2016 to be big year for post-Hazel Mississauga

Municipal observers predict Bonnie Crombie to continue taking city in new directions

Mississauga is undergoing its own renaissance, following four decades of leadership by Hazel McCallion, and those watching city hall closely say 2016 will be a pivotal year for the giant suburb’s future growth, they say.

“I think this is the year to really get things done. The first year for this new council established their independence and (Mayor) Bonnie Crombie showed she is her own person,” said John Walmark, chair of the city’s citizen oversight committee. “But now, this is the year to take Mississauga in directions that Hazel never really paid much attention to.”

There is a feeling of newness in Mississauga that’s hard to miss and Crombie’s bold moves on several key issues have many buzzing about what’s to come.

Walmark said Crombie’s election pledge to finally bring Mississauga’s transit system in line with other similar-sized cities would help establish its identity as a true urban centre, not just a satellite of Toronto.

Crombie was preoccupied for most of 2015, first with her push to land the fully provincially funded Hurontario LRT and then plans to prepare for its upcoming construction.

But Walmark and others hope 2016 sees major movement on her promise to bring more rapid transit service to other parts of Mississauga, currently underserved by the city’s bus network.

However, higher-order transit plans will have to compete with other key issues on the city’s agenda for 2016, including the historic redevelopment of Mississauga’s eastern waterfront, around the old Lakeview power station, where 26 hectares of wetlands and beachfront will be restored after decades of industrial use.

Adjacent plans for a transformative $3-billion mixed-use waterfront community with 8,000 midrise units will be part of the city’s ambitious lakefront development initiatives.

For Sharon Douglas, the new year also brings hope for a new-found focus on social services in Mississauga, building on Crombie’s and veteran Councillor Carolyn Parrish’s efforts to fix the city’s affordable housing crisis, which they put front-and-centre on the agenda in 2015.

“The issues identified since the election — affordable housing, youth poverty, relationships with the police — we’re growing so fast that these issues have sometimes been overlooked. We need to create a sense that everyone belongs and gets to enjoy the city’s progress,” Douglas said. “I think the new mayor has done more in one year than anyone has done in all my life in Mississauga.”

Douglas is well positioned to make such an observation. She’s a “stakeholder” on the city’s new diversity and inclusion advisory committee and United Way Peel’s director of community investment.

A key issue for her in 2016 is the continued effort to mend strained relationships between Peel police and the black community.

“Mayor Crombie confronted (Chief Jennifer Evans) about these issues. She stepped out on a limb. People are saying, ‘Oh my God, these discussions are happening in City Hall,’ which quite frankly hasn’t happened in the past.

“In 2016, I want to see more marginalized people have all their issues addressed. These are things that healthy cities do not ignore, because when they spill over, it impacts everyone.”

For David Wojcik, the Mississauga Board of Trade’s new president and CEO, 2016 also holds great promise for the city’s continued shift away from its identity as a suburb of Toronto.

“We have 73 Fortune 500 companies that have a presence in Mississauga. And now we’re working with the mayor’s office on her new innovation and entrepreneurship task force” to make Mississauga an even bigger destination for investment and entrepreneurship,” he said.

“It’s all centred around building a community that allows people to be successful in Mississauga.”

Wojcik says his organization and city hall are looking forward to working on major economic development in 2016, particularly because the new federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, Navdeep Bains, is from Mississauga.

“We’re going to see some very interesting innovation in Mississauga.”