This week, we were joined by Meghan Nicholls, CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, and Michelle Bilek to discuss the affordability crisis and its impact on Mississauga residents and poverty in our city.
As expected the housing crisis also came up as a contributing factor. Tune in! It was a fantastic conversation!
As expected the housing crisis also came up as a contributing factor. Tune in! It was a fantastic conversation!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The views expressed in the following programare those of the participants and do not
necessarily reflect the views of SAGA ninesixty AM or its management from the treaty
and traditional territory of the Mississaugas ofthe Credit First Nation. You're listening to
(00:25):
Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn andNoka Duck Group. Welcome to Beyond the
Ballot. I'm your host, RyanGercharn and my co host Nooka Duck Group.
How are you feeling. I'm doingwell. Thank you Ryan, and
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thank you everyone for joining us againand again and we are so excited to
be you know, with you onthis journey to election day. Yeah,
to help you make up your mind, help you make up help me make
up my mind on who we're votingfor, what to ask these candidates,
and what Mississauga really needs. Becausewe got one and another, I'm predicting
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the next Mara that we elect willbe there, not just for these two
years, but they're probably going tohave an advantage going into the election.
Right after that, there'll be theincumbent, right, and it's hard to
beat an incumbent, So this mightbe the mayor wiki it could be right,
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in miss Osaga especially that's been missOsaga has a long history of just
really loving incumbents and really never wantingto let them go. But this week
we really wanted to explore and diveinto the topic of affordability of poverty,
what that really looks like in Mississauga. I know that things are getting more
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expensive, grocery store rent, mortgages, interest rates are going up, everything,
gas, everything, oh God,and it's becoming more and more.
And the one thing that's not goingup paychecks regularly begin now or not even
just paychecks, odsb or ow orany fixed income that you're getting. So
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we really wanted to look into howcan we uh, you know, steer
the ship in the right direction thistime around, ask the right questions to
the candidates so we can make upour mind on how we want to address
poverty in Mississauga. Yeah, absolutely, Ryan, terrifying times indeed for for
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many of our residents who are struggling. Right. I mean, we we
are a wonderful city where you know, a fairly quiet city, but we
also have we also have people strugglingeven before this affordability crisis hit and even
more so now. So I'm reallylooking forward to today's episode, because I
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think you know, oftentimes in elections, those who are most vulnerable are not
necessarily included well because a lot ofpoliticians and it's not just politicians campaign manager,
it is something that's been drilled intopolitics, Like if you've been a
candidate, is that these are folkswho are not coming out to the ballot.
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Let's not waste time on these folkswho aren't coming to vote for you.
You need to worry about getting themost votes, So attack those,
Attack those folks. Make sure youhave pocketbook issues, make sure you have
things that speak to those specific peoplethat we want to go vote, because
it's not in our best interest foreverybody to vote, right, And then
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that's generally the thinking in politics.We want our certain demographics to come vote,
so we're going to try and motivatejust to those folks. So so
it's also a matter of you know, campaign resources. We're not going to
get into campaigning, but it's alsoa matter of campaign resources and campaign time,
and who is the easiest demographic ademographic to convince to vote for you,
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who are more likely to be goingout to vote anyway, specifically in
a by election at the municipal level, like that demographic is tiny. Now,
I'm not condoning this. I'm notsaying people shouldn't go out to vote.
I'm saying everybody needs to go outto vote. But what I'm saying
is that this is kind of howit works. And with that, I'm
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really excited to I think they're waitingfor us to chat our panels here.
So we got Michelle Bilek who willbe She's a consultant for Real People Collaboration.
She's also done a lot of povertyand homelessness advocacy in mississ Hagan the
Region Appeal and we have the CEOof Food Banks Mississauga, Megan Nichols stand
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So we're gonna take a quick breakand when we come back, we're going
to have a chat with these folksand they're going to update us on what
it looks like, what poverty lookslike in Mississauga. So stay tuned right
here on Newstalk SAGA nine sixty am. Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty
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am dot C. You're listening toBeyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn and Noka
Duck Rube And welcome back to Beyondthe ballot. Everything you need to know
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to make your own mind up beforeyou vote for the new mayor of Mississauga
this week, No can I She'shere right, you're here now? Hello?
Hello, hell Hello. We willbe talking about what poverty, what
affordability, and what homelessness looks likeright here in Mississauga. We have two
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great experts on the topic, MeganNichols, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga.
Hi, how are you? Thankyou for joining us. Meghan and
I also have Michelle Bilek. Sheis a consultant at Real People Collaboration,
and she is a tireless advocate forpoverty and homelessness in Peel Region. She's
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been around doing the advocacy work forages even though she looks like not a
year over twenty nine, God blessyou. Ryan. It's for radio,
so I have to describe things.Yes, Megan also looks amazing for those
of you wondering me not so much. So there you go, Noka.
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We really wanted to set the stage, set the framework of like the mayor
candidates are coming to your doors.They're knocking at your doors, and we've
been talking about various issues and thisone keeps coming up to me a lot
Noka, and I don't know aboutyou, if you want to talk a
little bit about it. Affordability islike always something I go to see my
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friends, I go to my parents'house, just anywhere I go at the
grocery store. Yeah, what's abig right now? Right, Like it's
really really big. It's impacting everyone. I think there's up your car right
now, right, yeah, groceries. You know, the cost of everything
has gone up significantly since since COVID, And that's why I'm so excited to
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have you, you both joining ustoday to really help us get a better
understanding. So you know what isgoing on, you know, I mean
we know overall what's going on.We don't really need to get into that.
But what's happening in Mississauga? Whatis you know, how is Mississauga
doing in terms of the affordability crisis, in terms of poverty, and in
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terms of homelessness. You know frommy lens at the food bank, Mississauga
is experiencing the same challenges as otherlarge cities across Canada and in North America.
You know, simply the cost ofliving, the cost of basic necessities
has risen far far faster than people'sincomes, especially if their income is from
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some form of social assistance. Andso the gap between what life costs and
how much money people have just getswider and wider and wider and wider.
And so now you see things likethe Canada Helps release their new Charity report,
and I think it's twenty percent ofall Canadians now are relying on some
forard of charity to meet their basicneeds. And so that's kind of terrifying.
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And so here in Mississauga we seethat, you know, accelerated even
faster because additionally, so many newcomerswho are seeking asylum in Canada land here
at Pearson Airport right here in Mississaugaand often end up staying in the community.
And so the combination of all thesefactors at the same time, you
know, certainly for us at theFood Bank, we're serving more people than
(09:18):
we ever have in the history ofthe organization. I completely agree. I
was actually just going to sort ofecho the same sort of yeah, I
would say the two core things forsure is income and the lack of housing
being affordable in our community. Soit's really those two core issues that have
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brought us to this breaking point withinobviously our own boundaries, but then also
across Canada's we've heard and we've seen. Yeah, and I was going to
actually follow up with that. Wedid have. We had an episode last
week about housing and really really doveinto that that issue and what needs to
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be done to address it. Butwhat, you know, what we also
realize is the housing affordability crisis isactually a huge driving factor of the overall
affordability crisis, right, Megan,You mentioned percent of Canadians are relying on
some sort of charity to meet theirneeds, right, and what percentage of
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Canadians incomes right now is going tojust being able to sustain housing? Yeah?
Absolutely, And so we see thatat the food bank all the time.
People are spending more than their entiremonthly income just to pay for their
housing. And so there's just trulynothing left. And I think the I
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don't know why it doesn't make senseto more of our elected officials. I
mean, here in the province ofOntario, where we legislate poverty, especially
for people with disabilities, to saythat you know, the maximum amount of
income that will provide for you tolive on is thirteen hundred dollars a month,
even though the poverty line is twentythree hundred dollars a month. And
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so there's just I mean, themath just doesn't math. And it's obvious
to anyone. You know, ifyou look with a grade school child and
said, if you make thirteen hundreddollars a month and your rent is twenty
five hundred dollars a month, they'regoing to tell you it doesn't work.
And so why our elected officials continueto allow something that doesn't work to go
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on and force people to rely oncharities to get by? I think is
a question that more and more peopleare asking. If it's obvious to me,
why isn't this obvious to people whohave the power to make a change.
