This week on Beyond the Ballot, we sat down with mayoral candidate Stephen Dasko. We talked about his perspective on housing, transportation, taxes and much more.
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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
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Beyond the Ballot with Bryan Gurcharn andNoka duck Ru and welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to another week of Beyond theBallot where you get all the news you
need to make up your mind onwho you're voting for this election, for
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the future of Mississona and joining me. That's right, Nikos is noka no
hi, Noka Hi. How areyou? Ryan? How is your week
watching and monitoring this election? Whatare you thinking? You know what it's
been. It's been a little quietthis week. I gotta say it's not
been the most busy week. Wehaven't seen too too much going on from
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from our candidates. Haven't seen anynew attacks, haven't seen any new new
drama. Nothing, lots of signs, lots of signs on the street.
I think they're all busy actually doingthe work, the ground game. They're
putting up signs. They don't havetime to be fighting. No nor should
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they be. They should be outthere door knocking talking to folks. They
should be putting up signs, gettingtheir volunteers together, fighting, you know,
finding money that it takes too,It takes a lot of money.
And I think one of our candidateswe've spoken to, Alvin, said they're
not going to be knocking on everydoor. There's no possible way they could
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get to every door in Mississauga,but they have to try and get to
as many as possible. Yeah,and that's that's where you know, you've
got to have a good strategy.You've got to prioritize what do you where
do you prioritize Where do you thinkyou'll do best? Voter turnout will be
a huge part of part of that. Yeah. And I'm in Ward five,
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so I'm always surprised when I seesigns that aren't Carolyn, because I
don't know if the candidates just takefor granted that Ward five is just going
to vote for Carolyn because they knowthe name already. But I have seen
a lot more Steven Dasco's signs,Alvin signs, Typicas signs. I don't
think I've seen any other male candidatesto be honest, I don't think I've
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seen any other signs up for anyother just those, and it's interesting to
see. Oh and Litz, haveyou seen any lits this week? No,
not yet yet. Really, Igot lits from all of those folks,
and I'm yeah, mailouts or likepeople knocked on your door, mail
outs, mailouts. Yeah. SoI'm always like interested in seeing that they're
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not taking that they're for granted,they're actually you know, going into Ward
five, which is well, thereality is, yeah, the reality is
with a by election in Ward five, you would assume that you're going to
have a higher voter turnout from Wardfive than the rest of the city because
you have so many candidates working toget people out to vote for them.
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So if I were running from mayor, I would spend a little bit more
resources in Ward five. Although havingsomebody who was as strong as Carolyn locally
also it was a bit of adeterrence. That's what I thought would be
a term, but it's not.It's not. There's I think enough push
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in that area in my area ofthose other folks that we're seeing, so
it's not like there don't have anyskin in the game. They're least making
a show of it. Uh.And what's interesting is that, I mean,
there are caroline signs on you know, houses, but also I think
I would say a lot of commercialproperty, a lot of plazas, a
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lot of uh. And I thinkit's there legally, like she got permission
to put him and stuff. ButI'm not seeing a lot of the commercial
area has been taken by any ofthe other candidates. I'm seeing all the
ones I've seen so far, likefor Alvin Steve and Dipiccar have been on
homes. So let me they areconnecting with folks like yeah, absolutely.
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Now I won't reveal my science strategywhat I like to do with my signs,
but I will say that the highvisibility areas is not a bad idea
for a meryoral race. So plazasare really helpful because those are very high
visibility areas, lots of traffic goingthrough through the city. Sure, not
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ever, everyone who drives on drylives in Mississauga, but it's safe to
assume that most people who live inMississauga are going to have to drive on
the major streets to get somewhere forsure. And if we're talking in strategy,
one thing I think I've seen onTwitter was a pizza a pizza store
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was giving a pizza shop was givingout pizzas with Carolyn's flyer on them.
So every pizza gets goes out,there's a flyer on it. So the
strategy to if you, if you, if, if you have somebody who
owns a pizza store who likes youthat much, Yes, it's a great
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it's a great opportunity that doesn't happenvery often though. You know pizza,
So every time you want pepperoni,pizza Chi, you're thinking, Carolyn Brian,
you're making me want pizza. Now, well, we s some pizza.
Want we take a break, havesome pizza, And I think you
have no we have a candidate.I'm kind of excited for this, one
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of the kids that we've heard thata lot of the transportation's happening in his
area right in the south of Mississauga, and like we're credit to the Hazel
mccallian LRT, So I'm curious tosee what his thoughts are. Stephen Dasco
will be joining us after this break. He'll be talking about his ideas and
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why he's running for mayor of Mississauga. So stay tuned right here on New
Stoksaga nine sixty am and you'll hearmore of that stream us live at SAGA
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nine to sixty am dot CA.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube And welcomeback to Beyond the Ballot. I'm your
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host Ryan Gertarn, my co hostNoka group. She stuck around hasn't left
me yet. And we have agreat candidate another candidate. I don't want
to say the greatest because I'm notallowed to, so I won't. I
may say the shortest. Can Isay that the shortest? Can't know?
