A local educator will begin a five-day hunger strike at Queen’s Park Monday morning. A local citizen’s group has sent a scathing email to public figures working in the heart of Brampton’s hospital system. Families in the city question why they’ve been forgotten by the provincial government for almost two decades.
While the local healthcare crisis can be blamed on many, it’s time to demand nothing less than an immediate cure for this sickness.
Malton has been at the heart of Mississauga’s debate around guns and gangs, particularly since the tragic shooting of a 17-year-old bystander in September. The gang-style attack that saw more than a 130 bullets fired and left five others wounded highlighted the need for a better police presence, especially since a nearby community station was shut down in 2018. However, documents obtained by The Pointer show that the neglect of Malton is far worse, stretching back almost 25 years.
Those were Andrea Horwath’s words inside Queen’s Park Monday. For the second time in just over a year, the provincial NDP tried to get a third hospital approved for Brampton, forcing a vote in the legislature. The Progressive Conservative government once again voted it down, accusing the NDP of playing “partisan games” and bringing forward a motion that is only “criticizing” the ongoing work to mitigate the hallway healthcare crisis instead of suggesting solutions.
As Mississauga continues its focus on healthy and environmental policies, councillors have instructed staff to create a framework for a city-run short-term bike and e-scooter rental scheme. However, with the car still king on most city roads, serious question marks remain over the viability and safe operation of such a program in Mississauga. Disappointing results to a similar plan in Toronto alongside a provincial review of e-scooter regulation are just two issues Mississauga has to consider while providing viable alternatives to the car.
In the south of Mississauga, a new development has received an exemption from the Municipal Act which will allow the operation of a private shuttle-bus service. Though positive news for anyone considering property in the area, the move also highlights the chronic inadequacies in the city’s current transit plans. With Mississauga in the middle of a self-declared climate crisis, drastic changes must take place in its transit policy if it’s to make public transport a viable option for the general public while reducing emissions.
As Canada moves closer to the introduction of 5G technology, regions and cities are grappling with its potential impact. The capacity and speeds this new technology offers could propel a smart city revolution, solving traffic problems and improving healthcare outcomes among many other possibilities. However, some campaigners – including one who spoke to the Region of Peel last week – fear health impacts from this new telecom platform, though Health Canada disagrees.
Latest Episode
New statistics show that home ownership in two of Ontario’s biggest cities is growing increasingly unaffordable, even for those earning incomes that place them firmly in the middle class.
Estimates show that it could take decades for median-income earners to save up enough for a down payment, and a lack of affordable housing investment in Brampton and Mississauga could impact the future of these two large cities as potential investors and job hunters flee to more affordable places.
A common response from Brampton’s MPs to the question of why the city continues to receive very little in the way of investment from Ottawa is that the city doesn’t put forward the proper applications.
That’s about to change as council has laid out its priority list, with a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Recently released data detailing the staggering extent of overcrowding in Brampton’s healthcare centres has led the provincial NDP to once again lobby for much needed funding in the city.
As part of a motion to be put forward Monday, the Official Opposition party is calling for funds to be set aside for Peel Memorial’s expansion and for a third hospital in Brampton, while challenging the city’s two PC MPPs to show up for the vote, unlike last year when they absented themselves during a similar motion.
After Friday’s announcement by the province that its review of regional government was over and that no changes would be made, many across Mississauga hoping for the city’s independence were deflated.
But the mayor and one of the most experienced councillors say the decision does not mean the end of the city’s push for its freedom from Peel Region. They are vowing to secure Mississauga’s independence, with or without efforts by the province.
An Ontario human rights complaint filed by a woman who is one spot removed from the highest position in the entire Peel District School Board, includes disturbing allegations that, if true, paint a damning portrait of one of the country's most diverse school boards.
Associate Director Poleen Grewal alleges that Director Peter Joshua and the board have undermined her role as the head of equity and diversity. She alleges discrimination against her and retaliation for raising concerns over alleged systemic problems surrounding race.
On Tuesday, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath released information her party obtained that shows the extent of the city’s healthcare crisis, with both hospitals operating far beyond capacity. Meanwhile, the Osler health network tells The Pointer there are no plans for a new hospital and the long-anticipated expansion of Peel Memorial won’t happen for years. It remains unclear why Osler failed to submit its phase-two plans when the province had expected them.
