Beyond the Ballot - Epi 6 - Taxation, Transportation, Housing & More with Brian Crombie

This week on Beyond the Ballot, we sat down with mayoral candidate Brian Crombie as he shared with us his thoughts on taxation, transportation, housing and much more! 

Episode Transcript

(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 andNokah duck Ru. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to Beyond the Ballot. I'myour host, Ryan Gercharn, and I'm
here with Nokaut. Hello, Helloeveryone, and hello Ryan. It's been

(00:47):
a while a week and it hasone a week. It has been in
municipal politics, the racists like SatinStone, who's running. But there's been
a lot of drama going on thisweek, really drama. Yeah, there's
lots of drama. Tell me whatI didn't see. Okay. So there's

(01:08):
been some some some big, bigdrama about the blue bike lanes where Dipa
de Merla has signed a petition againstthem, and that's caused some friction I
get. I would I would sayfriction at city council because councilor font Seca

(01:29):
is not happy with the position thatshe's taken. Yeah, lots going on,
lots of is there. I thinkI saw a video out there of
her. Yeah, this video,yeah, and uh, and it was
counsel pont Seca speaking about how shefeels about, you know, essentially uh

(01:53):
Dipica's position about about the bike lanesbecause it was a council decision, and
you know, for people who don'tknow, when you're on a council or
a school board, there's a wholeidea that once the decision is made,
you know, you are required touphold that decision as a member of the

(02:15):
body that voted for it, evenif you don't agree with it. So
very interesting stuff, that's for sure. There was also some comments made by
by Carolyn Parrish at a debate thatalso we're we're getting some heat from from

(02:36):
two other candidates, I believe,and she did clarify. She put out
a statement in response to clarify hercomments. But yeah, it's been it's
been a roller coaster of a week. It's been interesting. I always expect
sound excitement in debates. Yeah,in in in politics and in elections.

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I don't usually see this much.What Mississauga do we you know, it's
usually really team here. One thingI wanted to talk about was endorsements.
A lot of we're seeing candidates puttingout folks are endorsing them right now,
you know, and you have afew people who are door sing many candidates
at the same time, and peopleare using yes. I noticed that.
I noticed that, Like I thinkcounselor Martin Reid has endorsed a few candidates.

(03:24):
I saw problem head. It wasAlvin and also Steven I think he
spoke at Stephen's opening maybe And didhe say anything about Carolyn? I believe
Carolyn as well. Yes, speakingof Carolyn, she really put out it
looks like an endorsement, but itliterally doesn't say anything about anybody endorsing her.

(03:46):
It's the city manager and CEO ofMississauga, Sherry Lichterman. Uh.
And it's just really it's a quotefrom Sherry saying that Misssauga's had a turning
point and you know, it's importantthat we were elect the right person.
But it doesn't say at all thatyou need to elect Carolyn. But that
quote is beside Carolyn's picture, soit's like it gives that illusion and the

(04:09):
shery's talking about me or her,you know what I mean, That's what
it yeah looks like. But it'snot. I don't think it's just an
interesting tactic of what I'm seeing inthis selection. Anyway, another candidate we
have waiting for us right now.Yeah, waiting. So let's take a
quick break and we'll come back withBrian Crombie. So stay tuned right here

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on new Stalk Soccing nine sixty andwe'll have some of that. We have
questions for him about why he's runningfor Amora missus Sauga. Stay tuned right
here on new Stalk Staging nine sixtyAM. Stream us live at SAGA nine

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sixty AM dot Ca. You're listeningto Beyond the Ballot with Ryan, Gerd
Charn and Noka Duck rub And welcomeback to Beyond the Ballot. I'm here

(05:27):
with Nookah, Duk Grub Noka,Hello, hello everyone. Today we have
a very special candidate who is runningfor mayor of Mississauga. Brian Crombie is
with us today. He is awell known Mississaga resident. He is the
CEOO of Tara Capp Management. He'salso the acting CFO for Sports Business.
He's had thirty years of corporate experienceand he's done a lot of community work

(05:54):
in Mississauga. So help us.Welcome Brian Crombie, Brian, Hi,
welcome, Welcome, Thank you somuch, appreciate the opportunity to chat with
you guys. Thank you for joiningus, Thank you for taking the time.
So, Brian, tell us alittle bit about why you decided to
run from mayor. So I postedthis April Fool's joke back a little while
ago, saying it was going torun from mayor and that I was really

(06:15):
quite dissatisfied with what was going onin Mississauga at the time, and I
thought that there were, you know, four different crises that we were facing,
and that not enough action was beingtaken from the existing council and the
existing candidates. And I got somuch support comments back from that April Fool's
joke that I said, you know, maybe I should give it some thought

(06:35):
and actually do it. And soI decided to do it. And I
really think that we do have someissues. I think that to Mississauga has
frankly lost its way. I thinkthat, you know, we talked at
the last at least I tried totalk at the last couple of debates about
how they've misled Mississauga residents about thetax increases and I think that it's a
confusing issue, and I worry thatfrankly, some of the counselors don't understand

(06:59):
this issue and they're fooling themselves,misleading themselves as well as people. But
the tax increases are multiples of inflationrather than two point three percent a modest
increase the way it was represented.And if you don't even understand the numbers,
how can you ever actually get intothe budget and really assess whether you're
spending the right amount. I thinkthat we've got a housing affordability crisis as