I can have chime in why thatmight be the case. And all
of you know that, you know, to a certain point of my life,
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or a certain aspect of my life, I've been involved in politics,
and you know, are those lowincome fun folks actually getting out there and
voting? Are? You know?I think that most likely elected officials respond
to the needs of the folks whokeep them in power, right, and
and really that's sort of what itcomes down to. I also have to
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have to address that you know,the discourse around affordability really sort of varies
and it's relative to individuals experiences.You know what, what I'm hearing from
all levels of government when they talkabout affordability is the middle class affordability,
and that really, you know,diverts the conversation away from advocates and activists
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and people who have been supporting lowincome people or cash poor people for a
very long time. The affordable definitionshould be something I think that also really
needs to be addressed in even duringduring our municipal election, is that there
is a standard definition uh from CMHD, which is pretty cent of a person's
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income should be for housing before taxes. And you know, when we look
at sort of the data of what'shappening in our own community and beyond our
borders is, like Megan said,it's not adding up right. The income
that individuals are receiving does not matchour housing costs, which of course leads
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people into deep forms of poverty andhomelessness. Also, we do know that
the market basket measure, I thinkin the region appeal is somewhere along the
lines of twenty four to twenty fivedollars an hour, and most people who
are on any sort of form ofa social assistance are in no way receiving
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that form of income. And sohere we are. I really think that
if we're talking about affordable, wehave to really mean affordable and that is
sticking to that standard definition from CMHC, which unfortunately a lot of our elected
officials use that language because middle classpeople are the ones who are getting up
and voting. Michelle, You've doneadvocacy work for a long time Peel Poverty
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Action Group, You've been involved withfighting for homes, affordable housing, You've
you know, done a lot ofthings for homelessness as well. I'm just
curious over the years, and youyou're very specific to Mississauga Appeal in general
too, but how have you seenwhat does poverty look like? I guess
what twenty years ago to now hasgotten worse or things that you think that
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we've improved on. Just to getan idea of, Like, what's your
observation on this? Yeah, AndI think I think Megan can probably chime
in. She probably has significant datato actually back up the circumstances over the
last uh, you know, adecade for sure. It is you know,
you know, when I was onthe campaign trail, and and uh,
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I've always sort of spoke about thesame sort of issues, issues that
I dealt with from my from mylived experiences, and certainly that was about
homelessness, poverty, and housing precarityover the over the years. But when
I used to go to the doorset, I remember people used to,
you know, say, what areyou talking about? There is no homelessness,
and like close the door on me. Well, now it's at everybody's
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doorstep, right. Not only arethey struggling, even as middle, middle
or upper class folks getting by andseeing the cost of living astronomically increased,
but you know, the visibility ofhomelessness, whether whether that be on your
on your street corner or you know, in our parks and people sleeping rough
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is just you know, it's it'sjust since since COVID has has really sort
of shown the light that you know, the you know what what I spoke
about again like a decade and ahalf ago about people having lift experiences of
homelessness, but it was invisible.Love is now very visible, and Megan,
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you can shine here. You know. The most notable indication of people's
need is if they're having to actuallygo and visit a charitable food bank in
order to get nourishment on a dailybasis. I think what you're saying is
so true. I mean, forso many years I'm coming up on fifteen
years at the food bank now,which I still can't believe. You know,
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people would say the exact same thing. Oh, Toronto is you know,
that's where the poverty is in Mississauga. It's a nice bedroom community.
Everybody's wealthy, big houses and youknow. But I think you're right,
like, there's many more places nowwhere you see folks begging for change,
perhaps at intersections and those kind ofthings, and it brings it to mind.
But I mean, I think theaverage person, unless they're really a
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plugged in person to current events,to the news, to the media.
I mean often, you know,people will say to me, oh,
what do you do? And Itell them and they're like, oh,
how are things at the food bankthese days? And I say, well,
we're serving three hundred percent more peoplethan we were at the beginning of
the pandemic. It's worse than it'sever been in the history. Eight percent
of the entire city us as afood bank now. And they're like,
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really, we have food banks,and it just so there is there is,
there is you can avoid being awareof these issues in our community.
And so I think there is stilla big part of the work to be
done to make people aware that,you know, these issues face Mississaugas as
much as they do in any othercity, and the numbers are astronomical and
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devastating. And these are our neighbors. These are people living in our apartment
buildings, in our townhouse complexes,you know, sitting next to us on
the bus, in line behind usat Imprton's who are struggling deeply, deeply,
deeply. And now's a chance tohopefully bring some of these issues to
the forefront and certainly think about themin terms of what at the city level
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a mayor has the chance to influenceand how they have a chance to drive
the dialogue to make these issues morefront of mind. That's exactly why we're
doing this. So, you know, you really both described it so well.
I think, you know, Iguess my question is, so,
what is because it seems like there'sno way out. It seems like there's
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this massive, huge issue and differentlevels of government are just fighting over what
they're going to do about it,and anybody who presents a solution, it
sounds like it's going to happen atleast ten years from now, or you
know, maybe five to ten yearsfrom now, to be fair. So
what is being done? How arepeople getting by? How is the food
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bank survived? So, I mean, if I'm going to answer the question
honestly, what's being done is notnearly enough. You know, in the
in the federal budget that was releasedrecently, the Canada Disability Benefit has been
brought forward, but it's two hundreddollars a month, so people are living
one thousand dollars below the poverty line. Now they're eight hundred dollars below the
(19:10):
poverty line. Like it's not goingto lift anybody out of poverty. And
then the critics are going to say, this program doesn't work, let's cancel
it because it doesn't do what itsaid it was going to do, because
it's not funded well enough. Andso I mean, you know, half
of all food bank clients their sourceof income is either Ontario Works or the
Ontario Disability Support Program. So fiftypercent of you know, so four percent
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of the City of Mississauga is usingthe food bank because the provincial government has
set those rates so low that peoplehave to go to a food bank to
survive, and we are struggling.You know, before the pandemic, we
were feeding nineteen thousand people a year, and now we're feeding nineteen thousand people
a month, and the costs todo that, the cost of food,
the cost of rent, the costof electricity, all those things have gone
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up for us as an organization too. Now we need to raise eight or
nine million dollars a year to feedthe city, when it used to cost
us two and a half to threemillion dollars a year. And so we
too are now trying to find peoplewho have resources to help support their neighbors
because we're not provincially or federally funded. And so charities like us in the
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social services, housing, homelessness,addictions, mental health are picking up the
slack, trying desperately to pick upthe slack. Well, our governments legislate
people deeper into poverty. I couldthink, I know that we're running out
of time here, but I couldthink of two two immediate solutions, and
we already touched on them. AndI don't know if we're going to go
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to a break and we can comeback and address it, or I could
just like quickly say it so goahead, go ahead, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you know again, Ithink I think I think Megan touched
on it. Income insecurity, likeright there. So you know, increasing
social assistance rates across the board thatthat you know, the the devastating announcement
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around owned the Canada Disability Benefit.It really it really is certainly going to
affect people. But increases people's socialassistance rates and income would have a huge
impact. That's one thing. Asecond thing, I know, I know
our community are doubling down on theinfrastructure around around housing, but also you
know, some sort of form ofhousing benefits those two things income that goes
(21:23):
immediately to people where they're at,you know, based on based on their
current income situation, would alleviate thesituation immediately. And uh so that's what
we should be doing right away.And unfortunately it seems to be Okay,
yes we need housing, let's all, you know, put our you know,
focus double down on on on allthe aspects needed in order to get
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to get shovels on the ground.But at the same time, we have
to look at where people are atnow and how their income in no way,
you know, it is going tobe able to afford our current house
situation right now. So those aremy two sort of things that you know,
our governments should be looking at likeimmediately. Thank you for sharing that.
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Certainly very very important, important itemsthat absolutely need to be I mean,
these things needed to be addressed waybefore this. You know ODSB,
I'm a social worker. ODSB andOW rates have been really bad for a
very very long time, but nowyou added affordability crisis on top of it.
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There are barely any you know,barely any shelters around and not enough
how It's just there's just not enoughsupports for people right and I think the
mayor has to play a role tobe that strong voice at the Region of
Peel where many of these things arehandled. You know, housing, social
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supports is all regional, and soto be able to bring the voice of
what the City of Mississauga needs tothat table and to those discussions is just
so important I think even right nowis how do we make sure that the
city and the region are good employersthat pay their workforce well enough that they
are not relying. I would loveto see the City of Mississauga become a
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living wage employer the region appeal aliving wage employer to contribute towards more folks
in our city earning that twenty fivedollars an hour you need to be able
to just live. Yeah, yeah, and you know, usually the focus
of housing and homelessness. Yes,it is a regional sort of sort of
jurisdictional aspect of our multi level governmentsystem. But you know, having having
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the ability to utilize funds that theyreceive from other levels of government, especially
the federal government under reaching home toallocate a large component of those dollars towards
a housing benefit for folks, especiallythose experiencing homelessness and that are that are
certainly sleeping rough would have a hugeimpact. And also pretty much you know,
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showcase the fact that, yes,we are taking care of at least
our individuals you know who unfortunately arein circumstances where they're sleeping on house.
So you know, that could bedone quite quickly, and Maroring Mayoring Council,
could you could basically yeah, yeah, you know, ensure that that
regional staff do exactly that. Ithink that is a great segue to ourn
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next segment. Megan's point on whatcan your municipal representative, do for us,
do for you, do for thecity. So I'm going to we're
going to take a quick break rightnow, and when we come back,
we're going to talk a bit moreabout what you should be asking these candidates
when they come to your doors tomake sure they're you know, you keep
(24:47):
them accountable. So we're voting forthe you know, the right direction,
the right way. So stay tunedright here on New stock Staga nine sixty
Am, No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety six
am dot c A. You're listeningto Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn and
(25:17):
Noka duck rub And welcome back toBeyond the Ballot. I'm your host,
Ryan Gurcharn and my co host Nookaduck Crub is still here. Hello,
Hello, Yeah, we haven't lostyet and we're here with a great panel.