Two homicides hours apart last week were the latest in a deadly year across the region, as the grisly crimes haunt residents demanding help with public safety. Peel police have expressed uncertainty about how and when funding sources from senior governments can be accessed, to help address the wave of violent crime ripping through parts of Mississauga and Brampton.
With homicides, bank robberies and other violent crime in Peel dominating local headlines, it will be tough for Peel Region Council to say no to the police force’s ask in its 2020 budget proposal.
But critics have questioned how the force is spending its money, with stiff budget increases that have helped salaries skyrocket, while innovative approaches to fighting crime seem lacking. The new chief, meanwhile, already seems to be making his mark, with more civilian hires that could be the crime-fighting key, instead of just putting more officers in cars.
After Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party won almost every riding in the Greater Toronto Area, New Canadian Media reached out to members of various immigrant communities across the GTA to find out what motivated voters at the ballot box. In the second of this two-part series, members of the African-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian communities talked about the trends and mood that influenced them.
The City of Mississauga has completed applications for federal funding from the Investing in Canada Plan. The requests, amounting to $847.5 million, include funding for bus rapid transit systems on both Dundas Street and Lakeshore Road.
These two projects in particular were lobbied for by Mayor Bonnie Crombie during the federal election under the “Mississauga Matters” campaign and represent the first test for Mississauga’s six re-elected Liberal MPs.
Councillors at the Region of Peel, following Brampton City Council’s lead, made contradicting moves at a meeting on Thursday which focused on climate change, but also pushed the creation of a new highway that environmental groups are trying to stop. Urgency was demanded to move forward with the GTA West Corridor, particularly from Caledon councillors.
For the second consecutive federal election, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won every riding in Mississauga and Brampton in a near-sweep of the 905. New Canadian Media reached out to members of various communities across the GTA to find out why the Liberals won their vote. This article, looking at the Punjabi-Canadian and Latino-Canadian vote, is the first in a two-part series exploring the question of why the GTA went red.
The premier clearly wanted to shake things up at the regional level and had Hazel McCallion whispering in his ear to secure her city’s independence. But between then and now, the only reason Ford flip-flopped, as he’s done on a growing list of files, is because his approval rating has him one step from the political grave, with his party, both in Queen’s Park and the senior version in Ottawa, signalling they’ve had enough of the Ontario dictator. In the end, Mississauga suffered a major blow, because they bet on a man who can’t deliver on much anymore.
With the rise in violent crime, Region of Peel council, on the urging of Carolyn Parrish, has pencilled $12 million into its draft 2020 budget to fund a community hub in Malton as well as further proposals in Brampton. The funding, which could help to establish centres to engage, socialize and provide outlets for disaffected youth, offers an upstream measure for the region to tackle rising violent gang crime. With council on board in principle, plans are developing to lobby federal and provincial partners to bring more funding to the increasingly ambitious project.
Brampton is elated. Mississauga is angry. The Doug Ford PC government announced Friday morning that Peel Region and other regional governments across the province will stay intact and continue the way they have been operating for decades. The news is a shock to many in Mississauga who had hoped desperately that Queen’s Park’s review would give the country’s sixth largest city the fully independent status it has sought for decades.
The City of Brampton is eager to fix the previous council’s blunder that put the city’s transit future in jeopardy. With the federal election over and done with, the city will be asking Brampton’s re-elected Liberal MPs to make good on the promises of assistance they handed out.
However, while councillors have now all agreed that the LRT should run along Main Street, there’s much more to be settled before they can make a concerted push.
With his popularity still sinking like a stone, Premier Doug Ford and his PC government have once again walked back plans to increase class sizes across Ontario. The move comes as teachers’ unions across the province seem determined to take drastic action in order to turn around the PC’s planned cuts to the public education system.
Media outlets across the country, including The Pointer, cited projections by 338Canada throughout the campaign. The poll aggregation website offered rare predictions for individual ridings by manipulating national numbers. In Mississauga and Brampton, the website correctly predicted the Liberals would come out on top but underestimated their lead — sometimes by a huge margin.
The region is growing, it’s young and it has a large list of priorities that still need Ottawa’s help. Yet voter turnout was down this year compared to the last election in 2015. Some ridings saw more engagement than others, whether that was due to local storylines or seemingly close races. Overall, though, it seems no wedge issue truly divided the population and drove them to the polls.
