Ten years. That’s all it took for fentanyl to go from a potent painkiller used to manage only the most serious post-surgery pain to one of the most deadly street drugs in the country.
In Peel, opioid-related deaths involving fentanyl have skyrocketed, leaving the Region of Peel and community organizations struggling to tamp down the problem — a task made even more difficult by the region’s underfunded public health budget.
Brampton is home to a pool of floating voters ahead of every election. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his Brampton candidates have laid out priorities in healthcare and affordable housing, while drawing attention to unfulfilled Liberal promises.
Given that the city is chronically forgotten after elections end, The Pointer asked what guarantees they would make to Brampton if elected.
In 2016, the federal government’s national action plan to combat human trafficking expired. For three years, service providers and community organizations have been pushing for Ottawa to step up and once again make human trafficking a priority.
Days before Parliament was officially dissolved, signalling the start of the federal election campaign, the Liberal government finally took that step.
With the 905 set to be a key battleground this federal election, major party leaders should pay attention to Peel’s rapidly growing infrastructure needs.
With 12 seats up for grabs, two fewer than each of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the booming region becomes a hotbed of election activity every four years, but the question is, what are party leaders and elected MPs doing for residents in between?
In Marysfield, a neighbourhood founded in the 1950s as one of Canada’s first housing co-ops, tensions are rising. Some residents hope to split their property, often as much as two acres, into smaller lots to allow redevelopment, while others favour preserving the historic character of the area.
The broader issues are familiar to citizens across Brampton as the city grapples with sometimes conflicting desires for affordable housing and heritage preservation.
The killing of a fawn, allegedly by a dog, raises concerns that too many people are ignoring the signs reminding pet owners to leash their dogs — and cyclists to get off their bikes on the conservation area’s trails and boardwalks.
The petition signers want more prominent signage and stronger enforcement against practices dangerous to wildlife.
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Chronic underfunding of Brampton’s infrastructure has put the city at the heart of Canada’s hallway healthcare crisis. Population growth led to record wait times in June of 21 hours for emergency room beds, well above the Ontario average.
On the second day of the official campaign, New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh was in Brampton to pledge funds to build a new hospital in the city, as well as a promise to roll out free pharmacare to all Canadians by 2020.
With council clearly divided on the biggest transit issue facing the city, a remnant of the heated debate that derailed the previous group of local leaders under former mayor Linda Jeffrey, Patrick Brown wants his colleagues to come together in support of an underground option for the Main Street LRT. But with some members on council aligned closely with Jeffrey and her vision, to build a surface LRT through the entire length of the Main Street route, it remains unclear if the mayor can avoid a repeat of the 2015 battle that created a deep schism in the previous council.
The Ford government’s pointed attack on our conservation authorities is short-sighted and will result in this province paying a heavy ecological price over the next few years. The green movement can work in concert with the business community, and the best example is an ongoing reclamation project on the old Ontario Power Generation lands in the southeastern section of Mississauga. This Lakeview miracle could remake the city. But any possible divinity, in Mississauga and Brampton and beyond, lies in the hands of citizens, including those in the seats of power, who can stare down the premier.
Khalid Nazim owns a second house as an investment property. He hopes to rent out a secondary suite in the house, but registering it means expensive renovation work to satisfy inspectors.
Disputing that it’s all really necessary, he went to City Council asking for relief.
Sometimes it’s not the wheels on the bus but the endless quest for transit cash that keeps going round and round. The country’s sixth and ninth largest cities are at a watershed: get the funding to get residents out of their cars and into public transit, or continue the suburban trends of the past few decades.
Representatives of 22 of Canada’s biggest cities, including Mississauga and Brampton, want to end the cycle of transit funding dependency on the federal government that Ottawa ignores. They have a plan to make sure good transit keeps being built in places large and small until at least 2038 — if the feds will only sign on.
Mississauga is swimming in policy reports about environmental issues, cycling and transit. But a recently commissioned study now on the desks of city planners offers a revolutionary approach that could greatly reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, in keeping with the climate “crisis” city council declared in June.
Adopting it would mark a huge step, one that some wonder if Mississauga is capable of making.
Ambitious internal planning at City Hall dating back to 2012 has provided Brampton with a strong environmental plan — on paper.
However, stalling on major infrastructure projects in favour of small energy-saving tweaks has left the city behind, treating climate change as just another policy area — not the emergency it declared in June.
Campaign kickoffs, speech-making and canvassing are going on all over Peel Region as the federal election season goes into high gear.
But why are local candidates, often little known to their prospective constituents, being shielded from media questions?
Whispers of strikes and job action abound among educators. So far, the teachers’ unions have been opaque about how negotiations with the province are going.
In Peel schools, much depends on how those higher-level talks proceed.
The GTA, including Peel Region, welcomes nearly eight of every 10 immigrants arriving in the province, according to a report from the Conference Board of Canada. That means other centres, despite efforts to attract newcomers, are missing out on the economic benefits immigration brings to an aging population. There may be strategies to change that.
The numbers don’t look good just days ahead of the expected federal election call. Jagmeet Singh’s NDP stands a good chance of losing a significant number of seats. Procrastination in naming candidates and internal strife have given the NDP an air of disorganization — not least in Mississauga, where only one NDP candidate has even been named, as of Saturday.