(25:41):
Maggan Nichols from the Missaga Food Bankor Food Bank Mississauga, sorry uh,
and Michelle Bilek, who is aconsulted real People collaboration and we you're
going to have a lot of folkscome to your doors right now. They're
running from may of Mississauga and ifyou live in ward five. You might
also get a few other folks knockingon your door running for counselor. And
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one thing that's probably on the topof your mind right now is how am
I going to pay next month's mortgage, your next month's rent, especially with
like gas prices just going up overnight, especially with food grocery store prices are
going up. I think a lotof our money here is being used to
(26:27):
just try and keep a roof overhead. At this point, so far,
the few pulls have been out andyou got the four counselors and Peter
Mcallian ranking in the top five,and I'm just wondering, so far,
have you seen anything that stood outto you that'd be like, hey,
you know what, this is somethingthat we should be really talking about because
(26:51):
it could really help with the affordabilitycrisis here. What I'm finny is,
you know, a lot of theirdialogue is pretty big, I think at
this point that you know, evenlooking at some of the platforms that they've
released so far, it it certainlyspeaks to sort of I think some of
the issues that have been already youknow, discussed either at the municipal level,
(27:15):
at the regional level, or beyondyou know, either around taxes,
you know, quote affordability, rentright rent being a consideration, uh,
waving developmental charges and and and thingslike that. I've seen some interesting UH
(27:38):
aspects like you know, Tapika talksabout modular as being as being an option
for housing. Uh. You know, we also see sort of expediting permits
and and and again some work onon on expediting the the processes. But
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in general would say that there isno sort of specific details around around the
housing. It's it's just it's veryvery sort of high level ideas and and
and to be honest with you,I think obviously the municipalities have a huge
impact on what's being developed where andso and so some of those decisions around
(28:22):
you know, getting getting shot asa milk ground quicker, so so waving
charges. You know, I thinkthere's probably going to be some discussions around
the need for consulting communities in somecases. You know, is that a
good or bad thing? Again,as a person with with lived experience,
(28:42):
I always think it's it certainly isa good thing. But I can understand
nimbism isn't that aspect. But youknow, I I think that most of
the counselors and most of the folkswho running really understand that there that there
is something that they need to do. There is a ramans and they and
that that they've you know, signedonto with the federal government around the Accelerator
(29:06):
Fund. You know, they havetargets with the province that they have to
you know, ensure that they reachin order to receive more funding. So
there is no question around, uh, you know, how much infrastructure that
we need in our community. Ithink I think it's it's really a matter
of what what is being built again? Is it is it? Is it
(29:30):
along that whole housing spectrum. Weknow we need greater density, all right,
So what does that look like?Is it going to be massive condominiums
at the you know, one milliondollar mark or is there going to be
some mixed income properties in various differentlocations. And I really really think I
think that that's the key. Ithink that they understand that. But you
(29:52):
know, a lot of the peoplewho put money in their pockets to run
their campaigns will be also lobbying tothem on different ideas that are in their
best interests. So it is amatter of folks like us and advocates on
the ground who are really serving cashpoor people and people experiencing all listeners that
we keep the eye on the prizeand the eye on the prizes to to
(30:15):
you know, really, you know, dedicate our resources to those most in
need, because it costs a heckof a lot more money to keep people
poor. I'm also looking for peopleat the door who understand the different responsibilities
between different levels of government. Thatthey're not promising us things that actually aren't
(30:36):
within their control, but that they'redemonstrating they understand, you know, where
they need to fight for Mississauga,where they need to defend us at the
provincial table and bring our needs forwardat the federal table to really bring those
forward. And some of the ideasI've seen from candidates certainly sound like things
that aren't even in the jurisdiction,but are certainly pressures that people are facing.
(30:57):
So I can understand the design toconnect with people, but I really
want to make sure that they're talkingabout the things that are actually within their
control to influence, because it's onlyfair for people to get what they've been
promised. Yeah. Absolutely, AndI think that's that is often a concern
that we see when when people youknow, it's great that we have we
(31:19):
have such an open democracy, especiallyat the municipal level, and everybody can
run and they can just put theirname forward and go for it. But
sometimes, you know, people don'tnecessarily know how government works and how hard
it is to actually get things doneand how you go about it. And
that's a big thing. You know, who's going to be that champion,
who's going to be that advocate.Especially at the regional level. We're not
(31:42):
just electing a mayor and a counselorfor ward five. We're electing two new
voices for Mississauga at the regional level. And the region, as you may
have seen in the news, hasa lot of power, right. It
don't needed headlines for so long becauseit you know that there's a lot of
(32:05):
work that gets done there and alot of the the the the affordability that
the you know, social housing,a lot of like Ontario works odsp all
of that is. It's not it'snot like the rates for that is not
decided at the at the regional level. It's at the provincial level. But
(32:27):
it's all it kind of like goesyou know, it's gets dispensed through the
region or administered. Administered is theword I'm looking for. So, you
know, of course it's very importantto to you know, I appreciate that,
Megan, that we need people whounderstand what they're you know, how
they're going to get things done.But what should we ask them? Like
(32:50):
what you know, everybody like youmentioned Michelle, they've got they've got a
number of different ideas. Everything ishigh level. Everybody wants to for housing
right now. If you don't wantto fight for housing, you're gonna be
canceled right right. Everybody's pro housingright now. So what would you be
looking for when it comes to specificaffordability issues? Mm hmm. I think
(33:15):
I think that there's there's a coupleof things I think that they could do
around the housing, uh profile,you know, we have older rental buildings.
We have a huge, huge problemaround the financialization throughout throughout this country,
right investors, speculators, large assetmanagement firms who are really taking over
(33:38):
a large swath of many of theseaffordable properties. At least we're affordable for
people, and you know, Ithink I think that we need to pay
a larger, larger attention to whowe're giving the properties to. Right you
know, we can talk about firstright refusal on affordability, right, you
(34:00):
know, having not for profit housingdevelopers at the table, you know,
being being able to have that firstright for those properties, right, banning
rates, right, asset management firmsdoing doing some hard work around speculation and
investment in our communities. You know. It really comes to decades and decades
(34:25):
of divestment in social housing that havebrought us to this place. Right and
at the same time, the floodgateshave opened to opportunities to utilize housing,
which is a human right. It'sa human right people for a nest egg
for when we retire. Like whatis wrong with this mentality? You know,
(34:46):
you go to other other countries inthe world, like they just don't
comprehend, like how how we sortof drop the ball on this right?
And and so we need to startyou know, really really going back to
that just you know, to someof these real simplistic ideas around what housing
(35:07):
should be used for, you know, and and it's it's it's unfortunate,
but I do think that municipalities inthe end, they give the green light
to development and to developers, right, and so being selective on what they
develop, you know, where they'redeveloping and how much affordability is going to
(35:29):
be within truly affordable, deeply affordable. It is going to be part of
that that project. They have alot of power in order to, you
know, create those rules and regulationsaround who they're going to allow to develop
in property. So I think,I think, you know, really that's
going to be a lot of conversationsI have with the with these with these
(35:52):
various different candidates. Is not losesight on the fact that they do have
a lot more power than the investors, the speculators and the developers. Open
the door to the affordable and supportivehousing providers and let them provide us with
the housing that people need in ourcommunity. Yeah. Absolutely. You know,
(36:15):
you raise a lot of really reallyreally good points there, and you
know, the reality is this iswhere we are. We got to do
something about it. I love that, you know about the housing as a
retirement nests egg. Yeah, it'sit's turned into that. It's become the
norm. Yeah, if you goto like in any European country, it's
(36:37):
not it's not. No multi generationslive live in one house, right,
Yeah, you don't sell it whenyou retire and then and rest and everybody
rents like there's you know countries wherewe're actually it's it's the government that owns
this, like the housing. Theyown housing, and they have the whole
(37:00):
spectrum of housing, and everybody rentsfrom government being the landlord. So it's
not speculated, you know. Anduh, yeah, we've we've we've done
it wrong for a long for along time. But yes, here we
are. But there is opportunities Ithink, you know, incentive incentives and
and and and I I mean thepool officials do have a lot of power
(37:21):
to make those final gauntlet decisions onyou know, who's going to be building
what in their community, and andand there are there are some some of
the candidates who actually been doing thatmeaningful work with their communities around that shift
to work from single family homes toyou know, more density and uh you
(37:44):
know, having supportive housing developers youknow in some of their core areas.