I can't even say that. Ithink Alvin may have you beat there.
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Okay, I'll pass it off toyou. So today we have Stephen Dasco,
who is a counselor for Ward one. He was elected in twenty eighteen
and he is now running for mayorand we're going to hear all about Steven.
We're going to hear from Stephen.We're going to learn more about all
the issues that Stephen wants to tackleat the city and how he's gonna know
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how he's going to go about that. Welcome Stephen, thank you for going
Hi. Well, thank you forhaving me. And this is by the
way, this is a great show, as you know, both of you
and some of the view some ofthe listeners tuning in. I am and
always have been a massive supporter oflocal media because this is really where it
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affects your day to day life,and it becomes more and more challenging as
we go to be able to tapin to find out what's going on.
And then we're going quite often tothere is like social media and hitting getting
little hits of one thing or another. But that's provided that your social media
you know, friendly. A lotof people aren't and so now it's a
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bit of a different time that wego through. So thanks for doing what
you're doing. I think it's reallyimportant. Oh, thank you for having
for being on the show. Andthis is one of the few I think
outlets that Mississauga actually does have.And I know you've been on many times
a Norm and the other host ofnews Talk Saga nine sixty and it's great
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to have you back on and tohear about why you were running. If
you don't mind, okay, canI the first question just run off the
back housing is really, we've askedall the candidates so far about their housing
plan. Tell us about yours.Well, this is this is this is
more than just hey, I've gotan idea, this is this has lived
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experience. I have over forty percentof all the development applications and density that's
coming to the city right now.In the war that I happen to represent.
Quite often I say that I am, you know, the counselor for
an area. It's essentially a citywithin a city because we have residential we
have employment land, we have apark land, we have a tourist destination.
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We've got a lot of different movingparts from from transit oriented projects going
on to quite frankly getting people aroundfrom a micro mobility point of view as
well. So we have a lotof things happening. So when it comes
to affordable housing is certainly one partof it. There's housing in different forms
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and this is where I'm often,you know, talking about how we provide
housing because we have an official planin place, in local area plans in
place, and the biggest thing thatwe need to do is tackle the underlying
issue. And that's how the heckdo we work all together to get shovels
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in the ground. We have eightythousand approved units right now and as of
right which means that you know,you don't have to make any zoning changes
or anything like that. And thewhole issue is how do we get those
building permits pulled? How do weget the shovels in the ground. And
you know, the thing that everybodyneeds to really show leadership on of all
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levels of government is stop hitting theblame game button one, saying oh,
it's the city's doing this, it'sthe province doing that, it's the federal
government and doing that. You know, really we need to all sit down
figure this out because in some casesit's not economical for developers to actually pull
that permit and stick a shovel inthe ground. In other areas, you
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know, some people just want toincrease the value of the land that they
have by increasing the density with nointention of building it, for example.
So a lot of different things.That's why I always talk about use it
or lose it when it comes toonce you get something improved, that you
should have a reasonable period of timeto go through the system and to be
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able to go and get those buildpermits pulled, get your shovels in the
ground or else, why are yougoing through to try to get that done.
So that's certainly one part of whatI think we have to do.
The other is we should also belooking at how we can provide more affordable
you know, it's like truly affordableunits, and that's sometimes thinking outside of
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the box. And right now theword that I rep at present, we're
actually building the most affordable housing outof the entire pil region. Right now,
there's three hundred units that we're building, which is not nearly enough.
It's essentially a drop in the ocean. We need over eight thousand units right
now, but there's three hundred unitsthat are being built, just built another
sixty eight at end well, andso i'll you know, i'll also maybe
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finish off. I don't want togo on too long before you want to
ask another question. But I'll alsosay that what I truly believe we need
to do is is rethink how we'reproviding it. The federal government was the
one that used to provide affordable housing. They put it down to the province.
The province then puts it down tothe municipality, the one that has
the least amount of true deep pocketsand funding to deal with it is the
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municipality and the developer. A lotof people think the developers have a bottomless
pot of money, and they don't, and so that's where everybody has to
work together on this. There wasand I think what we really should look
at is in the two thousand andeight meltdown financially, there was the concept
of having a fund for infrastructure thatyou could tap into, and we had
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a bunch of things built here,from a bus rap and transit terminal along
that by Eastgate, for example,to libraries and things like that. Right
across the country, we had thingsbuilt. Right now, I think is
the time to go back to thattype of model and have a fund available
that if the developer in the citywould submit a joint application for affordable units
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for inclusionary zoning for example, thatthey would be able to put that in
and you tap into basically a grantand then that money comes back and they'll
say, you know, we're certifyingthat. You know, you get X
amount of dollars to build your units, as opposed to having it redistributed to
all the other units that people arebuying, which are increasing their units.
