‘We built this city’ without cash from Brampton, Mississauga councillor says

Mississauga councillors have vowed to step up the fight against what they claim is misinformation being spread by Brampton’s mayor about the Region of Peel’s dissolution and its three member municipalities going their separate ways.

Specifically, City of Mississauga councillors say Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown’s repeated public assertions that Mississauga owes his city a pile of cash under any separation deal simply isn’t true.

Brown and the City of Brampton insist that in return for decades of financially supporting Mississauga’s growth, Brampton is now due compensation from Canada’s seventh-largest city as things move forward with the Peel split, to take effect Jan. 1, 2025.

However, angry Mississauga councillors and their mayor say bluntly that Brown is peddling false information and that Mississauga paid its own way over the decades.

A frustrated Ward 5 Councillor Carolyn Parrish said last week at City council that “…if I hear Brown say one more time, ‘we helped you (Mississauga) build all your infrastructure…’, he wasn’t even born yet when we were building our infrastructure, and we built it with our own DC (development charges) money that was coming in in buckets. We need to clarify that.”

Parrish, with support from fellow councillors and Mayor Bonnie Crombie, is urging City staff to deliver information directly to Mississauga residents telling them Brown and Brampton are basing their argument on a flawed 2019 financial report commissioned by the Region of Peel.

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A follow-up report, prepared for Mississauga and showing Peel’s split will save Mississauga taxpayers $1 billion over a decade, is the more credible document, councillors and Crombie say.

Mayor Bonnie Crombie says her Brampton counterpart is getting his information from a flawed report.

“We have to get a solid position in front of our taxpayers. I don’t care what Brampton thinks. Our taxpayers need to know we built this city with our own money and our own development money,” said Parrish. “We didn’t get much from Brampton at all. They just helped run the water plants and stuff once it got going.

“(This is) going to go on for the next year-and-a-half; we’re going to just have to take a deep breath. We need some talking points on that” to get out to our public “so they don’t feel like we’re running away from a debt. We’re not doing that.”

Crombie added to Parrish’s comments, pointing out that the 2019 report completed by financial consultant Deloitte for the Region of Peel was “commissioned to justify the status quo, protecting the existence of the Region of Peel.”

Additionally, Mississauga’s mayor characterized that report as being “unfair, biased and (not) done appropriately.”

“Hence, the second report (from Ernst and Young),” Crombie said, “that was the only fair report.

“So, this is being very badly misrepresented (by Brampton and its mayor) and that correction does need to be made.”

Brown has been especially vocal since Bill 112 (Hazel McCallion Act) calling for the splitting up of Peel was introduced on May 18 at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

The bill was fast-tracked through the Ontario Legislature and passed third reading in early June. It subsequently received Royal Assent making it law and getting the ball rolling toward a Peel split as of Jan. 1, 2025.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says Mississauga should compensate Brampton in any Region of Peel dissolution agreement.