But that takes work, That takesa lot of meaningful, authentic and caring
relationships, building a lot of trustwith their community, and that needs to
be done. I think our Ithink our is my internet seems to be
(38:06):
unstable. But if if our mayoris going to lead the charge and they
have strong powers. Let's let's let'sremember that they can, you know,
ensure that most of our communities yep, throughout throughout Canada are are putting people
first, for sure. I justwanted to talk about so I think all
(38:29):
of the counselors, for example,Peter has nothing on his website yet or
our website yet, but all ofthe counselors so far have recognized that things
need to be more affordable. Soat least they've recognized that they're not living
in a weird bubble. But someof them have gone so much into it.
One for Alvin, for example,is talking about lowering property taxes for
(38:50):
seniors, and I believe other there'ssomebody else mentioned that. I think that
may have been Carolyn uh and Ithink Dippica may have touched upon deferring property
taxes low income for seniors. SoI just wanted to circle around that because
we're seeing a lot of seniors beingthey can't afford to property taxes right now,
and they're being like forced out oftheir home at Mississauga houses, force
(39:15):
to downsize, move out of Mississagaas you can if you can't live there.
I mean, sure, they boughtit when it was a different price.
Now it's worth like millions. Butyou can buy another property or you
can't afford anything else in mississaugu Sothey're being forced out of Mississagan. We
saw a decreased in population here atthe last census, So I'm just wondering
whoever wants to take it. Doyou think these sort of like you know,
(39:38):
defer property taxes for seniors or lowtaxes. Is this realistic? Do
you think this is something we needor is this just one of those gimmicky
pocketbook things just to get some votes. I would question. I'd be curious
about the data about how many seniorhomeowners are struggling to pay their property taxes.
(39:59):
We certainly have an increased number ofseniors using the food bank, but
typically they don't own their homes.They're in a rental situation, and often
it's you know, their partner diedor they had a new medical assistive device
and they couldn't use that same apartmentanymore, and so it's trying to move
on that kind of front. SoI understand wanting to make life more affordable
(40:22):
for seniors who are struggling to affordtheir property tax. Absolutely, but I'd
be curious how much of the citythis impacts, you know, And I
think we want to be cautious atthe same time that the city doesn't find
itself in a place where it's loweringits property tax to the point where it
can no longer continue to afford theservices it wants to provide to other communities.
(40:43):
And so there has to be abalance there. We have to make
sure we're targeted to really provide relieffor the right groups of people who are
truly struggling, not the ones whoare kind of the most voters. Yeah.
I just also wanted to mention thatTedja says he's going to freeze property
taxes. I don't know how youcan do both around the building affordable at
the same time, uh, youknow, uh freezing freezing property taxes at
(41:06):
the same time. And you know, to be honest with you, I
think I think Megan, those youknow, having a focus on on the
aging population, we do know thatit's you know, we have a large
aging population demographic. The baby boomersare all aging, so they're speaking really
to their voting voting base. Tobe honest with you, that's really what
it comes down to and and you'reright, Megan, I I find it
(41:30):
highly unlikely that a large number ofthose baby boomers who are going south for
the winter are the ones who arestruggling and using food banks and and and
need that additional support. I thinkthat they have a lot of additional supports
already coming to them and from variousdifferent levels of government. So yeah,
I would mind seeing seeing that dataa little bit a little bit as well.
(41:52):
And and and again, I thinkI think a lot of the platforms
when they're talking about income really ortax relief for that demographic, it's probably
because those folks are the ones whoare going to get and vote and support
them. Yeah, and you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
politics in politics. Sure, Ithink can we believe that? So I
(42:15):
guess my last question, I thinkwe're the last question. Mark now,
Ryan, you know what's the numberone question you would ask? And I'll
ask both of you what's the numberone question you would ask a candidate.
I think my question these days isabout what is your vision for the kind
of community Mississauga is going to be? How do you see us building a
(42:38):
community that has base physical and youknow, kind of the more philosophical space
for people of all different incomes,of different backgrounds, of different faiths,
of different all of the different thingsthat make us so unique. But what
is the vision for a community?And I want to hear if they're reflecting
(43:00):
back to me something that's inclusive,something that you know, the rising tide
lifts all boats kind of concept,and who is in their mind when they're
envisioning that city. Is it peoplelike me? Is it people like food
bank clients? Or is it wealthydonors and you know, builders and those
kind of constituents. And so forme, it's about reflecting the most vulnerable
(43:22):
and those who have the highest needsin our community. I just love that
again, you should have had thelast word there because I very well put.
Yeah, yeah, very well put. And I also also agree that
that's that's a certainly great question.I also think, you know, we
acknowledge the fact that the city andthe region we've been talking about getting our
(43:45):
fair share of funding from other levelsof government. We acknowledge the fact that
municipalities have a huge burden and manymany different systems, and and that they
that they have to take that theyhave to take to take care of quite
honestly, and you know, Ithink I'd like to hear from them other
(44:05):
than property taxes. What what's yourvision around some innovative ideas around how we
can spur investment in our community inorder to address some of these, uh,
you know, really drastic and criticalissues that we have been talking about
in this conversation today. You know, we can't constantly be pointing figures at
(44:28):
other levels of government. There comesa point where we have to sort of
think outside of the box around howhow how do we bring in income in
in ways that doesn't just affect obviouslythe property owner, but can bring some
sort of form of investment to toour community in a in a way where
(44:50):
we're addressing, Yeah, in ameaningful way we can address some of these
critical issues. Yeah, And withthat, we're going to have to call
it. Thank you so much,Michelle, Thank you, Megan. Michelle
and Megan. That should be ashow. I would totally listen to that
show. Show. Thank you both. I really enjoyed this conversation. And
we're going to have to take aquick break and when we come back,
(45:12):
no, can I well wrap thingsup for you? Stay tuned right here
on Beyond the Ballot on New StokSaga nine sixty am. Stream us live
at Saga nine sixty am dot CA. You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with
(45:37):
Ryan Gurcharn and Nokah Duck Rube andwelcome back and this is it. This
is the end of our show.Noka. How did you feel about that?
(46:00):
You heard a lot of statistics liketwenty percent of Canadians now rowing on
charity help. The mississ Hoiga FoodBank has seen what three hundred percent increase?
Yeah, eight percent of the entirecity using the food bank. That's
shocking. It is insane to methat this is where we're at. And
(46:23):
that's just I guess drives how importantthe selection is. Yeah, And I
think the biggest thing for me thatstood out and it kept coming up is
how much influence housing crisis has onthe affordability crisis. I felt like we
could have dived in more, justa bit more about We talked about seniors,
(46:45):
but we didn't talk about the youthand what young folks are sort of
like experiencing in terms of trying tobuild a family, because some folks are
just putting that off because it's justnot affordable. Anymore. Just getting out
of Mississauga childcare alone. It's likeanother mortgage sometimes, right, It's I
(47:06):
think what I hope this show didfor you this week was to put things
into perspective. I mean, youmay not be going through a lot of
this, but there are eight percentof Mississauga who are actually going through this,
and that number is just going toget worse if we're not addressing it.
And that's individuals who are reaching outto the food bank. There's people
(47:28):
are struggling and they're not reaching out. I thought, you know, I
look forward to our next episode andI'm really hoping that our residents are finding
this insightful and helpful. I foundtoday's conversation really inspiring, really centering the
(47:49):
people that need the support of governmentand our system the most. So we
we spend a lot of time inpolitics talking about so many different things,
and unfortunately sometimes some of these issuesget left out and and it's heartbreaking to
(48:14):
see that. For example, youknow, we talked about the the we
touched upon it. It's not amunicipal issue. The mayor of the city
is not going to be able todo anything about it. But for example,
the rates of ODSB and O.W Right like the fact that that
hasn't changed in so long, andeven when that has changed, it's been
so insignificant and so below the povertyline that you know that that that that's
(48:39):
gone on for so long. Thatyou're right, and the America doesn't have
any say in that, but whatthey can do, and I think with
some candidates are recognizing the other waysthey can help out folks who aren't ODSB,
like in terms of public transit orlike free services that communit centers or
(49:00):
something, you know, some otherways of addressing that there there are.
You know, we're looking for creativityand that's something you should be asking these
candidates. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well, thank you very much for
joining us today. I'm grateful forour guests Michelle and Meghan who were there,
who were with us this evening.And yeah, you know, we
(49:22):
look forward to our next episode.We'll bring you more coverage, we'll bring
you more issues, and eventually we'regoing to also bring you the candidates themselves,
So be ready for that. That'sright, So stay tuned right here
on New STOCKSTAC nine sixty am.No Radio, No Problem. Stream is
(49:53):
live on Sagay nine sixty am.Dot C
The views expressed in the following programare those of the participants and do not
necessarily reflect the views of SAGA ninesixty AM or its management from the treaty
and traditional territory of the Mississaugas ofthe Credit First Nation. You're listening to
(00:25):
Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn andNoka Duck Group. Welcome to Beyond the
Ballot. I'm your host, RyanGercharn and my co host Nooka Duck Group.