(07:21):
such that my kids, that mostkids, most youth are feeling lost.
I think the statistic came out thatseventy percent of people under the age of
forty have lost the Canadian dream thatthey're going to be able to afford a
home. And I think that's youknow, it's not as bad, it's
tragic. It's a tragedy if andyou know, we had out migration in

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Ontario, thirty thousand people left Ontariogoing to Alberta and elsewhere because of cheaper
housing. And I think that it'sbecause of municipal governments, red tape,
regulation delays, et cetera. Primarily, I think that there's some other issues
as well, but I think it'sprimarily municipal city councilors that created the system
that just doesn't work. And youknow, the OECD did analysis that said

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Canada was the worst, and thenstats can and CMAC did analysis that said
the Toronto, Mississauga, Victoria,Vancouver are the worst cities in the worst
country from a time to get approvalstandpoint. And you know, lots of
people will tell you that it takesfive to seven years to get an approval
for a development that only takes twoor three years to build. It's atrocious.

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And so I think that that lackof supply caused by the red tape
and regulation that's led to an incrediblelack of affordability, is a huge problem.
I think that we've got a comingcongestion crisis. It's sort of here,
but it's going to come big time. And the example I keep trying
to use, which people keep tryand quiet me down on, is that

(08:48):
bright Water is going to be betweenten and fifteen thousand people, lake View
is going to be between twenty fiveand fifty thousand people, depending on whether
the MZ that doubles the density goesthrough or not. They haven't added one
lane of roadway, not one laneof roadway. They haven't added any transit
to those two developments. If you'reliving on Mississauga Road, Lake Shore Here,
Ontario, Cawthro or Dixie, youknow, welcome to a complete disaster

(09:13):
that's awaiting you. And you knowwhat happens when those streets get congested,
It spills onto you know, StaveBank, Odden, et cetera. All
those streets are going to be completedisaster. And how the counselors in Ward
one and Ward two that are runningfor mayor could allow that to actually be
approved. And I think the developmentsare fantastic, Don't don't get me wrong.
I think the developments are beautiful andthe development of the waterfront is fantastic.
But I cheer. As you mayknow, an organization, a GTA

(09:37):
wide organization called Transit Alliance, wherewe talk about transit and development needing to
go together. So there's a twentyfive acre development, the mister Christie site
at Parkview and the QW that lotsof people know it's only twenty five acres.
You know what the provincial government's doingbecause it's going to be so congested
there. They're actually building a newGo train state right there, right,

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that's part of the whole development.We've got seventy five acres at bright Water.
Seventy five acres is the size ofBarcelona, the size of Rome,
and it's going to be ten tofifteen thousand people. We've got a one
hundred and twenty acres at sorry tosay it's seventy five acres in bright Water,

(10:22):
one hundred and twenty acres in Lakeview, twenty five to fifty thousand people,
not one extra lane. It's abysmal. And there are solutions, and
I've talked about some of these solutions, but no one's talking about them,
no one's demanding it, no one'strying to get it done. And then
you know at the meeting that youknow, two days ago or whatever it
was, they started dreaming about bringinga subway to Dixie, which is a
great idea. But what they haven'ttold you is the only way you get

(10:46):
a subway to go to Vaughan isif you're going to have the density that
the Von Metro Center has and thatVaughn Metro Center has fifteen sixty story towers,
or there's a subway being extended onYoung Street to Richmond Hill. As
you know, Young and Steel isgoing to have fifteen thousand residents. It's
going to have numerous different towers ina regional mall and then across the street

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and then in Richmond Hill north ofHighway seven. Do you know what the
height limit is proximate to the DixieGo train station. Twelve stories. It's
laughable for them to say I'm goingto go and demand a subway is lunacy
because Doug Ford, the Ministry ofTransportation, is going to say, twelve
stories, you might get a bus, so right, what would you do?

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Want to make it fifty stories?Then well then we've got a chance
to bring in a subway. Andthe stupid thing about it is there's a
developer that's got sixteen sixteen towers plannedfor Cloverdale Mall, which is the East
Mall, and what are they goingto do. They're going to get the
subway extended to East Mall. Thesubways actually coming closer to our way.
But we're not smart enough, we'renot big thinking enough, we're not aggressive
enough to actually number one, understandthe truth. Number two tell the truth

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to our to our residence, andnumber three to actually, you know,
lobbyfore and get it done. We'vebeen talking about all day two way go
on the Milton Mississauga line for fiftyyears. There's a politician that I know
that ran on it fifteen years ago. Nothing's happened. Actually I stand correct.
I think two more trains have beenadded, two more in the morning,
two in the evening. Yeah.So, Brian, what would you

(12:16):
do differently? What would you dodifferently? Let's talk, you know,
one crisis at a time. Whatwould you do differently about the housing crisis?
So I would aggressively look at ourplanning an approval process, and I
think it needs to be cut downin time. And I'm not saying everything
should get approved, but I thinkthe review time period has got to be
shortened dramatically, and the red tapehas got to be shorten dramatically. I

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interviewed a construction manager last week andhe said he's working in Mississauga on a
Mississauga City of Mississauga sponsored project.He said he's never seen in his whole
life red tape like he's seen inMississauga. He says there's eleven different people
that have to approve every change order. He says that they're doing the typical
thing that civil servants doing, tryingto just spend the budget, and when
he finds savings to get underneath thebudget, they still want to spend the

