Peel Region has spent less than half the $28.9 million in homelessness support funding, secured from higher levels of government, so far.
Staff are cautioning Regional Council that COVID-19 services provided to these communities so far cannot be maintained beyond March without additional funding.
Council cited the freeze as a positive for the many residents struggling during the pandemic, while ignoring its ongoing impacts in the new year.
The move does nothing to help renters, while many comfortable homeowners including council members will benefit, even though the public health emergency has not impacted them financially.
The pandemic has created more momentum in the city’s library system as it continues to modernize service delivery in a cyber world. But the fallout from the ongoing public health emergency impacting the City’s finances will delay some library projects.
Staff considered service-level changes, use of reserves, cutting back expenses and other strategies to help Mississauga achieve a low property tax increase, and are pitching a deferral of new capital initiatives to future years in favour of a modest budget increase in 2021.
A new report from the Toronto Region Board of Trade has laid out a carefully constructed zonal system for GTA transit. The proposal would eliminate the extra costs of riding the TTC for Peel residents and would better integrate GO Transit across the region. The primary obstacle is cost, with an estimated bill of $165 million annually.
Plans to overhaul a Ward 3 community centre in the city’s west end will result in the dismantling of a covered outdoor ice rink. The move has upset residents who see the skating surface as an important recreational, and cultural feature in their community and hope to stop its conversion into a swimming pool.
Across Ontario, hospitals can’t wait for the widespread vaccination of residents that is set to begin through a months-long process shortly.
They are already facing surging rates of admission as the province’s healthcare system tries desperately to hang on until the second wave starts to subside.
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Molester Frank Kohler pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts each of indecent assault and gross indecency in a case that spans back over 50 years. A Brampton man suffered horrific abuse and decades of torment afterward, before he took his own life last year.
Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Wednesday, with the first shipment of doses expected to arrive as early as December 14.
As a COVID-19 hotspot, Peel is a priority destination for vaccine shipments. While the Region’s health authority mobilizes for vaccine distribution, Mississauga councillors continue to debate paths to loosening lockdown restrictions to help small businesses.
Conservation authorities provide vital services to regions across the province; this week the PC government stripped many of those vital powers away, and handed a veto power for municipal planning to the Province.
The approval of Schedule 6 has left many politicians, citizens and environmentalists concerned for the future of the province’s green spaces.
A short-sighted and outdated pandemic recovery plan under Doug Ford could cause environmental damage for decades to come. A new report by Environmental Defence highlights Ontario’s broken climate promises, noting emissions rose in 2018 for the first time in years.
As Brampton and Mississauga councillors mull over their own budgets, staff at the Region of Peel are adding the finishing touches to their annual financial document. Regional government is responsible for a host of programs for low-income residents, and it is unclear if property tax breaks are an effective way to provide relief for those who need help most, or just a short-term gain for many unaffected by the pandemic.
The pristine coastline of Lake Ontario will soon house a necklace of communities that will redefine Mississauga. North America’s largest lakefront development plan remains on track, despite the uncertainty this pandemic has created for major projects.
It is a transformational vision. Where a menacing row of smoke stacks once stood, disgorging coal ash into the surrounding airshed, vibrant, walkable neighbourhoods will soon be built. Further west, Port Credit will be reshaped and other developments will expand housing, tourism and innovation industries, creating thousands of new jobs and attracting visitors to a city that will finally be connected to its majestic great lake.
The City has earmarked $3 million in its capital budget to carry out the Province’s asset management planning requirement by the regulation deadline of July 2023.
The requirement forces municipalities to plan and budget to ensure infrastructure meets the demands of a rapidly growing population.
Calls from public health officials in Toronto to explore the potential of decriminalizing simple drug possession were quickly shot down by the Premier.
But as more Peel residents die of overdose than at any other time during the ongoing opioid crisis, innovative solutions are needed to protect those using drugs to cope with the pandemic and other mounting pressures.
With COVID numbers across the province putting severe pressure on the healthcare system, Peel's situation grows increasingly dire. Mississauga councillors are worried their neighbour's particularly bleak picture might cause unfair damage to local businesses, while a group of Brampton professionals is confronting stigmas being spread about their city's largely visible minority population, many of whom do the essential work needed to keep society running.
While many can’t relate, the COVID-19 pandemic has stripped families of their income and forced residents in Mississauga and Brampton to the very edge.