How are you feeling. I'm doingwell. Thank you Ryan, and
(00:48):
thank you everyone for joining us againand again and we are so excited to
be you know, with you onthis journey to election day. Yeah,
to help you make up your mind, help you make up help me make
up my mind on who we're votingfor, what to ask these candidates,
and what Mississauga really needs. Becausewe got one and another, I'm predicting
(01:11):
the next Mara that we elect willbe there, not just for these two
years, but they're probably going tohave an advantage going into the election.
Right after that, there'll be theincumbent, right, and it's hard to
beat an incumbent, So this mightbe the mayor wiki it could be right,
(01:33):
in miss Osaga especially that's been missOsaga has a long history of just
really loving incumbents and really never wantingto let them go. But this week
we really wanted to explore and diveinto the topic of affordability of poverty,
what that really looks like in Mississauga. I know that things are getting more
(01:57):
expensive, grocery store rent, mortgages, interest rates are going up, everything,
gas, everything, oh God,and it's becoming more and more.
And the one thing that's not goingup paychecks regularly begin now or not even
just paychecks, odsb or ow orany fixed income that you're getting. So
(02:20):
we really wanted to look into howcan we uh, you know, steer
the ship in the right direction thistime around, ask the right questions to
the candidates so we can make upour mind on how we want to address
poverty in Mississauga. Yeah, absolutely, Ryan, terrifying times indeed for for
(02:44):
many of our residents who are struggling. Right. I mean, we we
are a wonderful city where you know, a fairly quiet city, but we
also have we also have people strugglingeven before this affordability crisis hit and even
more so now. So I'm reallylooking forward to today's episode, because I
(03:07):
think you know, oftentimes in elections, those who are most vulnerable are not
necessarily included well because a lot ofpoliticians and it's not just politicians campaign manager,
it is something that's been drilled intopolitics, Like if you've been a
candidate, is that these are folkswho are not coming out to the ballot.
(03:30):
Let's not waste time on these folkswho aren't coming to vote for you.
You need to worry about getting themost votes, So attack those,
Attack those folks. Make sure youhave pocketbook issues, make sure you have
things that speak to those specific peoplethat we want to go vote, because
it's not in our best interest foreverybody to vote, right, And then
(03:50):
that's generally the thinking in politics.We want our certain demographics to come vote,
so we're going to try and motivatejust to those folks. So so
it's also a matter of you know, campaign resources. We're not going to
get into campaigning, but it's alsoa matter of campaign resources and campaign time,
and who is the easiest demographic ademographic to convince to vote for you,
(04:14):
who are more likely to be goingout to vote anyway, specifically in
a by election at the municipal level, like that demographic is tiny. Now,
I'm not condoning this. I'm notsaying people shouldn't go out to vote.
I'm saying everybody needs to go outto vote. But what I'm saying
is that this is kind of howit works. And with that, I'm
(04:38):
really excited to I think they're waitingfor us to chat our panels here.
So we got Michelle Bilek who willbe She's a consultant for Real People Collaboration.
She's also done a lot of povertyand homelessness advocacy in mississ Hagan the
Region Appeal and we have the CEOof Food Banks Mississauga, Megan Nichols stand
(05:00):
So we're gonna take a quick breakand when we come back, we're going
to have a chat with these folksand they're going to update us on what
it looks like, what poverty lookslike in Mississauga. So stay tuned right
here on Newstalk SAGA nine sixty am. Stream us live at SAGA nine sixty
(05:25):
am dot C. You're listening toBeyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn and Noka
Duck Rube And welcome back to Beyondthe ballot. Everything you need to know
(05:58):
to make your own mind up beforeyou vote for the new mayor of Mississauga
this week, No can I She'shere right, you're here now? Hello?
Hello, hell Hello. We willbe talking about what poverty, what
affordability, and what homelessness looks likeright here in Mississauga. We have two
(06:18):
great experts on the topic, MeganNichols, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga.
Hi, how are you? Thankyou for joining us. Meghan and
I also have Michelle Bilek. Sheis a consultant at Real People Collaboration,
and she is a tireless advocate forpoverty and homelessness in Peel Region. She's
(06:41):
been around doing the advocacy work forages even though she looks like not a
year over twenty nine, God blessyou. Ryan. It's for radio,
so I have to describe things.Yes, Megan also looks amazing for those
of you wondering me not so much. So there you go, Noka.
(07:04):
We really wanted to set the stage, set the framework of like the mayor
candidates are coming to your doors.They're knocking at your doors, and we've
been talking about various issues and thisone keeps coming up to me a lot
Noka, and I don't know aboutyou, if you want to talk a
little bit about it. Affordability islike always something I go to see my
(07:27):
friends, I go to my parents'house, just anywhere I go at the
grocery store. Yeah, what's abig right now? Right, Like it's
really really big. It's impacting everyone. I think there's up your car right
now, right, yeah, groceries. You know, the cost of everything
has gone up significantly since since COVID, And that's why I'm so excited to
(07:49):
have you, you both joining ustoday to really help us get a better
understanding. So you know what isgoing on, you know, I mean
we know overall what's going on.We don't really need to get into that.
But what's happening in Mississauga? Whatis you know, how is Mississauga
doing in terms of the affordability crisis, in terms of poverty, and in
(08:13):
terms of homelessness. You know frommy lens at the food bank, Mississauga
is experiencing the same challenges as otherlarge cities across Canada and in North America.
You know, simply the cost ofliving, the cost of basic necessities
has risen far far faster than people'sincomes, especially if their income is from
(08:33):
some form of social assistance. Andso the gap between what life costs and
how much money people have just getswider and wider and wider and wider.
And so now you see things likethe Canada Helps release their new Charity report,
and I think it's twenty percent ofall Canadians now are relying on some
forard of charity to meet their basicneeds. And so that's kind of terrifying.
(08:56):
And so here in Mississauga we seethat, you know, accelerated even
faster because additionally, so many newcomerswho are seeking asylum in Canada land here
at Pearson Airport right here in Mississaugaand often end up staying in the community.
And so the combination of all thesefactors at the same time, you
know, certainly for us at theFood Bank, we're serving more people than
(09:18):
we ever have in the history ofthe organization. I completely agree. I
was actually just going to sort ofecho the same sort of yeah, I
would say the two core things forsure is income and the lack of housing
being affordable in our community. Soit's really those two core issues that have
(09:39):
brought us to this breaking point withinobviously our own boundaries, but then also
across Canada's we've heard and we've seen. Yeah, and I was going to
actually follow up with that. Wedid have. We had an episode last
week about housing and really really doveinto that that issue and what needs to
(10:01):
be done to address it. Butwhat, you know, what we also
realize is the housing affordability crisis isactually a huge driving factor of the overall
affordability crisis, right, Megan,You mentioned percent of Canadians are relying on
some sort of charity to meet theirneeds, right, and what percentage of
(10:24):
Canadians incomes right now is going tojust being able to sustain housing? Yeah?
Absolutely, And so we see thatat the food bank all the time.
People are spending more than their entiremonthly income just to pay for their
housing. And so there's just trulynothing left. And I think the I
(10:46):
don't know why it doesn't make senseto more of our elected officials. I
mean, here in the province ofOntario, where we legislate poverty, especially
for people with disabilities, to saythat you know, the maximum amount of
income that will provide for you tolive on is thirteen hundred dollars a month,
even though the poverty line is twentythree hundred dollars a month. And
(11:07):
so there's just I mean, themath just doesn't math. And it's obvious
to anyone. You know, ifyou look with a grade school child and
said, if you make thirteen hundreddollars a month and your rent is twenty
five hundred dollars a month, they'regoing to tell you it doesn't work.
And so why our elected officials continueto allow something that doesn't work to go
(11:31):
on and force people to rely oncharities to get by? I think is
a question that more and more peopleare asking. If it's obvious to me,
why isn't this obvious to people whohave the power to make a change.