(13:01):
budget. His description of the process, it's laughable and sad at the same
time. It's so bad. So, you know, I think, number
one, you cut the time periodfor approval by fifty percent period full stop.
Number Two, you've got to takethe zoning and you got to look
at what people are applying for andthat's getting approved, and you've got to

(13:24):
change the zoning to allow most ofthe stuff that's going to get ultimately approved,
because if it's going to get approvedanyway, why put them through the
whole process of the zoning that takesan extra you know, a bunch of
years. I had this example givento me by an architect the other day
of one Street in Mississauga where almosteveryone applied for decks, but the decks
weren't allowed, so everyone had togo to the Community of Adjustment asks for

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a minor amendment. Everyone got approved. Well, if you're going to allow
decks on every house, just changethe zoning to allow the decks so they
don't have to go through the processof getting the minor amendment. So simplify
the process number one and cut itin a half. Number two. I
think that what we got to dois think about what's really important to people

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in regards to density and height.Height is far less important than people think
about. Every architect tells me thatabove six stories, people don't notice height.
They don't know whether it's ten,twelve, or fifteen stories, They
just they don't know it. SoI would go to all the major transit
notes and I would give them anothertwenty percent density if half of that increase
was affordable. So if someone gota ten story condo approved or a rental

(14:28):
well apartment approved, I would increaseit to twelve, but one of those
floors were eight to ten suitees.Whatever that works out to be, have
got to be at eighty percent ofmarket rent. So affordable because I think
we need two things. Number one, we need greater supply, just generally
so that all prices come down.And then number two, we desperately need
accommodation that is more affordable. Soif someone got you know, in scare
one, a fifty story or asixty story a development approved, I'd give

(14:52):
them that extra ten or twelve floorsif they wanted and they thought it was
justifiable, But half of it,five or six stories have got to be
affordable. When you say affordable,you're talking about subsidized housing. No,
I'm not. I'm not. Ithink we need subsidized housing as well.
The definition of affordable that's in theinclusivity, the inclusive zoning regulations in both
Mississauga and Toronto, and that theOntario government is focused on and that CMAC

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focuses on, and all their financingis eighty percent of market rents. And
the idea is that someone that ismaking eighty percent of the median average income
can spend thirty percent of that incomeand still afford to live there. And
I think that's what you've got todo. So, you know, I
think that general supply is way toolow. We're building as many homes today

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as we were built in the nineteenseventies, and our population is you know,
two points something greater. So that'scrazy. So just general supplies got
to increase, and then number two, we need to have some that are
more affordable. Subsidized housing is awhole nother story that needs to be addressed
as well. But I think wejust need the affordable housing. And then
I got to tell you and youwere there Carolyn Parish on money, and

(16:00):
I recommended that her solution was tohave a mayor's you know, council that
would meet once a month with qualifieddevelopers that she knows and likes, that
would cut through the system. That'sexactly the wrong thing. You don't want
politics, you don't want favoritism.You don't want some people that have given
to her charity or or have takena road for dinner to be the people
that actually get to come through andcut the system. The fact that she

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thinks that a mayor has got tocome in and actually do that is proof
that the system doesn't work the wayit should work. And if the system
doesn't work the way it should work, fix the system. Don't try to
insert politics and favoritism in the process. That's what they do in countries that
we don't want to go back to, rather than what should happen in Canada.
So I think that you know,we've got a major problem in affordability

(16:47):
in Toronto, in Mississauga. TorontoI think is taken action. Mississauga is
not. We haven't come to termswith it, and the people that don't
want change don't realize that actually what'shappening is the density in our single family
neighborhoods is going down because homes thatused to have five and six people in
them now have one or two.Because people are getting into their fifties,

(17:08):
sixties and seventies, they're empty nesters. And schools are being challenged for potential
closure, you know, libraries,restaurants. Our quality of life is going
to be diminished unless we can dowhat we need to do, which is
increase the population of Mississauga and doit such that people in their twenties and
thirties get the dream of home ownershipback again. Yeah. Absolutely, I

(17:30):
mean it's certainly an issue. AndI'll tell you most of my own generation
is struggling with that. Some ofus have been lucky, but a lot
of people are still struggling with,you know, being able to afford housing.
The only people that can afford housingare the ones that get a big
gift for mom and dad or somewhereelse, you know, And you know,

(17:56):
I do, okay, My kidsdo okay. You know, my
kids they do okay. They can'tafford a house. Yeah, good incomes,
they can't afford a house, andmississ's not possible, and and and
and the real reality is the rentsare so high that they can't afford to
save for a down payment. Andyou know, when I graduated, it
was a different world. You could. You could buy a house for three

(18:17):
to five times you could, youcould, you could afford a mortgage at
three times your salary, and youcould buy a house at four to five
times your salary. That doesn't existtoday. Now it's twenty times. It
is wrong, it's unethical. Itis an inner generational inequity such that we
are the first generation in history thatare giving to our kids a worse future
than we were given by our forefathers. And you know, the scary part,

(18:41):
the very very scary part for me, is what kind of society are
we going to be in twenty yearswhere you have people who either inherit property
and people who will never own propertybecause that's the only way to get into
the market. But you know,thank you for sharing your perspect on housing,

