Reliance on emergency food banks in Mississauga has spiked during the pandemic as the root causes of food insecurity have gone unaddressed by elected officials.
But community members are giving back in a serious way during the holiday season, hoping to assist those struggling to feed their family.
The once hyped plan to build a university in Brampton is floundering with little to report after more than two years. The City has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on consultants with almost nothing to show for it.
While the community has seen no benefits from the wild proposal, the two men that won contracts to work on BramptonU have links to Mayor Patrick Brown and Councillor Rowena Santos, who have gone silent after pushing the ill-conceived idea.
Freedom of information requests are a key pillar of transparency and accountability in local government, granting residents access to a range of public documents to help them better understand how key decisions have been made and hold public officials to account.
In Brampton, the system is failing. Staff in 2020 received just 158 requests for information from the public and failed to return almost 40 percent of them on time.
An outpouring of anger and grief filled a Brampton courtroom this week as friends, family, and colleagues of Karolina Ciasullo, told how their lives were shattered when an out-of-control car, driven by Brady Robertson, who had eight times the legal limit of THC in his system, slammed into the family vehicle carrying the young mother and her three daughters.
The victim impact statements were offered ahead of the sentencing for Brady Robertson on four counts of dangerous driving causing death.
Bovaird House has stood in Brampton since the 19th Century. It is a striking piece of heritage in a city dominated by cookie-cutter subdivisions. A group of volunteers who call themselves the Friends of Bovaird House have devoted thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain this mini-museum.
The benefit and financial value of the project was the subject of a recent heated debate between City of Brampton council members.
The man who runs City Hall’s public relations department, which is supposed to provide citizens with accurate and transparent information about operations that use their money, has instead tried to manipulate The Pointer, attempting to have false claims published about his involvement in a high-profile scandal that rocked Niagara Region.
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As Ottawa and Queen’s Park make moves to minimize the impact of Omicron, Mississauga and Brampton are light years ahead of where the two cities stood ahead of last year’s holiday season.
The uncertainty in the pandemic’s latest chapter comes with questions about what Peel, and the rest of the world need to consider as COVID clearly settles into its permanent place among the human population.
After little debate or consideration, Peel Region Council passed the 2022 budget with a worsening housing crisis looming over the heads of elected officials.
Instead of a promise for more affordable housing in a post pandemic world in which the waitlist has ballooned, the Region is still relying on out-dated pre-pandemic strategies, while funding to help families was once again largely ignored.
Leaders at the top of municipal and provincial government have disregarded key consultation rights held by everyone in Ontario. The trend has been chronicled by Ontario’s auditor general in a series of reports released in November and December.
While Queen’s Park has neglected its duty to listen to citizens under the Environmental Bill of Rights, the City of Brampton has joined in with a series of requests to cut the public out of the planning process.
It's almost 2022 and the lingering pandemic is forcing more and more burnt-out nurses who have carried us through wave after wave of this health crisis out of the profession as they can no longer cope with the unrelenting demands.
Physically and emotionally drained nurses are leaving, some pushed past their breaking point by Bill 124, passed by the PC government to limit wage increases for public sector workers including teachers, pharmacists and nurses, to one percent.
The City of Brampton has approved its 2022 budget with another freeze to the local share of property tax. The move to crush a 2.8 percent increase was introduced on the fly by Mayor Patrick Brown Monday and ratified Wednesday.
To achieve its latest freeze, the City will cancel $8.4 million in capital projects to cover a debt payment that’s not even supposed to come out of the capital budget, scrap an increase to its infrastructure levy and reject Brampton Transit’s request for more funding to cover the increasing price of diesel.
On December 8, Mississauga City Council approved the 2022 budget, setting in stone decisions for the upcoming year.
Among pandemic-related challenges that have impacted new initiatives, the municipality is prioritizing large-scale transit infrastructure, hoping to entice riders back, while continuing Mississauga’s slow transition away from the car.
Brampton councillors accepted a request from a developer to fast-track a massive residential/commercial project and skip public consultation, despite the landowners having no idea of what was being planned.
A baker and Canadian retail giant have been left shocked by a motion to build a planned community of 12,500 people on land they own, without telling them first.
A dearth of fire stations across Mississauga means fire fighters are travelling farther and longer to arrive at emergencies. Elected officials have done little over the years to address this growing problem.
The 2022 budget finally gets the ball rolling on investment for Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services, including a new station, renovations to aging fire halls and an expansion of its education program in hopes of stopping the problem at the root.
Faced with a difficult and potentially unpopular choice, council members in Brampton are opting for a Band-Aid solution. Rather than building a specific healthcare levy into the City budget, a majority decided to steal away funding from other key projects.