I can have chime in why thatmight be the case. And all
of you know that, you know, to a certain point of my life,
(11:54):
or a certain aspect of my life, I've been involved in politics,
and you know, are those lowincome fun folks actually getting out there and
voting? Are? You know?I think that most likely elected officials respond
to the needs of the folks whokeep them in power, right, and
and really that's sort of what itcomes down to. I also have to
(12:15):
have to address that you know,the discourse around affordability really sort of varies
and it's relative to individuals experiences.You know what, what I'm hearing from
all levels of government when they talkabout affordability is the middle class affordability,
and that really, you know,diverts the conversation away from advocates and activists
(12:39):
and people who have been supporting lowincome people or cash poor people for a
very long time. The affordable definitionshould be something I think that also really
needs to be addressed in even duringduring our municipal election, is that there
is a standard definition uh from CMHD, which is pretty cent of a person's
(13:01):
income should be for housing before taxes. And you know, when we look
at sort of the data of what'shappening in our own community and beyond our
borders is, like Megan said,it's not adding up right. The income
that individuals are receiving does not matchour housing costs, which of course leads
(13:24):
people into deep forms of poverty andhomelessness. Also, we do know that
the market basket measure, I thinkin the region appeal is somewhere along the
lines of twenty four to twenty fivedollars an hour, and most people who
are on any sort of form ofa social assistance are in no way receiving
(13:45):
that form of income. And sohere we are. I really think that
if we're talking about affordable, wehave to really mean affordable and that is
sticking to that standard definition from CMHC, which unfortunately a lot of our elected
officials use that language because middle classpeople are the ones who are getting up
and voting. Michelle, You've doneadvocacy work for a long time Peel Poverty
(14:11):
Action Group, You've been involved withfighting for homes, affordable housing, You've
you know, done a lot ofthings for homelessness as well. I'm just
curious over the years, and youyou're very specific to Mississauga Appeal in general
too, but how have you seenwhat does poverty look like? I guess
what twenty years ago to now hasgotten worse or things that you think that
(14:39):
we've improved on. Just to getan idea of, Like, what's your
observation on this? Yeah, AndI think I think Megan can probably chime
in. She probably has significant datato actually back up the circumstances over the
last uh, you know, adecade for sure. It is you know,
you know, when I was onthe campaign trail, and and uh,
(15:01):
I've always sort of spoke about thesame sort of issues, issues that
I dealt with from my from mylived experiences, and certainly that was about
homelessness, poverty, and housing precarityover the over the years. But when
I used to go to the doorset, I remember people used to,
you know, say, what areyou talking about? There is no homelessness,
and like close the door on me. Well, now it's at everybody's
(15:24):
doorstep, right. Not only arethey struggling, even as middle, middle
or upper class folks getting by andseeing the cost of living astronomically increased,
but you know, the visibility ofhomelessness, whether whether that be on your
on your street corner or you know, in our parks and people sleeping rough
(15:45):
is just you know, it's it'sjust since since COVID has has really sort
of shown the light that you know, the you know what what I spoke
about again like a decade and ahalf ago about people having lift experiences of
homelessness, but it was invisible.Love is now very visible, and Megan,
(16:06):
you can shine here. You know. The most notable indication of people's
need is if they're having to actuallygo and visit a charitable food bank in
order to get nourishment on a dailybasis. I think what you're saying is
so true. I mean, forso many years I'm coming up on fifteen
years at the food bank now,which I still can't believe. You know,
(16:30):
people would say the exact same thing. Oh, Toronto is you know,
that's where the poverty is in Mississauga. It's a nice bedroom community.
Everybody's wealthy, big houses and youknow. But I think you're right,
like, there's many more places nowwhere you see folks begging for change,
perhaps at intersections and those kind ofthings, and it brings it to mind.
But I mean, I think theaverage person, unless they're really a
(16:53):
plugged in person to current events,to the news, to the media.
I mean often, you know,people will say to me, oh,
what do you do? And Itell them and they're like, oh,
how are things at the food bankthese days? And I say, well,
we're serving three hundred percent more peoplethan we were at the beginning of
the pandemic. It's worse than it'sever been in the history. Eight percent
of the entire city us as afood bank now. And they're like,
(17:15):
really, we have food banks,and it just so there is there is,
there is you can avoid being awareof these issues in our community.
And so I think there is stilla big part of the work to be
done to make people aware that,you know, these issues face Mississaugas as
much as they do in any othercity, and the numbers are astronomical and
(17:38):
devastating. And these are our neighbors. These are people living in our apartment
buildings, in our townhouse complexes,you know, sitting next to us on
the bus, in line behind usat Imprton's who are struggling deeply, deeply,
deeply. And now's a chance tohopefully bring some of these issues to
the forefront and certainly think about themin terms of what at the city level
(18:03):
a mayor has the chance to influenceand how they have a chance to drive
the dialogue to make these issues morefront of mind. That's exactly why we're
doing this. So, you know, you really both described it so well.
I think, you know, Iguess my question is, so,
what is because it seems like there'sno way out. It seems like there's
(18:25):
this massive, huge issue and differentlevels of government are just fighting over what
they're going to do about it,and anybody who presents a solution, it
sounds like it's going to happen atleast ten years from now, or you
know, maybe five to ten yearsfrom now, to be fair. So
what is being done? How arepeople getting by? How is the food
(18:47):
bank survived? So, I mean, if I'm going to answer the question
honestly, what's being done is notnearly enough. You know, in the
in the federal budget that was releasedrecently, the Canada Disability Benefit has been
brought forward, but it's two hundreddollars a month, so people are living
one thousand dollars below the poverty line. Now they're eight hundred dollars below the
(19:10):
poverty line. Like it's not goingto lift anybody out of poverty. And
then the critics are going to say, this program doesn't work, let's cancel
it because it doesn't do what itsaid it was going to do, because
it's not funded well enough. Andso I mean, you know, half
of all food bank clients their sourceof income is either Ontario Works or the
Ontario Disability Support Program. So fiftypercent of you know, so four percent
(19:32):
of the City of Mississauga is usingthe food bank because the provincial government has
set those rates so low that peoplehave to go to a food bank to
survive, and we are struggling.You know, before the pandemic, we
were feeding nineteen thousand people a year, and now we're feeding nineteen thousand people
a month, and the costs todo that, the cost of food,
the cost of rent, the costof electricity, all those things have gone
(19:55):
up for us as an organization too. Now we need to raise eight or
nine million dollars a year to feedthe city, when it used to cost
us two and a half to threemillion dollars a year. And so we
too are now trying to find peoplewho have resources to help support their neighbors
because we're not provincially or federally funded. And so charities like us in the
(20:15):
social services, housing, homelessness,addictions, mental health are picking up the
slack, trying desperately to pick upthe slack. Well, our governments legislate
people deeper into poverty. I couldthink, I know that we're running out
of time here, but I couldthink of two two immediate solutions, and
we already touched on them. AndI don't know if we're going to go
(20:37):
to a break and we can comeback and address it, or I could
just like quickly say it so goahead, go ahead, yeah, yeah,
yeah, you know again, Ithink I think I think Megan touched
on it. Income insecurity, likeright there. So you know, increasing
social assistance rates across the board thatthat you know, the the devastating announcement
(20:59):
around owned the Canada Disability Benefit.It really it really is certainly going to
affect people. But increases people's socialassistance rates and income would have a huge
impact. That's one thing. Asecond thing, I know, I know
our community are doubling down on theinfrastructure around around housing, but also you
know, some sort of form ofhousing benefits those two things income that goes
(21:23):
immediately to people where they're at,you know, based on based on their
current income situation, would alleviate thesituation immediately. And uh so that's what
we should be doing right away.And unfortunately it seems to be Okay,
yes we need housing, let's all, you know, put our you know,
focus double down on on on allthe aspects needed in order to get
(21:45):
to get shovels on the ground.But at the same time, we have
to look at where people are atnow and how their income in no way,
you know, it is going tobe able to afford our current house
situation right now. So those aremy two sort of things that you know,
our governments should be looking at likeimmediately. Thank you for sharing that.
(22:10):
Certainly very very important, important itemsthat absolutely need to be I mean,
these things needed to be addressed waybefore this. You know ODSB,
I'm a social worker. ODSB andOW rates have been really bad for a
very very long time, but nowyou added affordability crisis on top of it.
(22:30):
There are barely any you know,barely any shelters around and not enough
how It's just there's just not enoughsupports for people right and I think the
mayor has to play a role tobe that strong voice at the Region of
Peel where many of these things arehandled. You know, housing, social
(22:52):
supports is all regional, and soto be able to bring the voice of
what the City of Mississauga needs tothat table and to those discussions is just
so important I think even right nowis how do we make sure that the
city and the region are good employersthat pay their workforce well enough that they
are not relying. I would loveto see the City of Mississauga become a
(23:12):
living wage employer the region appeal aliving wage employer to contribute towards more folks
in our city earning that twenty fivedollars an hour you need to be able
to just live. Yeah, yeah, and you know, usually the focus
of housing and homelessness. Yes,it is a regional sort of sort of
jurisdictional aspect of our multi level governmentsystem. But you know, having having
(23:38):
the ability to utilize funds that theyreceive from other levels of government, especially
the federal government under reaching home toallocate a large component of those dollars towards
a housing benefit for folks, especiallythose experiencing homelessness and that are that are
certainly sleeping rough would have a hugeimpact. And also pretty much you know,
(24:02):
showcase the fact that, yes,we are taking care of at least
our individuals you know who unfortunately arein circumstances where they're sleeping on house.