(19:03):
Brian. You mentioned something about thetax rate being not exactly what council
is saying. It is. Tellus a little bit about what your problem
is with what council is seeing,what the tax rate increases, et cetera,
and what do you plan on doing. So if you're at all interested
in this topic, and I thinkit's one of the critical topics, then
I'm shocked at frankly media haven't pickedit up. I've got a show on

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my website that I did on mynightly show on SAGA nine sixty six o'clock
every night this past Monday with twomembers of Marinett that walked me through the
analysis, and I've checked their numbersin detail. What the Mississauga Council,
mayor and administration do is they announcethe tax increased this past year at two
point a modest two point three percentincrease. But the way they do it

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is they take the Mississauga tax increaseand they divide it by the Mississauga taxes
and the Peel taxes, which iseffectively dividing it by a denominator that is
twice as large, so clearly itends up in a smaller number. Then
they take the Peel increase and dividedby the Mississauga taxes and the Peel taxes,
and it ends up being two pointthree percent and four point five percent.

(20:10):
That ends up being over seven percentthe real tax increase. If you
took the Mississauga tax increase and dividedby the Mississauga taxes, you would get
six point three percent. If youdivided the Peel tax increase by the Peel
taxes, you would get eight pointfour percent. And the blend of them
together is the same seven point fourNo one in this world would take the
way they've done it and add themtogether to get the tax increase. It

(20:32):
would be like saying Ontario saying,you know what, we didn't have a
five percent tax increase. We onlyhad a two and a half percent tax
increase because when we take our taxes, we divide it by both what Ontario
is taxing as well as what thefederal government is taxing, and our taxes
are only two and a half percentof the full amount of the tax increase
you're going to get, and thefederal government's tax increases another two and a
half percent, and it's five percentaltogether, which is bull you know what,

(20:56):
because it's five percent on one andfive percent on the other, and
it's five percent all to other.And the worst thing is, even though
these counselors have been told this,and even though people have written emails that
you've probably seen that have gone tothem and they've and they've been told it.
At the debate stage, they stillstand up and say, well,
we had a modest two point threepercent tax increase. Six point three percent
is not modest. Six point threeis two to three. Maybe it's not

(21:18):
quite three, but it's two timestwo and a half times inflation. When
you're increasing your tax rate, yourtaxes at two times inflation, you're out
of control. And you take thatseven and a half percent tax increase it
was eight point something last year.Number one. Remember Toronto had a ten
percent tax increase and everyone, oh, ten percent tax increase in Toronto,
we're almost as bad as that.If you take that over ten years,
and it's easy math, one pointoh seven five to the power of ten.

(21:42):
Anyone can do that. You knowwhat, you get a doubling.
Your taxes are going to double inten years. You think Mississauga is unaffordable
today with the current counselors in charge, we are going to become unbelievably unaffordable
in the future. I think whatyou need is a business person to go
in and shake things up. Ithink what you need is someone that actually
understands numbers to go in and shakethings up. You have got way too

(22:02):
many career politicians that don't understand whatthey're doing, don't understand budgets, mislead
the public and probably frankly, misleadthemselves that are in control of things.
And that's it's wrong. It's theold adage that Einstein talked about do the
same thing. The definition of insanityis do the same thing over and over
and over again and expect a differentresult. You know. The other line

(22:23):
I've used a couple of times you'veprobably heard me say, is I think
this is the Titanic and all we'redoing is rearranging the deckchairs. And we
are going to end up a coupleof years from now with taxes that have
gone up by seven percent a year, eight percent a year. We're going
to end up with no dramatic increasein housing. What did we do.
We did ten percent of the housingstarts as a percentage of the provincial allotment.

(22:47):
We're not meeting anywhere close to whatthe province has asked us to do,
and we're not going to And youknow what, The worst thing about
this whole thing is I think Hayesenmckelliy in the former mayor, she had
vision that Mississauga could be something great. You know the Living Arts Center,
Square one and what was built arounddowntown, the Hershey Center that's now the
Paramount Center. She had this visionthat Mississauga could be a great, wonderful

(23:08):
city. I don't hear people talkingabout that anymore. I think we've lost
our vision, We've lost our desirefor big ideas. I'm really disappointed with
where Mississauga is today, and Ithink I can change it. Well,
thank you for that. Speaking oftaxes and paying the bills we're going to
do. Just take a quick breakhere, a few commercials. We'll be
right back and with more Beyond theBallot here with Ryan and Noka and Brian

(23:32):
Crombie. Stay tuned to News TALKSAGAnine sixty Am, No Radio, No
Problem. Stream is live on SAGAYnine six am dot CA. You're listening
to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan,Gerd Charn and Noka, Duck Rube and

(24:06):
welcome back to Beyond the Ballot.If you're just joining us, you missed
an incredible first segment of Brian Crombie, mayoral candidate for this by election that's
happening. I'm really diving into verypassionately. I add about housing in Mississauga,
the lack of vision, what hesees wrong with our tax or how

(24:27):
our councilors are talking about taxes rightnow, and there's so many other issues
that you've mentioned. Brian, Ijust want to start off with I've known
you since I think it was theWestern GTA Summit. It was on transit,
it was a transit summit, andI think you were spearheading that.