Multiple major Brampton growth plans, including the Centre For Innovation, a potential sports stadium on City land, a new fire station and an expanded animal shelter are now all without funding. The move was part of a push by Mayor Patrick Brown and his allies to once again freeze the size of the Brampton budget.
Some residents in Peel Region have found online-only council meetings a major barrier to participation.
Those that aren’t comfortable with technology have been shut out, while others have been muted when they try to speak. Inaccessible video conferencing software — and mismanaged discussions — are also shutting out Ontarians living with a disability.
Councillors at the Region of Peel have passed the final budget ahead of their re-election campaigns next year. The process saw no changes made to the document staff presented, with politicians essentially approving the budget bureaucrats, not elected officials, shaped.
Social services including affordable housing and help for those facing a range of financial challenges have once again been largely ignored by staff and council members.
It was an all-hands-on-deck approach from every level of government at the beginning of the pandemic. Funding was flowing to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable but now, as the public health crisis abates, Peel’s growing homeless population is relying increasingly on an organization doing vital work.
To continue their efforts, founders need sustained funding from the very governments pulling back.
The Ontario government reaffirmed its commitment to fund a widescale redevelopment of Mississauga Hospital, building a brand new facility on the Hurontario Street and Queensway site that will house more than 950 beds, while creating one of the largest emergency departments in the province. Trillium Health Partners, which operates Mississauga’s hospitals and a facility in Etobicoke, will also expand that health centre next to the Sherway Gardens mall by 350 beds.
Meanwhile, in Brampton, many are wondering why their city has once again been neglected by the provincial government, which is only providing a 250-bed expansion of Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness, for non-acute care, despite a request for at least 850 new beds and the creation of an actual hospital.
Brampton’s business community is losing faith in City Hall after years of tax freezes under Mayor Patrick Brown and inexperienced CAO David Barrick. A damning presentation made by the Board of Trade to budget committee laid bare the recklessness of Brown’s tax freezes.
Business leaders highlighted the lack of basic planning, the late release of information and an air of incompetence emanating from Brampton, its council and staff.
A major GTA developer is using the incentive of a new divisional facility for the Peel Regional Police to skirt local planning scrutiny and apply for a Minister’s Zoning Order that could spring an entire Brampton subdivision.
In a letter to council that resulted in a unanimous request for the Province to waive the standard planning process, the developer, Argo, said time is of the essence to build a new police facility. Despite being front and centre in the builder’s pitch, the new police building would take up less than four percent of the total land that would be developed if Queen’s Park gives the green light to proceed.
The world is hurtling closer to climate instability, with many governments refusing to take the threat seriously. Last week Ontario’s Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk, released an in-depth report laying out the lack of transparency and effort of provincial ministries tasked with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Shortly after, a federal government watchdog released a similar report outlining the lack of climate action on behalf of Canadians. While Earth is heating faster than scientists predicted just a decade ago, the lack of action by politicians is making our future even more unpredictable.
Your hard-earned money is increasingly being spent on the political ambitions of Peel’s elected officials, pet projects that benefit private and personal interests, consultants and other contracted workers with direct ties to City Hall, and, most alarmingly, on the egregious salaries, bonuses and special perks such as lavish car allowances being handed to non-union staff, and some unionized workers, in a municipal sector with little accountability and oversight of the men and women who spend your money.
Juliet Jackson, the president of Peel CAS’ board of directors, has informed staff that controversial CEO Rav Bains has been placed on administrative leave.
Bains has been under scrutiny after a provincially-backed review pointed to financial concerns under his leadership of the organization. Two expenses claimed by the CEO in 2019 for personal success coaches are at the heart of inquiries being carried out by Jackson and the board.
Regional staff are plowing forward with Peel’s plan for the next 30 years, trying to appease those concerned about climate change and others demanding new land for homes. As cities sprawl closer to the beloved Greenbelt the accommodation of the housing market raises questions: will the Region say no to developers; and can smart growth built around transit realistically meet the demands of future home buyers?
Brampton City Council has voted to begin the process of expropriating land held by private property owners in the north of the city to help a group of developers that wants to build a massive subdivision. The highly unusual move could see government powers and public funds being used to benefit private interests.
City staff say it has never been done before. Councillor Harkirat Singh took the unprecedented step of moving the motion for expropriation to help the developers, but has not answered questions about why he did it.
Britannia Farm is one of Mississauga’s best kept secrets. The 200 acres sits almost at the geographic centre of the booming city, right off its busiest boulevard. But it remains closed off to the general public.
For years, Peel District School Board has owned the land, operating a few buildings on the property for educational purposes. But after decades of residents pleading for access to the vast greenspace in their backyard, Carolyn Parrish, the Ward councillor, has helped shape an inviting master plan to create a central outdoor destination in the city that was finished in 2016. Five years later, little movement on the project has taken place and this sprawling greenspace sitting at the heart of an urban transformation remains largely hidden from the residents of Mississauga.