Infrastructure Ontario has awarded Mobilinx consortium a $4.6-billion contract to build and operate the Hurontario LRT over the next 30 years. The confirmation is good news for Mississauga but puts extra pressure on the city to secure federal funding for the project’s downtown loop. Shovels will be in the ground as early as spring 2020. As part of the announcement, the Ontario government quietly added that the project would be delivered in 2024, two years later than previously planned.
It was not what was expected. Liberals rolled through the city Monday, crushing what was supposed to be a formidable Conservative challenge in at least two ridings and a much closer race in others. The large pluralities across Mississauga hopefully won’t mean the party will take local needs for granted, as the city has made clear that it needs help from Ottawa on many fronts.
The Liberal government left a long list of priorities unaddressed in Brampton through the last term. Nevertheless, Sahota triumphed over Conservative challenger Arpan Khanna by more than 20 percentage points.
Breaking away from an endless parade of photos with supporters, Sahota said she believed the Liberal Party’s record on the economy was enough to convince voters. Moving forward, she said, she hopes to clinch much-needed infrastructure money for her city.
Maninder Sidhu will join four second-term Liberal MPs in Ottawa, after they all won handily on Monday. They will have to get to work immediately for their city, which is in desperate need of federal help to address healthcare, municipal infrastructure funding, affordable housing and public safety, issues that Brampton voters demanded action on throughout the campaign.
The Liberal incumbent’s campaign against former MP Stella Ambler was expected to be a nail-biter. Many acknowledged that if the Conservatives were to make gains anywhere in Mississauga, it would be by the lake. However, in the end, Spengemann maintained his seat and only increased his mandate. Taking the people’s vote of confidence to heart, the Liberal MP promised to resolve any shortfall in investment in Mississauga.
Maninder Sidhu will have to pick up the broken pieces left by the riding’s disgraced former MP. The young rookie politician won huge Monday and now he has a huge mandate to fulfill, as voters are clamouring for leadership on immigration files, public safety and healthcare in the rapidly expanding community.
The Liberal incumbent won more than half the votes in Mississauga–Streetsville, easily besting the Conservatives’ Ghada Melek in a race that was projected to be a “toss up.” Mayor Bonnie Crombie was happy to embrace him as well, saying the federal Liberals have been good to the city. After he’s finished celebrating his win, Sikand said, he’s headed back to the halls of power in Ottawa with a mission: putting an end to the gangs and shootings that continue to plague Mississauga.
Justin Trudeau’s win in 2015 ushered in a long period of political hegemony in Mississauga and Brampton. But the Liberal juggernaut didn’t pay the kinds of dividends hoped for in these cities. Will voter angst and anger and reprisal replace hope as residents head to the polls on Monday? Will the Liberals pay the price for frittering away a huge hometown advantage?
As the sun rises on election day, the Liberals’ and Conservatives’ main Facebook accounts have spent more than $1 million each nationwide. The number is low to zero for most individual candidates in Mississauga and Brampton, as traditional methods like signs and door knocking are still big. In a few key races, however, candidates feel a couple thousand dollars on targeted adverts may help decide the result.
While the big three names — the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP — dominate the spotlight, other parties are on the streets playing the ground game as well. The Marxist-Leninist Party, Animal Protection Party and Canada’s Fourth Front are just a few.
In Mississauga—Lakeshore residents have organized three separate all candidate debates. Incumbent Sven Spengemann, Conservative candidate Stella Ambler and Green, NDP and PPC representatives have attended every single one of them. With the race in Lakeshore arguably the closest in the city, candidates have gone into detail on local issues, where some in other ridings simply repeat the party platform.
Candidates in Peel have been careful in expressing their personal opinions on topical issues. Asked by The Pointer about potentially controversial wedge topics such as abortion, immigration and the legalization of cannabis, most candidates have kept their personal cards close to the chest, opting instead to share the party position. Though safe, this trend may worry voters, who hope to see their candidates display a unique knowledge and understanding of their riding and the values of local residents.
