals and threatening vital greenspace.
It also opens the PCs to significant liability, following a lack of consultation, and the possibility of legal challenges.
Peel Regional Police is looking for a significant expansion to its budget for 2023, a funding boost the chief has described as absolutely critical to address increased workloads across the hyper-growth region.
The ask comes as municipal finances across Ontario are stretched thin by two years of a pandemic and the looming revenue cuts that could deplete coffers if Premier Doug Ford’s developer-friendly housing legislation is passed.
The 2022 Emissions Gap Report shows targets set in the Paris Agreement are not supported by policies around the world. In Canada, governments on all levels have a responsibility to take swift climate action to prevent further harm to the planet.
While the Region of Peel has a climate action plan in place, its recent decisions have pushed it further from its goals. Ottawa and Queen’s Park have also pursued policies contrary to their climate commitments.
Elected officials representing Ontario’s third and fourth largest cities are warning that if Bill 23 passes in its current form, forcing 1.5 million new homes across the province in just eight years, it will have devastating impacts on property tax rates, critical infrastructure and affordable housing.
The Region of Peel is moving forward with a proposal for supervised consumption sites in the region following council approval in July.
The Pointer canvassed the streets of Cooksville, one of the potential locations, to hear how businesses feel about the proposal. Misguided stigmas often create negative views about supervised drug consumption sites, which can dramatically improve neighbourhoods.