So you know, that could bedone quite quickly, and Maroring Mayoring Council,
could you could basically yeah, yeah, you know, ensure that that
regional staff do exactly that. Ithink that is a great segue to ourn
(24:26):
next segment. Megan's point on whatcan your municipal representative, do for us,
do for you, do for thecity. So I'm going to we're
going to take a quick break rightnow, and when we come back,
we're going to talk a bit moreabout what you should be asking these candidates
when they come to your doors tomake sure they're you know, you keep
(24:47):
them accountable. So we're voting forthe you know, the right direction,
the right way. So stay tunedright here on New stock Staga nine sixty
Am, No Radio, No Problem. Stream is live on SAGA ninety six
am dot c A. You're listeningto Beyond the Ballot with Ryan Gurcharn and
(25:17):
Noka duck rub And welcome back toBeyond the Ballot. I'm your host,
Ryan Gurcharn and my co host Nookaduck Crub is still here. Hello,
Hello, Yeah, we haven't lostyet and we're here with a great panel.
(25:41):
Maggan Nichols from the Missaga Food Bankor Food Bank Mississauga, sorry uh,
and Michelle Bilek, who is aconsulted real People collaboration and we you're
going to have a lot of folkscome to your doors right now. They're
running from may of Mississauga and ifyou live in ward five. You might
also get a few other folks knockingon your door running for counselor. And
(26:07):
one thing that's probably on the topof your mind right now is how am
I going to pay next month's mortgage, your next month's rent, especially with
like gas prices just going up overnight, especially with food grocery store prices are
going up. I think a lotof our money here is being used to
(26:27):
just try and keep a roof overhead. At this point, so far,
the few pulls have been out andyou got the four counselors and Peter
Mcallian ranking in the top five,and I'm just wondering, so far,
have you seen anything that stood outto you that'd be like, hey,
you know what, this is somethingthat we should be really talking about because
(26:51):
it could really help with the affordabilitycrisis here. What I'm finny is,
you know, a lot of theirdialogue is pretty big, I think at
this point that you know, evenlooking at some of the platforms that they've
released so far, it it certainlyspeaks to sort of I think some of
the issues that have been already youknow, discussed either at the municipal level,
(27:15):
at the regional level, or beyondyou know, either around taxes,
you know, quote affordability, rentright rent being a consideration, uh,
waving developmental charges and and and thingslike that. I've seen some interesting UH
(27:38):
aspects like you know, Tapika talksabout modular as being as being an option
for housing. Uh. You know, we also see sort of expediting permits
and and and again some work onon on expediting the the processes. But
(27:59):
in general would say that there isno sort of specific details around around the
housing. It's it's just it's veryvery sort of high level ideas and and
and to be honest with you,I think obviously the municipalities have a huge
impact on what's being developed where andso and so some of those decisions around
(28:22):
you know, getting getting shot asa milk ground quicker, so so waving
charges. You know, I thinkthere's probably going to be some discussions around
the need for consulting communities in somecases. You know, is that a
good or bad thing? Again,as a person with with lived experience,
(28:42):
I always think it's it certainly isa good thing. But I can understand
nimbism isn't that aspect. But youknow, I I think that most of
the counselors and most of the folkswho running really understand that there that there
is something that they need to do. There is a ramans and they and
that that they've you know, signedonto with the federal government around the Accelerator
(29:06):
Fund. You know, they havetargets with the province that they have to
you know, ensure that they reachin order to receive more funding. So
there is no question around, uh, you know, how much infrastructure that
we need in our community. Ithink I think it's it's really a matter
of what what is being built again? Is it is it? Is it
(29:30):
along that whole housing spectrum. Weknow we need greater density, all right,
So what does that look like?Is it going to be massive condominiums
at the you know, one milliondollar mark or is there going to be
some mixed income properties in various differentlocations. And I really really think I
think that that's the key. Ithink that they understand that. But you
(29:52):
know, a lot of the peoplewho put money in their pockets to run
their campaigns will be also lobbying tothem on different ideas that are in their
best interests. So it is amatter of folks like us and advocates on
the ground who are really serving cashpoor people and people experiencing all listeners that
we keep the eye on the prizeand the eye on the prizes to to
(30:15):
you know, really, you know, dedicate our resources to those most in
need, because it costs a heckof a lot more money to keep people
poor. I'm also looking for peopleat the door who understand the different responsibilities
between different levels of government. Thatthey're not promising us things that actually aren't
(30:36):
within their control, but that they'redemonstrating they understand, you know, where
they need to fight for Mississauga,where they need to defend us at the
provincial table and bring our needs forwardat the federal table to really bring those
forward. And some of the ideasI've seen from candidates certainly sound like things
that aren't even in the jurisdiction,but are certainly pressures that people are facing.
(30:57):
So I can understand the design toconnect with people, but I really
want to make sure that they're talkingabout the things that are actually within their
control to influence, because it's onlyfair for people to get what they've been
promised. Yeah. Absolutely, AndI think that's that is often a concern
that we see when when people youknow, it's great that we have we
(31:19):
have such an open democracy, especiallyat the municipal level, and everybody can
run and they can just put theirname forward and go for it. But
sometimes, you know, people don'tnecessarily know how government works and how hard
it is to actually get things doneand how you go about it. And
that's a big thing. You know, who's going to be that champion,
who's going to be that advocate.Especially at the regional level. We're not
(31:42):
just electing a mayor and a counselorfor ward five. We're electing two new
voices for Mississauga at the regional level. And the region, as you may
have seen in the news, hasa lot of power, right. It
don't needed headlines for so long becauseit you know that there's a lot of
(32:05):
work that gets done there and alot of the the the the affordability that
the you know, social housing,a lot of like Ontario works odsp all
of that is. It's not it'snot like the rates for that is not
decided at the at the regional level. It's at the provincial level. But
(32:27):
it's all it kind of like goesyou know, it's gets dispensed through the
region or administered. Administered is theword I'm looking for. So, you
know, of course it's very importantto to you know, I appreciate that,
Megan, that we need people whounderstand what they're you know, how
they're going to get things done.But what should we ask them? Like
(32:50):
what you know, everybody like youmentioned Michelle, they've got they've got a
number of different ideas. Everything ishigh level. Everybody wants to for housing
right now. If you don't wantto fight for housing, you're gonna be
canceled right right. Everybody's pro housingright now. So what would you be
looking for when it comes to specificaffordability issues? Mm hmm. I think
(33:15):
I think that there's there's a coupleof things I think that they could do
around the housing, uh profile,you know, we have older rental buildings.
We have a huge, huge problemaround the financialization throughout throughout this country,
right investors, speculators, large assetmanagement firms who are really taking over
(33:38):
a large swath of many of theseaffordable properties. At least we're affordable for
people, and you know, Ithink I think that we need to pay
a larger, larger attention to whowe're giving the properties to. Right you
know, we can talk about firstright refusal on affordability, right, you
(34:00):
know, having not for profit housingdevelopers at the table, you know,
being being able to have that firstright for those properties, right, banning
rates, right, asset management firmsdoing doing some hard work around speculation and
investment in our communities. You know. It really comes to decades and decades
(34:25):
of divestment in social housing that havebrought us to this place. Right and
at the same time, the floodgateshave opened to opportunities to utilize housing,
which is a human right. It'sa human right people for a nest egg
for when we retire. Like whatis wrong with this mentality? You know,
(34:46):
you go to other other countries inthe world, like they just don't
comprehend, like how how we sortof drop the ball on this right?
And and so we need to startyou know, really really going back to
that just you know, to someof these real simplistic ideas around what housing
(35:07):
should be used for, you know, and and it's it's it's unfortunate,
but I do think that municipalities inthe end, they give the green light
to development and to developers, right, and so being selective on what they
develop, you know, where they'redeveloping and how much affordability is going to
(35:29):
be within truly affordable, deeply affordable. It is going to be part of
that that project. They have alot of power in order to, you
know, create those rules and regulationsaround who they're going to allow to develop
in property. So I think,I think, you know, really that's
going to be a lot of conversationsI have with the with these with these
(35:52):
various different candidates. Is not losesight on the fact that they do have
a lot more power than the investors, the speculators and the developers. Open
the door to the affordable and supportivehousing providers and let them provide us with
the housing that people need in ourcommunity. Yeah. Absolutely. You know,
(36:15):
you raise a lot of really reallyreally good points there, and you
know, the reality is this iswhere we are. We got to do
something about it. I love that, you know about the housing as a
retirement nests egg. Yeah, it'sit's turned into that. It's become the
norm. Yeah, if you goto like in any European country, it's
(36:37):
not it's not. No multi generationslive live in one house, right,
Yeah, you don't sell it whenyou retire and then and rest and everybody
rents like there's you know countries wherewe're actually it's it's the government that owns
this, like the housing. Theyown housing, and they have the whole
(37:00):
spectrum of housing, and everybody rentsfrom government being the landlord. So it's
not speculated, you know. Anduh, yeah, we've we've we've done
it wrong for a long for along time. But yes, here we
are. But there is opportunities Ithink, you know, incentive incentives and
and and and I I mean thepool officials do have a lot of power
(37:21):
to make those final gauntlet decisions onyou know, who's going to be building
what in their community, and andand there are there are some some of
the candidates who actually been doing thatmeaningful work with their communities around that shift
to work from single family homes toyou know, more density and uh you
(37:44):
know, having supportive housing developers youknow in some of their core areas.