Oluseyi Sode, who has a Ph.D., has worked a string of ‘survival jobs’ since his arrival in Canada. He finally landed a sessional instructor position at the University of Guelph, but it has not been a smooth, linear path for the professor. His story of trying to break into the professional labour force as a newcomer, in his respective field, is a fairly typical example of the adversity highly skilled immigrants face. But a little adversity is nothing for the man from Nigeria.
This is the last of three profiles of immigrants as Canadians head to the polls and our country’s approach to newcomers remains a top of mind issue for many.
The Liberal incumbent for Mississauga–Streetsville began his term talking about constituents who were worried about their children’s future, who couldn’t afford their homes and could barely make it home for dinner after work due to poor investments in transit.
For all his initial protests, voting records show Sikand didn’t stray from the party line, and the bill he introduced on impaired driving went nowhere.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
Brampton’s Kulwant Singh has faced two challenges since arriving in his second continent: making it; and making it as an artist. The obstacles for newcomers are daunting enough, but trying to pursue his passion for painting, in a world that often views him as alien, has revealed another layer in Canada’s complex society.
This is the second of three profiles of immigrants as Canadians head to the polls and our country’s approach to newcomers remains a top of mind issue for many.
At a campaign rally for the NDP attended by Leader Jagmeet Singh Thursday, Brampton East candidate Saranjit Singh shot back at a Liberal incumbent who accused the leader of creating false hope by promising a new hospital and university in the city. The party leader has also made a sweeping commitment to Mississauga, in hopes of wooing undecided residents ahead of Monday’s big vote.
The NDP candidate for Brampton Centre has apologized for an old tweet that has resurfaced in which he makes fun of an article on vulnerable girls and the sex trade.
The joke is particularly painful in Peel, which is ground-zero for human trafficking in the GTA.
A young rookie MP from Mississauga, Iqra Khalid did not speak much in the House of Commons during her first term.
However, away from the bustle of the political arena, Khalid made her priorities clear, speaking frequently on several committees dealing with equality, justice and human rights.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
Kyanh Do and Kim Tran are living a blessed life with a beautiful home and four flourishing daughters. But if it wasn’t for Canada’s attitude toward immigration things could have unfolded in an entirely different way after they fled communist Vietnam four decades ago.
This is the first of three profiles of immigrants as Canadians head to the polls and our country’s approach to newcomers remains a top of mind issue for many.
The Liberal incumbent is outspoken on social media and in the House of Commons about issues like inequality and plastic pollution. His only bill, which he says was drafted through consultation with his constituents, designated the fourth week of every September as “Gender Equality Week.”
When it comes to voting, though, Spengemann is no rogue and faithfully sticks to the party line.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
The Liberal incumbent for Brampton Centre started strong in the first two years of his term, promising to crush “the enemy” of poverty and nursing a private member’s bill that could have empowered his city to fight for better investment.
Those dreams have yet to come to fruition, however, and in the meantime the MP has fallen relatively silent.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
The incumbent MP for Mississauga East–Cooksville regularly turned up to vote. He asked relevant questions about the postal service, immigration and transit. He worked to bring valuable business connections to the city. But Fonseca — who never defied the party whip and never tabled a private member’s bill — was much quieter when it came to difficult problems in his community that could require him to challenge party leaders.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
The MP for Brampton West was rewarded early with the title of parliamentary secretary, a role that offers a direct pipeline to party leaders in cabinet. Over the span of four years, she worked alongside the ministers of health, revenue and international development. But despite her promise to “fight for the values, priorities and the voices of the residents of Brampton West,” Khera hasn’t secured any significant investment to solve the city’s persistent problems.
Part of a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Brampton and Mississauga.
The Liberal incumbent for Brampton North is calling the NDP’s promise “disingenuous.” Though she acknowledges the health-care crisis gripping the Flower City, Sahota says the New Democrats were wrong to make the offer a centerpiece of their Brampton campaign because the decision ultimately requires the signoff of the premier. Meanwhile, Sahota’s NDP rival argues the new hospital is actually a responsibility for all three orders of government.
At the Conservative leader’s latest stop, located at a trucking company’s facility near the Maple Lodge Farms plant in Brampton, Scheer provided no additional details on funding for Brampton and Mississauga.
Instead, he repeated his key campaign messaging, adding a few comments on the prospect of a Liberal-NDP coalition and the Grits’ supposed plan to decriminalize hard drugs.