The Liberal Leader made a surprise fundraising visit to Brampton Thursday. Strangely, the event was for an Oakville candidate, but it’s clear Justin Trudeau is looking to consolidate the 905. The country’s sixth and ninth largest cities, which the party swept in 2015, will be the key. The evening gave some of the incumbents a moment in the spotlight, including Mississauga Centre’s Omar Alghabra, who said residents in his riding have one clear message about the type of leader they don’t want to see.
Count Brampton resident Frank Murphy as one of those not fazed by the news that the average waiting time for a hospital bed in Ontario recently hit 16 hours — a signal of a worsening trend. But then, he once spent three days in a Brampton Civic Hospital hallway waiting for a bed after he injured a leg.
Civic’s average remains higher than the provincial one.
Mississauga Councillor Carolyn Parrish is proposing rules that would put Peel Region councillors in charge of approving all regional contracts over $50,000 — much lower than the current $250,000.
The move follows revelations that senior regional staff quietly hired and directed a consultants’ report to prove that Peel Region should stay intact — while undermining Mississauga’s bid to secede.
The popular festival highlights Mississauga’s vibrant Muslim community and bridge-building with others, in contrast to the heightened suspicions and discrimination in evidence of late at the U.S. border, where numerous Muslim men on family trips report being turned away for unknown reasons.
A move to buy 11 more of the less-polluting buses marks another step toward an inevitable transition to all-electric, says the commissioner of transportation.
Currently, MiWay’s fleet is the City of Mississauga’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, higher even than city-owned buildings.
Work is underway at Brampton city hall to host a multidisciplinary arts festival as early as October 2020, as a means of boosting the city’s neglected arts scene.
Championed by Councillor Charmaine Williams, the event would build on the popularity of the all-night festival in Toronto and other cities, in keeping with the city’s ambitious Culture Master Plan.
A trio of property owners at Wednesday’s committee meeting took councillors to task about the significant hidden expenses involved in registering a basement apartment.
The inspection and renovation requirements can be complicated, costly and intimidating. But balancing the needs of the city and landlords isn’t easy, especially when there is safety to consider.
Poll averages suggest much of the city is sticking with the party in power, with the NDP slow off the mark even to name candidates. Navdeep Bains, the highest-profile incumbent, is leading the pack in a riding that poll aggregator 338Canada deems “safe” for the Grits.
But voters may be paying much more attention to the two-way race among national party leaders than their local candidates.
Contrary to the last federal election, when all five of the city’s federal seats flipped from one party to another, it looks like voters may be sticking with the Liberals come October.
At least, that’s what the polls seem to be showing. Here’s a look at where things stand across the city as the campaign gears up ahead of the fall sprint to the federal election.
Darren John, who raps under the name Avalanche the Architect, is appealing a 2015 conviction for uttering threats contained in the lyrics of one of his songs, following a feud with his former music promoter.
As that case is set to be heard in December, two judges and a judicial body have identified issues with John’s treatment in court during other legal matters, pointing out bias and prejudice against him. It’s a systemic issue that John says has plagued him over the past two decades while he’s been forced to deal with a justice system that only sees him as a big, bad Black man, not a person.
Emails and documents obtained by The Pointer show an external analysis quietly ordered by senior regional staff to study possible scenarios for the future of Peel was preordained to favour the preservation of regional government.
Top region executives Nando Iannicca (chair/CEO), Stephen VanOfwegen (CFO) and David Szwarc (former CAO), working with an outside consultant without regional council’s knowledge, took steps to ensure the outcome while undermining the credibility of a financial report Mississauga used to back its claim that the city would be better off as an independent municipality.
Court documents allege that a group of doctors with the Brampton-based Wise Elephant Family Health Team may have misappropriated $700,000 or more from the organization's funds.
Dr. Andrew Johnson is suing doctors Sanjeev Goel and Lopita Banerjee, among other physicians, accusing them of misusing the funds, including for expensive trips to Peru and India, breaching their contract with him, and defamation.
The necklace of projects that will re-make the city’s once abused waterfront, is dominated by the Lakeview Village plan. Yet, it is not exactly what the late Ward 1 councillor Jim Tovey and the Lakeview Ratepayer’s Association envisioned when they brought forward a community driven plan to win back the lakefront for the citizens living in southeast Mississauga. The Four Sisters was the worst of ugly, industrial post-war thinking. On pristine waterfront its towering smokestacks were built far beyond a human scale. Has this city learned from its past, or is it fated to make the same mistakes all over again?
When it comes to getting the ear of Ottawa, there’s no time like election time. Brown says he’s ready and able to put Brampton’s case in front of the party leaders, who are all calling for meetings.
Here’s a look at what the mayor and Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh are likely to talk about when the big party leaders arrive at city hall.
There’s an ambitious agenda ahead for councillors that will inevitably add up to some delays on important projects.
The anticipated appointment of a new CAO might help, especially in the fallout from this fall’s expected announcement on the future of Peel Region government.