(24:52):
So Hazel former yor Hazen mckelly intwo thousand and seven asked me to co
found and share something called the MississaugaCity Summit. At the time, John
Tory, unelected at the time,was chairing with David Pico, the Toronto
City Summit, and she was jealous. You said that, you know,
you've got a bunch of citizens veryinvolved in fashioning what you know a better
city would be like in Toronto.We need that in Mississauga. So she
asked Shelley White, who was atthe time the CEO of the United Way

(25:15):
and myself to co found and cochair summit. It went on for seven
years. We had numerous different taskforces, and you know, some of
the people that were, you know, chairing of the task forces that we
had really have become critically important people. I asked Jim Tovey, who was
at the time just president of theLakeview Residents Association, to chair a waterfront
to task for with with Michael Spaziania, an architect or planner down in Mississauga,

(25:38):
and John Dancy and a landscape architect, and they've the three of them
went on Jim Tovey to join counciland we'recredably obviously pass away, but to
the other two and him to reallytransform Lakeview and what was going on.
Sharifel Sababwe, who's now an MPP, was one of the co chairs of

(25:59):
our post secondary Education task force,and I could go. Joe Horneck was
on our who's a city councilor wasa co chair of the Transit task force.
So we had a great organization.We met about once a month.
Our task force has met more oftenthan that. I met every second week
with former Mayor Hayesen mackallyan for breakfastand we talked about, you know,

(26:19):
what we were doing what we weretalking about in two thousand and nine,
I think was maybe it was ten, I can't remember. The economy was
devastated with the Great Recession, aswe may remember, and Hazel and I
went out for breakfast and she said, Brian, this is devastating. You
know, job joblessness is going updramatically and one of the problems is the

(26:41):
joblessness is in the thirty percent rangefor young people, and we need to
do something about it. And wehad a job summit, and then a
year after that we ended up doingthe Western GTA Summit and it was the
first and best time that Mississaga,Brampton, Calladen, Oakville, Burlington,
Halton, Hills, Milton got togetherto talk about the keys. We had
over a thousand people at the Mississagaconventions centered talking about the future of Mississauga

(27:04):
and it was fun. Our logowas the West Wants In. We copied
Preston Manning's pitch and it was fantastic. And then someone who at the time
I was connected to ended up gettingelected mayor, and so I wanted to
step back from that position as chairof the summit, but I got involved
in the Arts Council and I spentseven years on the board of the Mississauga

(27:25):
Arts Council, two years as president, and so I've been very involved.
And I don't know if you know, Ryan, but my very first job
when I graduated from from my Masters, worked for the Walt Disney Company in
Los Angeles, planning master planned communitiesand developments in lass in southern California and
in central Florida, and not justin amusement parks, hotel developments, retail,
entertainment, downtown Disney, all thatkind of stuff. I traveled around

(27:48):
North America uh interviewing and and andgetting lessons on building what people thought were
great cities. It was incredible.I worked for the Molson Companies and I
was the individual responsible for developing theMoulson Center now called the Bell Center in
downtown Montreal and planning it, financingit, and getting zoning for and approvals
for five towers that around the MoulsonCenter and revitalizing that part of Montreal.

(28:12):
And then I spent about twenty yearsoff and on working for Eugene Melnick,
the owner of the Ottawa Senators.I was the purchase, the person that
did the purchase for him. Hesigned the check and gets all the credit,
But I did all the work indoing that deal and spent about five
years working with the National Capital Commission, the Province of Ontario, and the
City of Ottawa in planning which wegradibly didn't go ahead. A fifty three

(28:34):
acre development in downtown Outawa. There'sgoing to be a new arena in a
big development. So I've built ortried to build great cities. I've learned
from some of the most successful peoplein North America about how you build great
cities, and I think we've lostthat in Mississauga. You know, Can
I give you three examples? Yeah? Absolutely. We have an eighteen acre

(28:56):
piece of property with one hundred andfifty thousand square footweark house on it,
owned by the federal government one PortStreet Inmport credit sticks out in the lake.
You know what it is used warnow, storing boats and bird stuff.
That's what it does. If youhad that in downtown Toronto, you
know what would be It would bethe Saint Lawrence Market. If you had
it in Vancouver, what would itbe? It would be Grandville Island Farmers

(29:19):
Market. And a huge art andculture development. In New York would be
South Street's Steaport in San Francisco wouldbe Fisherman's Worth in Seattle. There are
eighteen cities in North America today buildingretail entertainment on the waterfront because they see
it as what people want. Youknow, what our federal government's going to
do right now because our city hasn'trequested or demanded them to do anything different.

(29:44):
They're gonna put up eight condos.We don't need eight more condos in
Port Credit. I'm sorry, Butare retail entertainments that would be a place
that you would love to go to, that would be alive with farmers market
and retail. Think about Queen's Keyor the Saint Lawrence Market, or if
you've ever had the pleasure of goingto Granville Island, Barry's Building one,
Collingwood's Building one, was Sega's tryingto build one. How come we're not

(30:08):
building that? And the fact thatyou know that dream is there, that
possibility is there, and we've donenothing about it, it's shocking. Number
two Riverwood or Erindale, Erindale andthe Pinsion Farms all together of five hundred
and fifty one acres, it isthe third largest urban park in all of
North America. Think about how importantStanley Park is to Vancouver, or how