A new report released by Feed Ontario shows the scale of this devastation and predicts food insecurity will get much worse for families across the GTA.
Under the guise of COVID-19 recovery, Premier Doug Ford and the PC government are making moves to strip power away from conservation authorities and make it easy for developers to build in some of Ontario’s protected and most environmentally vulnerable places.
Many have moved away from watching daily infection counts. It’s the patterns we’re now looking at. When will they provide a clear signal that the worst is behind us? Data over the last week show numbers, while not trending upward, remain extremely high, as infection spread continues to make Peel one of the worst hit areas in all of Canada.
A new concept of media has been shaped over the past decade. Social publishing platforms unrestrained by libel laws or any rules of responsible journalism have elevated serial liars and fabulists. The outgoing president of the United States, devoid of policies and even a passing familiarity with the ways of effective leaders, has gamed these networks. His remarkable success, just like the rise of other dictators and thugs whose singular focus is their grip on power, coincided with the failures of democratizing conventions. Journalism is a guilty party and Barack Obama has put the institution on notice. If citizens are not understood and empowered so they can mount their own defence, democracy will continue to crumble.
In the face of COVID-19, staff at the City of Mississauga have tried to design a budget with a relatively low tax impact.
But, where transit hours and new hires can be delayed, a desperate infrastructure situation means some increases are key. Even with new 2021 dollars set aside for roads, bridges and buildings, the City faces an impossible task over the next decade.
Councillors say the freeze is needed to help families struggling during the ongoing pandemic.
The move raises questions about how the City will pay for a growing list of unfunded projects that are needed to move Brampton forward, while the infrastructure deficit will add to hefty future tax increases needed to cover the costs of a hyper-growth municipality.
Faced with woeful response times and an eye watering repair bill, Mississauga’s fire service is taking stock.
Practicalities stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic mean plans to roll out public education are on hold, while desperately needed repairs won’t be presented to councillors until next year.
The need for better frontline care has been an unfortunate feature of Brampton for decades.
The City has called on the Province to fix the glaring funding disparities, and promised residents improvements will come. But some are questioning if it’s all talk and no action.
The City has promised downtown business owners that the withering area is a priority. After decades of neglect, change will come soon, they have been told.
But there’s little mention of plans for the city centre in the 2021 budget proposal, leaving businesses with more questions than answers.
Staff are recommending another full-time position dedicated to the City’s Climate Change Action Plan – a climate change specialist with a $92,000 salary – in next year’s operating budget.
Many capital projects related to climate change have been deferred, but the transit budget holds the promise of converting 40 percent of Miway’s fleet to hybrid vehicles in the next four years.
Those with loved ones suffering serious maladies who receive constant care in the program were given just over two months to find an alternative. With the deadline around the corner families are racing to find help during the middle of a pandemic. It’s the latest bleak illustration of a city whose healthcare is utterly failing its residents.
At Mississauga’s two hospitals, ambulances have been unloading curbside since the spring to make space for extra beds inside. Now, as frigid temperatures and the first snow storms of the season threaten, paramedics are concerned about patient safety and their own well being, battling the elements in emergency situations.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has been the subject of review, analysis and reform since its inception in 1990. Many recommendations, particularly from Coroner’s Inquests after a police-involved death, have called for improving police training to deal with those in mental health crisis.
Despite these recommendations, and decades of review, police are ill-equipped to deal with many in crisis, leaving devastated families to pick up the pieces.
Ensuring Peel Regional Police can deal with the increasing complexity of modern crime and meeting demands to rethink how police are funded is the delicate balancing act that begins today as the Peel Police Services Board starts discussions on the 2021 budget.
A lack of demand and dollars means MiWay is pausing and slightly reversing its growth for 2021 and 2022.
Reduced service is delivering welcome savings at City Hall, but countless unknowns remain about how the City’s transit bosses will resume their ambitious plans in the years to come.
As the city met for its first discussion of the 2021 budget, there was a notable concern among councillors about the possibility of taxes not being raised once again.
While the opposition to another tax freeze was strong, others questioned if an increase during the pandemic would be appropriate.
In some Brampton and Mississauga neighbourhoods, the positivity indicator that shows the percentage of tested residents infected with the novel coronavirus is even higher than the rate across each city.
Many Peel neighbourhoods have among the highest rates of infection in the province.
A report by the Province’s Auditor General has raised concern over the role medical experts are playing in Ontario’s pandemic management.