The Liberal government touted the numbers last week as it marked four years of investments in affordable housing through its National Housing Strategy.
But the nearly 14,000 households on the waitlist in Peel might be left wondering why more of that largesse hasn’t come to the fast-growing region.
Mayor Patrick Brown says a united front, graphic numbers and frank conversation are going a long way toward convincing the province that Brampton has a point when it complains it’s not getting its fair share.
A recent conference in Ottawa may prove to have been a turning point.
Does this city want a professional star and visionary to occupy the office of chief administrator or someone who will just keep the seat warm while the real powers that be, the politicos, continue to flail away at trying to turn this into a world class city? The next big hire at city hall will be the most important one yet – and could impact Brampton for decades to come.
The high-pressure, high-stress world of a paramedic’s daily work contributes to a rate of suicide almost triple the national average. PTSD took the life of Peel paramedic Chris Rix two years ago.
His widow, Michelle, and work partner Caitlin remember Chris and the deep inner pain that led to his untimely death at the age of 40.
Caroline Mulroney, along with Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster, MPPs Prabmeet Sarkaria, Amarjot Sandhu and Kinga Surma were at Brampton GO on Thursday to announce expanded service on the Kitchener line.
Just like they did two weeks ago, with no further details.
Nishan Duraiappah in Peel and Peter Sloly in Ottawa are among the progressives recently named chiefs of major municipal police forces.
Their fresh perspectives could shake up entrenched police cultures that have created a divide between officers and the people they serve and lead to a more community-based approach to crime prevention.
The fate of food production will be front and centre when two billion more people populate this planet by the year 2050. A Brampton couple has started a company that blends old-style gardening with new techniques in urban agriculture to feed us with wholesome food.
While the earth battles a climate crisis, a world-wide movement called agroecology might help save us from ourselves. This is now playing itself out in full leafy colour on the streets of downtown Brampton.
With only a few days left before the start of school Ontario teachers still don’t have a new contract.
The province and union teams are negotiating quietly, but there appears to be no imminent deal before contracts expire Saturday Aug. 31. Education Minister Stephen Lecce might update the situation later today.
A special meeting on Wednesday affirmed the appointment of executive headhunting firm Odgers Berndtson to recruit a new top bureaucrat for the city.
December will mark a full year since former chief administrative officer Harry Schlange was fired.
Amid a raft of big federal announcements for transit in the runup to this fall’s election, there’s reason for Brampton to be jealous of places like Toronto, Quebec City and London.
Neighbour Mississauga can celebrate how its provincially funded LRT is moving ahead with the choice of a project manager. But Brampton’s absence from the largesse list can be traced to city council’s dithering.
Stronger supports for survivors through the court process could result in more convictions as well as less traumatic outcomes for human trafficking victims.
It’s a big issue for Peel, which has an extremely high incidence of sex trafficking. But it’s not clear how much of a $54-million crime fund just announced by Ottawa and Queen’s Park will help the region deal with a rapid uptick in cases.
Unions aren’t speaking out on the province’s last-minute backtracking on controversial key issues — including high school class sizes. But they’re also in the thick of talks to renegotiate their contracts, which expire this Saturday. It’s not clear how the Doug Ford government’s latest decision, after months of public backlash, will affect the new school year, which begins next week.
The province and the federal government uncharacteristically came together Monday to reveal a $54-million fund to combat violent crime in Ontario.
Peel Region will also be home to an “intensive firearms bail team,” a group of Crown attorneys that will provide expert feedback on firearms offenders whose requests for bail are under review.
Last week’s annual meeting of Ontario’s 400-plus municipalities featured lots of backtracking by the ruling PC government after its plans to download even more costs onto homeowners. Property taxpayers are being crippled by all the costs falling on their shoulders. If the federal and provincial governments are incapable of growing the economy to increase public funding, cities and towns have to be given more revenue tools. Otherwise, homeowners will drown in property taxes.
The city’s Cycling Advisory Committee is gearing up to submit its proposed Active Transportation Master Plan to the Brampton planning committee. The plan includes creating an ambitious cycling network. But there are big challenges to be overcome if Brampton wants to realize the dream of becoming a more active city.
Having already planned for staffing cuts in response to the PC government’s plan to dramatically increase high school class sizes, Thursday’s surprise announcement to scrap the move, just two weeks before school starts, has thrown Peel’s two public school boards into the wringer. The boards already sent layoff notices to teachers in anticipation of having fewer classes, and some courses were put on the chopping block. But now, the boards will have to scramble to recalibrate the entire high school system based on the existing classroom size caps.
Nurses and doctors in the emergency room. Lawyers working in our courts. And even firefighters who respond to a range of calls in the community.
They all brush up against the victims and perpetrators of human trafficking. For those fighting this growing global crime, certain professions that deal closely with the public, often when people are in distress, can be an invaluable resource. Building bridges with them is the first step.
Ontario’s Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced on Wednesday the rollout of the province’s much anticipated revised sexual education curriculum.
Doug Ford had promised to scrap the Kathleen Wynne-era framework, but the new plan borrows heavily from the same approach used by the previous Liberal government, despite the premier’s election pledge. The move has left some parents in Peel upset.