(30:30):
important Central Park is to to Manhattan. You can't think about New York without
thinking about about Central Park. Thispark is called, it brags on its
website, the hidden Gem. Whybecause we're not managing together, we're not
programming it, we're not putting thethings in it that make it a live
and vibrant and a place that attractspeople. It could and should be the
Central Park of Mississauga. It shouldbe Mississauga Central Park. It should be

(30:52):
the place where the first thing youthink about maybe the second, when you
bring people to Mississauga is I gotto go to to Mississauga Central Park because
it's spectacular. What makes it aliveIn New York or in Stanley Park,
it's a great place where you wantto do the seawell or the running path,
or the lawn where there's concerts,or the zoo or the skating rink

(31:15):
or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.You know, there are things that you
put there that make it the placeto be. We've squandered that opportunity.
I'll give you number three, onehundred and twenty acres Britannia Farms it's right
on here, Ontario. It wasgifted to the Province of Ontario for educational
purposes, and so there where theBoard of Education takes it up. If
you walk up the little Toboco Creekand you get to the Britanna Farms at

(31:37):
to Bristol, you know what youare fronted white chain, leak fence and
barbed wire. You do not evenallowed it into it. There's a working
farm in there. There is amaple, you know, a sugaring off
a tree stand. It used tobe a working farm. You could have
Riverdale Zoo. You could have BlackCreek Fier Village. You could have a
Markham you know type fairgrounds right thereand here on tiar with an alert so

(32:00):
people could get to it. Fiftyseven percent of the people in Mississauga have
lived in Canada for less than tenyears. They don't know what the heritage
is of Mississauga or of southwestern Ontario, of the rural farm. It's right
there, but we don't let anyoneon it or see it. Where did
the ideas go for building a greatMississauga? And I could go on,

(32:22):
Let me give you another one.Do you know? Lakeview is a real
problem twenty five to fifty thousand people. It's gonna be spectacular, but it's
not going to get built because numberone, the economics don't justify it right
now. But the other thing isthere's no transit to it, and there's
no talking about transit that goes toit. But do you know what went
to the old coal plant. Itwas a railway track because coal went to

(32:43):
there. There is a railway trackand a railway right of way that goes
right from Lakeview up on a redof way to the Lake shore line and
it merges in just before Long Branch. You could have a train that goes
from Lakeview to Long Branch, ashuttle. But you know what, even
more than that, Metrolinks already ownsanother railway branch that goes from the east

(33:05):
side of Long Branch up to theKipling Go and merges in with the Kipling
the Milton Mississauga line. At Kipling. You could have a train going from
Lakeview to Long Branch to Kipling andthen it could stop, or it could
go downtown, or it could goacross the city. You could turn Lake
two from a place with the worsttransit that you could ever imagine into the
best. But no one's got thevision, no one's got the big ideas.

(33:28):
No one's got that. You know, I'd love that attitude we have
with the Olympic Games of on thepodium. Where's that swagger? That attitude
gone in Mississauga? We've lost it? Yeah? Absolutely, And you know
what, there is a lot ofwork that needs to be done on transportation
Mississauga. Tell us a little bitabout how you would improve overall the transportation

(33:50):
system in Mississauga. So the MiltonMississauga line was studied back ten years ago
by the Big Move, by thePlaces to Grow and by the Neptis Foundation.
They also he did and as Imentioned earlier, I'm chairman of a
group called Transit Alliance, so I'vebeen through this studies. It has an
eight to one benefit to cost ratioif it goes all day two way frequent
co train service. Eight to oneis astronomical. Most transit services are two

(34:15):
to three times benefit to cost,and some of them, like the Scarborough
Extension and the Shepherd Subway, areactually not even. The costs don't equal,
the benefits don't equal the cost.It's got a less than one benefit
to cost ratio. This one isunbelievable. You know, the lead transportation
consultant to the Neptus Foundation that thenended up going working for Metrolinks saying,

(34:36):
any other country, any other cityin the world would build this as a
slam dunk. It is the besttransit you could ever imagine. And the
reason why is a couple of fullNumber one, there's who bunch of people
in Mississauga that traveled to Toronto forjobs. Number Two, they go there
for you know, social times,sports, entertainment and other activities. And
number two, the catchment area isvery wide, so you think about the

(34:58):
lake shore line, the catchment areais at limited by the lake on one
side of it. So when youthink about people will only drive or go
a certain distance, the lake shoreline is actually diminished by the fact that
it's half of the sort of thediameter is cut off the Milton, mississaua
line is you probably know, goeson a diagonal right through Mississauga. So
it's actually very convenient if we don'tdo this. At one point in time,

(35:21):
the Neptis Foundation said we'd have todouble deck the gardener if people were
going to get to the job.So that's never going to happen. You
know that, and so the congestionis just going to get terrible. And
let me take you one step farther. If you actually maybe added one or
two more stops, maybe one atCothra the Go train crosses Dundas right at
Cothtra as you may know, rightby a lumber store, and maybe another
one at Mavis because it crosses MAVsjust north of Dundas. If you had

(35:44):
those stops and it was every halfan hour, every fifteen minute service,
it would be like you had asurface subway. It would be like the
smart tracks that John Torrey talked about. But they decided they didn't need smart
tracks because they had a subway,so it was duplicated. We don't have
a subway, so it's not duplicatingthe service. Yes, what does it
take. What does it take iseither another line to be built on that