But that takes work, That takesa lot of meaningful, authentic and caring
relationships, building a lot of trustwith their community, and that needs to
be done. I think our Ithink our is my internet seems to be
(38:06):
unstable. But if if our mayoris going to lead the charge and they
have strong powers. Let's let's let'sremember that they can, you know,
ensure that most of our communities yep, throughout throughout Canada are are putting people
first, for sure. I justwanted to talk about so I think all
(38:29):
of the counselors, for example,Peter has nothing on his website yet or
our website yet, but all ofthe counselors so far have recognized that things
need to be more affordable. Soat least they've recognized that they're not living
in a weird bubble. But someof them have gone so much into it.
One for Alvin, for example,is talking about lowering property taxes for
(38:50):
seniors, and I believe other there'ssomebody else mentioned that. I think that
may have been Carolyn uh and Ithink Dippica may have touched upon deferring property
taxes low income for seniors. SoI just wanted to circle around that because
we're seeing a lot of seniors beingthey can't afford to property taxes right now,
and they're being like forced out oftheir home at Mississauga houses, force
(39:15):
to downsize, move out of Mississagaas you can if you can't live there.
I mean, sure, they boughtit when it was a different price.
Now it's worth like millions. Butyou can buy another property or you
can't afford anything else in mississaugu Sothey're being forced out of Mississagan. We
saw a decreased in population here atthe last census, So I'm just wondering
whoever wants to take it. Doyou think these sort of like you know,
(39:38):
defer property taxes for seniors or lowtaxes. Is this realistic? Do
you think this is something we needor is this just one of those gimmicky
pocketbook things just to get some votes. I would question. I'd be curious
about the data about how many seniorhomeowners are struggling to pay their property taxes.
(39:59):
We certainly have an increased number ofseniors using the food bank, but
typically they don't own their homes.They're in a rental situation, and often
it's you know, their partner diedor they had a new medical assistive device
and they couldn't use that same apartmentanymore, and so it's trying to move
on that kind of front. SoI understand wanting to make life more affordable
(40:22):
for seniors who are struggling to affordtheir property tax. Absolutely, but I'd
be curious how much of the citythis impacts, you know, And I
think we want to be cautious atthe same time that the city doesn't find
itself in a place where it's loweringits property tax to the point where it
can no longer continue to afford theservices it wants to provide to other communities.
(40:43):
And so there has to be abalance there. We have to make
sure we're targeted to really provide relieffor the right groups of people who are
truly struggling, not the ones whoare kind of the most voters. Yeah.
I just also wanted to mention thatTedja says he's going to freeze property
taxes. I don't know how youcan do both around the building affordable at
the same time, uh, youknow, uh freezing freezing property taxes at
(41:06):
the same time. And you know, to be honest with you, I
think I think Megan, those youknow, having a focus on on the
aging population, we do know thatit's you know, we have a large
aging population demographic. The baby boomersare all aging, so they're speaking really
to their voting voting base. Tobe honest with you, that's really what
it comes down to and and you'reright, Megan, I I find it
(41:30):
highly unlikely that a large number ofthose baby boomers who are going south for
the winter are the ones who arestruggling and using food banks and and and
need that additional support. I thinkthat they have a lot of additional supports
already coming to them and from variousdifferent levels of government. So yeah,
I would mind seeing seeing that dataa little bit a little bit as well.
(41:52):
And and and again, I thinkI think a lot of the platforms
when they're talking about income really ortax relief for that demographic, it's probably
because those folks are the ones whoare going to get and vote and support
them. Yeah, and you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
politics in politics. Sure, Ithink can we believe that? So I
(42:15):
guess my last question, I thinkwe're the last question. Mark now,
Ryan, you know what's the numberone question you would ask? And I'll
ask both of you what's the numberone question you would ask a candidate.
I think my question these days isabout what is your vision for the kind
of community Mississauga is going to be? How do you see us building a
(42:38):
community that has base physical and youknow, kind of the more philosophical space
for people of all different incomes,of different backgrounds, of different faiths,
of different all of the different thingsthat make us so unique. But what
is the vision for a community?And I want to hear if they're reflecting
(43:00):
back to me something that's inclusive,something that you know, the rising tide
lifts all boats kind of concept,and who is in their mind when they're
envisioning that city. Is it peoplelike me? Is it people like food
bank clients? Or is it wealthydonors and you know, builders and those
kind of constituents. And so forme, it's about reflecting the most vulnerable
(43:22):
and those who have the highest needsin our community. I just love that
again, you should have had thelast word there because I very well put.
Yeah, yeah, very well put. And I also also agree that
that's that's a certainly great question.I also think, you know, we
acknowledge the fact that the city andthe region we've been talking about getting our
(43:45):
fair share of funding from other levelsof government. We acknowledge the fact that
municipalities have a huge burden and manymany different systems, and and that they
that they have to take that theyhave to take to take care of quite
honestly, and you know, Ithink I'd like to hear from them other
(44:05):
than property taxes. What what's yourvision around some innovative ideas around how we
can spur investment in our community inorder to address some of these, uh,
you know, really drastic and criticalissues that we have been talking about
in this conversation today. You know, we can't constantly be pointing figures at
(44:28):
other levels of government. There comesa point where we have to sort of
think outside of the box around howhow how do we bring in income in
in ways that doesn't just affect obviouslythe property owner, but can bring some
sort of form of investment to toour community in a in a way where
(44:50):
we're addressing, Yeah, in ameaningful way we can address some of these
critical issues. Yeah, And withthat, we're going to have to call
it. Thank you so much,Michelle, Thank you, Megan. Michelle
and Megan. That should be ashow. I would totally listen to that
show. Show. Thank you both. I really enjoyed this conversation. And
we're going to have to take aquick break and when we come back,
(45:12):
no, can I well wrap thingsup for you? Stay tuned right here
on Beyond the Ballot on New StokSaga nine sixty am. Stream us live
at Saga nine sixty am dot CA. You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with
(45:37):
Ryan Gurcharn and Nokah Duck Rube andwelcome back and this is it. This
is the end of our show.Noka. How did you feel about that?
(46:00):
You heard a lot of statistics liketwenty percent of Canadians now rowing on
charity help. The mississ Hoiga FoodBank has seen what three hundred percent increase?
Yeah, eight percent of the entirecity using the food bank. That's
shocking. It is insane to methat this is where we're at. And
(46:23):
that's just I guess drives how importantthe selection is. Yeah, And I
think the biggest thing for me thatstood out and it kept coming up is
how much influence housing crisis has onthe affordability crisis. I felt like we
could have dived in more, justa bit more about We talked about seniors,
(46:45):
but we didn't talk about the youthand what young folks are sort of
like experiencing in terms of trying tobuild a family, because some folks are
just putting that off because it's justnot affordable. Anymore. Just getting out
of Mississauga childcare alone. It's likeanother mortgage sometimes, right, It's I
(47:06):
think what I hope this show didfor you this week was to put things
into perspective. I mean, youmay not be going through a lot of
this, but there are eight percentof Mississauga who are actually going through this,
and that number is just going toget worse if we're not addressing it.
And that's individuals who are reaching outto the food bank. There's people
(47:28):
are struggling and they're not reaching out. I thought, you know, I
look forward to our next episode andI'm really hoping that our residents are finding
this insightful and helpful. I foundtoday's conversation really inspiring, really centering the
(47:49):
people that need the support of governmentand our system the most. So we
we spend a lot of time inpolitics talking about so many different things,
and unfortunately sometimes some of these issuesget left out and and it's heartbreaking to
(48:14):
see that. For example, youknow, we talked about the the we
touched upon it. It's not amunicipal issue. The mayor of the city
is not going to be able todo anything about it. But for example,
the rates of ODSB and O.W Right like the fact that that
hasn't changed in so long, andeven when that has changed, it's been
so insignificant and so below the povertyline that you know that that that that's
(48:39):
gone on for so long. Thatyou're right, and the America doesn't have
any say in that, but whatthey can do, and I think with
some candidates are recognizing the other waysthey can help out folks who aren't ODSB,
like in terms of public transit orlike free services that communit centers or
(49:00):
something, you know, some otherways of addressing that there there are.
You know, we're looking for creativityand that's something you should be asking these
candidates. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well, thank you very much for
joining us today. I'm grateful forour guests Michelle and Meghan who were there,
who were with us this evening.And yeah, you know, we
(49:22):
look forward to our next episode.We'll bring you more coverage, we'll bring
you more issues, and eventually we'regoing to also bring you the candidates themselves,
So be ready for that. That'sright, So stay tuned right here
on New STOCKSTAC nine sixty am.No Radio, No Problem. Stream is
(49:53):
live on Sagay nine sixty am.Dot C
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