In Peel, the report’s criticism of testing and contact management may be familiar, while emboldened councillors preoccupied with economic impacts grow more vocal in their attempts to influence Dr. Lawrence Loh as infection rates in the region appear to be out of control.
An internal audit by The City of Brampton raises concerns about how transit is being managed at a time when the system is under unprecedented pressure.
Ridership over recent years has increased rapidly in tandem with the city’s population, but the review of operations raises red flags about how transit is being run.
The document outlines the City’s financial priorities for the next year and includes numerous funding goals for consideration.
Emphasis is on finally creating a formidable Innovation District in the downtown, while desperately needed work to support the success of such an investment in the city centre has been given little attention.
In Ontario’s COVID-19 hotspot, Peel’s two large school boards are in an increasingly precarious situation.
Staff are juggling in-class and online students simultaneously, while those teaching exclusively online at the Catholic board are being told they have to remain inside the classroom.
Staff are proposing a one percent increase in the City’s share of the 2021 property tax bill.
The recommendation, well below Ontario’s current rate of inflation, is a tradeoff: short-term, cost-saving measures will help property owners and shore up City coffers to weather the remainder of the pandemic; but ambitious projects in the booming municipality could be kept frozen in planning documents that much longer.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Peel has been skipped over by Queen’s Park.
Now, newly released testing data show a rigid approach to screening by the Province and woefully low testing levels in Peel, which are probably largely to blame for Brampton and Mississauga’s unwinnable positions.
For years, the city’s residents have been denied adequate care. In a place whose population is dominated by visible minorities, the attitudes of the man intertwined with Brampton’s healthcare legacy are being either coincidentally or purposely carried forward.
In 2019, Queen’s Park all but declared war on municipalities, pushing through a slew of changes that benefitted big developers and hurt cities. In the year that followed, Premier Doug Ford has continued with many of his controversial changes, but there is one area where the Province appears to be relenting and listening to its municipal partners.
An announcement from the federal government allocating funds for the project was heralded by city leaders, but it’s only a fraction of what’s needed to finance the ambitious Riverwalk project to reshape a withering downtown.
A year after public backlash saved Mississauga’s historic Credit River bridge from demolition, changes to the Environmental Assessment process threaten future input from residents as the PC government floats regulations aimed at removing the involvement of local residents when projects are determined.
After years of research and calls for reform from some trustees, community advocates and students impacted by the program, Peel Regional Police has quashed its School Resource Officer (SRO) initiative.
It’s another indication that Chief Nishan Duraiappah’s mantra of change for Peel Police has started to take root.
Anyone searching for signs of change at the Peel District School Board — or examples of how difficult it is to implement — need look no further than its Regional Learning Choices Programs.
After years of seriously underrepresenting Black and Indigenous students in these high-achieving classes, the board has changed its policy to increase their representation, but there are fears too few parents and families know about the initiative.
Ontario’s 2020 budget focuses on slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus but there is less attention on what this means for businesses directly impacted by measures to control COVID-19.
Many entrepreneurs are left to innovate on their own in order to stay afloat.
After months of obstacles, three racialized members have been appointed to a previously all white Peel teachers’ union executive to combat racism and discrimination.
Despite not officially starting until Wednesday, they have already forced the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) to rethink a poorly handled membership survey soliciting opinions on racism from a predominantly white base.
Adrian Woolley, the president of the Peel Regional Police Association, has criticized his force’s recent efforts to tackle internal issues around racism and discrimination.
In a newsletter to members, he said Chief Nishan Duraiappah’s handling of an agreement with the Ontario Human Rights Commission had been “almost entirely negative” and lamented progressive attempts to reform policing.
Peel also recorded the highest case count of all municipalities Saturday.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care climbs to 20 between the Trillium and Osler health systems.
Paramedics across Ontario are subjected to widespread abuse when assisting patients in a range of traumatic circumstances. The crises people in need of help go through too often result in the lashing out against women and men trying to assist them.
A new reporting tool developed by Peel’s External Violence Against Paramedics Working Group is one of several initiatives to help mitigate abuse against first responders, which has become all too common in Canada.
The federal government recently announced that in order to make up for a shortfall in immigration applications processed this year as a result of COVID-19, it will be increasing its already ambitious targets for newcomers over the next three years.
History, and recent studies, have shown the majority of these new arrivals will settle in cities outside of major centres like Toronto and Vancouver.