(36:05):
right of way beside the lines thatare there, or taking the dangerous goods
in the freight traffic out of goingthrough Mississauga and Toronto. And it come
back to, you know, anargument and made on numerous occasions. We
don't get up and demand what happenedto Lake mcgantic. The people and the
mayor demanded, get dangerous goods outof Lake Megantic because we don't want another
spill. What did the mayor ofCalgary then she do when there was a

(36:27):
spill in Calgary? He demanded andgot a diversion around Calgary because he says,
I don't want dangerous goods and freightgoing through Calgary. People say,
well, it's not going to happen. Nineteen seventy eight was the largest evacuation
in peacetime in Canadian history because wehad a spill at mavis And just north
of Dundas. The dangerous goods shouldnot be traveling right through Mississauga and Toronto

(36:50):
goes right through you know, theannex and Forest Hill, et cetera.
I don't know why we haven't complained. And there is an opportunity to move
it up to the CP line that'snorth of the four oh seven. There
is a way to see inline,there's a way to get it out.
So there's two different ways of solvingthis problem. As soon as you get
those lines, just like we gotthe Lakeshore lines, you could have all
day, two way frequent service.Do you know what happened when they went

(37:10):
from every hour to every half hourservice on Lakeshore, you think, oh,
we've doubled the we've doubled the schedule. We just split it all up
and every train would be half ashalf as filled, and every no demand
went up. There's this concept intransportation called the S curve. When you
increase supply frequency of service, youget an exponential increase. And the secret

(37:36):
is when you know there's a trainor a subway or a bus coming soon
enough that you don't even bother lookingfor the schedule. That's when you've got
sort of the perfect scenario. Andthe subway in Toronto, do you look
and wait for a schedule to seewhen it's coming. No, you just
walk down and you get on thesubway because it's going to come. You
know what, if you miss thatlast Go train to Milton, you're taking

(37:57):
a sixty buck or one hundred buckuber ride home. And so if you
think you're going to a hockey gammer, you think you're going to stay light
to go for drinks with a buddy, or you think that you know you
might have to stay late at work, you drive because the last thing you
can do is miss that last Gotrain. It just doesn't work the way
it's done. What we've got isnot a passenger rail system on the Milton
Mississauga line. We've got a freightrail system. We pack them in the

(38:17):
morning, we shove them downtown,we pack them in in the evening and
bring them back instead of what weshould have, which is a passenger rail
system. So I think that isthe biggest change you could have. And
if we had a effectively a surfacesubway in Mississauga, which is right there,
I think it would be spectacular.And people that are talking about,
you know, an LRT on Dundasinstead of here, Ontario. Yeah,

(38:38):
it'd be nice. But you knowwhat, no business person, no one
that's got a job downtown, isgoing to take an LRT from Mavis or
here Ontario twenty stops to Kipling andthen twenty stops on the on the subway
to get downtown. The Go trainis a express system. I'll give you
one last comment on that, ifI could do it. The most successful

(39:00):
subway system in North America is oneline. It's the Seventh Avenue in New
York. There's something like forty stopsbetween Harlem and Wall Street on the Seventh
Avenue subway in New York. Noone would take forty stops because that's forty
minutes just in the stops. Butthere's an express beside it, So everyone
gets on the local, transfers tothe Express, takes the Express, either

(39:22):
gets off or gets on the local. The Express has seven stops between Harlem
and Wall Street. The go trainis like the Express from Dixie, it's
nineteen minutes to downtown. It's liketwenty five from Erindale. It's the Express.
We've got the Express, and peopletoo many people are talking about building

(39:42):
a local. We don't need alocal, we need the Express. And
the nice thing about the Express isit stops at Kipling, so you can
get on the local stopped it shouldstop, doesn't yet, but it's going
to stop at Dundast Blur, soyou can get on the Local or get
on the up Express to go toPierce. So I think that all day
two way frequent Go train service onthe Milton Mississauga line is a game changers.

(40:07):
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.And Brian tell Us tell us what
makes you stand out from other candidates? What's your elevator pitch? My elevator
pitches. I'm something new and differentI'm a business person that for the last
forty years been involved in business.I've worked for the Walt Disney Company and
in Los Angeles and Florida designing masterplanning communities. I've worked for the Mulsom

(40:27):
Companies and designing redevelopments right across rightacross Canada. I have been in business.
I've cut budgets, I've looked atmeeting payroll. I've done the work
that business people do. I remembersitting down with one of you telling you
when you were thinking about running forpolitics at one point in time, You've
got an incredible future. You've gotall it takes to be unbelievably successful,

(40:52):
but go out and get some businessexperience first. You didn't listen to me,
but that was my abase did.I started my own practice. Now.
I remember having that conversation with youbecause I think it's critically important and
I think what you've got right now. My competitors running that you know,
are the leading candidates, regrettably,are all incumbents that are all career politicians
that are going to be doing thesame thing they've done, and you know,

(41:14):
if they haven't fixed things up whenthey've been there with the influence and
power and ability to fix things up. Now, How can you believe that
they're going to fix it up inthe future. They're misrepresenting the tax increases
because I don't think they understand itand know it. They part of the
problem of the red tape and regulationand the planning affordably. They haven't been
espousing big ideas. You need someonenew, you know what I have.