Wednesday saw the Liberals, Greens and NDP stand together asking Ontario’s legislators to support a motion that would bring 850 beds, an actual second emergency department as part of a commitment to transform Peel Memorial into a full-service hospital and a third hospital to address the city’s ongoing hallway healthcare crisis.
But the majority PCs, including Brampton MPPs Prabmeet Sarkaria and Amarjot Sandhu, once again killed the NDP effort to end hallway medicine in Ontario’s fourth largest city.
The past few years have been devastating for cities carrying the brunt of COVID-19 financial losses into 2022.
Even with the pandemic still very much looming over it, Mississauga is continuing to invest in a greener future through various capital projects planned for the coming years.
The City of Mississauga has been aware of asbestos in some of its buildings since at least 2009.
Presented with documents obtained through a freedom of information investigation that show the City has neglected crucial responsibilities aimed at ensuring the safety of the public, staff admitted they failed to follow provincial regulations that demand regular inspections of the cancer-causing material.
The City of Brampton owns more than $6 billion worth of infrastructure, ranging from community centres to fire stations and roads. The City is supposed to save a growing pot of funds each year to be ready to replace these critical assets as they reach the end of their useful life.
However, under Mayor Patrick Brown and CAO David Barrick, Brampton has stopped saving. A key infrastructure levy has dropped from 2 percent to just 0.5 percent in 2022, threatening the very streets Brampton taxpayers walk on.
The city’s determined arts council is showing Mississauga creatives they can find success in their own community. It’s hard to carve out a space next to the country’s largest city, where artists in all genres are drawn from all corners of Canada, hoping to make it big.
But as the sixth largest municipality continues to boom, its evolving arts scene is gaining momentum.
The City of Mississauga is using most of its 2022 budget simply to keep the lights on, leaving little left over for new investments.
Conservative budgeting by staff who hope the frugal approach will allow them more funding opportunities in the years after COVID-19, will hopefully help residents hit hardest get back on their feet in the meantime.
The City of Brampton’s 2022 budget has promised minimal funding to help with climate change adaptation and mitigation. The document is short and extremely vague in its environmental commitments, with none of the game-changing plans its 2019 climate emergency declaration demands.
At the same time, Brampton continues to invest in expanding its road network and will not add any transit service hours next year.
In a Voir Dire decision, a judge said it has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt Brady Robertson was impaired by drugs when he crashed his vehicle into the SUV of a mother and her three children, but she has not made a final ruling.
At the time, Robertson had eight times the legal limit of THC in a blood sample taken 45 minutes after the deadly accident. The defence is mounting a constitutional challenge against the current laws around impaired driving involving cannabis.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is calling for the Peel Memorial expansion to convert the facility into a full-service hospital including an emergency department and will put forward a motion next week for a third hospital in Brampton.
Horwath says regardless of the city’s ability to raise its share of the capital, if elected next year, an Ontario NDP government will fund the Peel Memorial expansion to ensure it will be a full-service hospital and also build a third hospital in the city.
The trucking sector is the backbone of many critical industries in Canada — agriculture, retail, manufacturing, forestry — which rely on trucks and drivers behind the wheel to get their goods to market. But earlier this year, the industry was short 18,000 drivers.
Some drivers who are on the road, experts say, are often under-trained, under-paid, and overworked, putting others at risk while supply chains rely on a stretched labour force.
Brampton's frontline healthcare needs have been the key topic of public discussion in the city for years, long before the COVID pandemic. The organization tasked with providing clinical care to Brampton residents is calling on all corners of the community to support efforts to transform Peel Memorial into the city's badly needed second full-service hospital.
Young women and girls are trafficked in Peel at a rate that is more than double the national average.
Yet, for those looking to escape this heinous crime, there are few spaces to turn.
New data from the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking shows there is a need to provide increased housing supports for survivors across the country.
Since at least 2012, an increasing number of staff have been leaving the City of Mississauga’s facilities and property management department — taking a significant amount of severance pay with them.
Figures uncovered through a freedom of information request show that, on average over the past nine years, 16 percent of the workforce has left annually. The trend raises concerns about the stability of a department that manages $2 billion worth of infrastructure and thousands of repairs every year.
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.
In 2018, the City of Mississauga requested bids for a specialist to investigate the condition of some of its key buildings. The report that was eventually produced paints a grim picture. It documents buildings that require expensive repairs from a City budget that is already under immense pressure.
Consultants highlighted key changes and repairs to be completed immediately and others that needed to be done in the near future. Mississauga has delayed many due to “competing capital funding needs across the City”.
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.