(41:37):
Bob McCowan on my show tonight onSaga nine sixty and he talked about the
only solution for the Leafs is shakeit up. Fire the coach, fire
the general manager, maybe even thepresident. You got to shake it up.
In business, you shake it up, in sports, you shake it
up. Why in politics do wego just with whoever name we know and
who's got the organization and hands outtoo many pamphlets and puts up signs.

(42:02):
You know what we should do iswe should think about shaking it up.
You need someone new, you needsome change. Mississauga could be the most
spectacular city on the Great Lakes,with an incredible waterfront, the third largest
urban park in all of North America, with a beautiful something or other on

(42:23):
here Ontario, with the second largestemployment zone in all of Canada. Think
about it. From Pearson to pillHill is the second largest employment zone after
Downtown Toronto in all of Canada,if it was in Kitchener Waterloo. We
have the federal government giving us moneyto have a super incubator, a supercluster.

(42:44):
You know, we're multiples of thesize of the supercluster that's in Atlantic
Canada or in Western Canada. We'vegot some of the best high tech biotech
aeronautics companies in the world. We'vegot more patents than anywhere other than along
University Avenue in downtown Toronto. We'vegot lack of attention to it. We've
got lack of focus on it.We don't incubate it. We don't we

(43:05):
don't strive to make it the successit is. And that is the high
pain jobs in the future that Iwant for my kids and for the balance
of people in Mississauga. That's thecommercial tax spase that's going to keep our
taxes low. That's the vibrancy that'sgoing to make Mississauga spectact there. But
we don't have transit that goes there. We don't have a b i A
or a board of trade for it. And we we haven't. We haven't

(43:28):
striven, striven. What's the wordwe haven't, you know, try to
strive, strive, We haven't striven, whatever the word is. We haven't
done what it takes to make itgreat. And believe me, if you
were a Kitchener, Waterloo, Okay, you would do something a lot more.
You're filled with a lot of bigideas. In fact, you should
call yourself the big idea of Brianand uh, it was great chatting with

(43:50):
you. Thanks for sharing a lotof those thoughts. But Brian, what's
wrong with big ideas? We needbigger? Is wrong? We got You
can visit Brian Crombie dot and hearmore about his platform. We got to
take a break. Thank you somuch Brian for joining on jost Okay.
Say tune right here on Newstalk Saganine sixty am. Stream us live at

(44:15):
Saga nine sixty am dot C.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan,
Gerd Charn and Noka Duck rub Andwelcome back to Beyond the Ballot.

(44:36):
What I think that was one ofthe most passionate interviews we've had so far.
I mean, yeah, it wasvery passionate, and you know,
Brian's quite knowledgeable about a lot ofissues, and that's a lot of just
big ideas. What I took awaywas he had a lot of what I
didn't hear from a lot of theother candidates during debates and stuff. We

(44:58):
we're the big ideas, the bigsolution, a vision for Mississauga where we
should be going. He has spenta lot of time in the arts arts
world in Mississauga, and he's donesome transportation stuff in Mississauga, and you
could really see that when you talkto him about some ideas he has,
and I wouldn't say any of thoseideas are impossible at all. It's not

(45:23):
like, you know, bringing NHLteam to Mississauga. It's nothing like that
couldn't be out there. Yeah,yeah, yeah, I thought they were.
They sounded practical, They sounded likeit could be, it could work.
You know, maybe some massaging interms of making things a bit more

(45:44):
accessible for some folks that he mentioned, but other than that, I really
thought that the big ideas and Ithink that's something I'm going to be asking
as those candidates come to my door. You know, what's your big vision
for me? I think that's whatI want in a mirrors myself. When
I go to vote, I wantto I want to hear what's your big
vision for uh Mississauga. And andit's hard to say, hey, for

(46:06):
the next two years, what isyour you know, because it's really only
two more years for the term,and you have counselors like Carolyn who is
not counselors. She got candidates likeCarolyn who when she came on, she
a lot of her solutions made sense. They were very practical, but and
it was very like next two yearssort of thing. I could see what
she's talking about getting done in thenext two years. Yeah, not like

(46:28):
you know, building a subway,which takes years and years of you know,
I don't see that like in youknow, the big vision. And
I think that's that's a big partof the challenge, right, doing the
big stuff and the big vision takesa long time, Right, do you
need you need like a good tento fifteen years to get really big stuff
done, And if you're running fora two year term. Well that's the

(46:51):
sense that I got from Callen whenwe spoke to her, was it felt
like she was really literally running.I guess she's done council so long.
She's running for those years that sheis just being very practical and pragmatic about
what she wants, you know,what could get done in the next in
I'm going to work on. Yeah, and I think, you know,
to a certain extent, you know, you have to kind of be frank

(47:15):
with voters with when you're like,Okay, these are things I'm going to
work on, you know, forthe term that that I'm here for.
But we had a great interview withBrian. We talked a lot about housing,
we talked a lot about property taxes, we talked about transportation and how
he's different from other candidates. UhSo, I hope you were able to

(47:38):
catch this episode and yeah, wewe had a good time and we're going
to keep bringing more candidates. Ithink I think to keep doing this.
Yeah. Our next guest next weekis Alvin. Right, yes, counsel
forwards Alvin. Until then, staytuned right here on your STOCKTAGA nine sixty

(47:59):
a M. Thank you for listeningto us on until next week, Stay
safe and get involved. No Radio, No Problem stream is live on SAGA
nine sixty am dot ca A