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Even more so, if we wereto do that, that truly allows the
developer to build those affordable units thatwe desperately need. It lets the developer
know that yes, they can takethat paper into the bank to get their
construction financing and say we've got Governmentof Canada certified money here to build x
amount of units and that is goingto help them get shovels in the ground.
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So thinking a little bit differently,but also it's one as opposed to
knocking somebody. It's how we canwork together because I think we all want
to get to the same result,getting people with roofs over their heads.
And also I don't have any interestin warehousing anybody. I want to make
sure that everybody has the same opportunitiesin life and that everybody can have a
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great quality of life. And that'sbuilding a great city and that's having housing
units of all types. So havinga fund like this, I think is
certainly one, and also having communitybonds, quite frankly, is something else
that we should be looking at.I know Hamilton starting to do some work
on that. Good friend of mine, Michelle Bielick, She's she's been talking
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to me a lot about that andto me, these are things that we
really need to start looking at asopposed to going back around all the time
to blame somebody and not getting ahead. A lot of a lot of candidates
are talking about reducing red tape atthe city. There's a lot of red
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tape at the city and that isa big part of the problem as to
why things are a little bit slower. We've also heard some of that coming
from the province. We also knowthat Missaga has not met it's housing targets,
which comes with a you know,large sums of money that could be
used for many different things. Tellus more about that, tell us more
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about how you're absolutely you know,and I'll cut some of the misinformation that
goes around because some of this stuffis just politically charged, unfortunately. And
with a house and goal that theprovince is mandated of one hundred and fifty
thousand units by twenty fifty one,we've actually come in with eighty thousand so
far. The city, of course, does not build, None of the
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municipalities build. We approve and it'sthen up to the developer to actually get
those permits pulled, get the shovelsin the ground, and right now we're
at a situation where there's interest rateshave been rising and it's been almost like
an Arctic chill that's gone across thedevelopment industry because the buyers aren't there.
And that's really what it comes downto. Are things more expensive? Oh,
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my gosh, of course they are. But this is the other part
of the issue that I talk aboutthat we need to all jointly roll up
our sleeves and get together on becauseif you're going to cut out a parking
space, well, now sometimes you'vejust shifted a problem from one person to
the other person. That you can'tfind a spot underground. You need that
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because you can't afford to go andtake you know, two hours to get
to where you need to get toon transit to get to work. You
need to drive. And now you'relooking to find shelter that's reasonably priced,
which is you know how how thatis for you know, the individual,
which is reasonable is not really reasonablethese days. And then you say,
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okay, well I need that carto be able to get to work to
make all of my payments. Andthen they say, well you can't get
a parking space. Okay, Well, then you know what I'm going to
park down the street. Well,now you know the the the neighbors down
the street, you're parking in frontof their house. They're upset and this
is and it just kind of cascadesdown. So having a real decent solution
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when we're planning is always the mostimportant thing. But I'll come back to,
you know, the red tape partof it. So what we really
do need is we really need toreopen city Hall to the public. And
it's it's everyone's city Hall. It'sthe people's hall, or you know,
quite frankly. And what we needto do is reopen things like the window
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where you go in to get yourbuilding permits done. If you have issues
where you can't find out, Okay, well you know what, I've got
my drawings. I want to talkto somebody about putting that addition in.
Who do I talk to, youknow, to set things up remotely,
et cetera. I mean it wasit got us through COVID, But we're
past that. We're at a pointright now where we need to be customer
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friendly. That's number one in myoffice as a counselor, is it's the
customer service experience. Nobody is comingin or calling you because they've just won
the lottery or they had the bestday of your life. They're coming in
because they have questions, they haveissues they need answers to and that's what
we're here for. So from thecity's point of view, that's what we
can certainly do. But I wantto make sure that we're not just doing
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it in isolation or a lot ofpeople talk about it, Oh, we're
in a silo of doing things.You know, that's where you want to
turn that upside down, shake itand say, okay, well, how
do we make all this stuff work? Because at the end of it,
the goal is the same that weall have, and it's we want to
get the job done. And that'sreally what it comes down to me is
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how we get that job done.And part of that it's you know,
it gets to be pretty complex,and we can certainly talk about things that
I think we should be placing inplace to make sure that we can shake
out some more affordable housing options ofall different types. And renting has to
be very much there because for thelongest time, people were not building rentals
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because there was no incentive to doit. There was nothing there for you
for people to do it. Theincentive was on the other side, it
was it was the purchaser of acondo unit was purchasing the unit to then
flip it to rent it. Becauseinterest rates were so low, people were
using that as their investment viahicle.And then once you see rates start to
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go up, you start to seethe eel effects of bad planning. And
this is where I keep coming backto planning, planning, planning, because
they were not meant to be purposebuilt rentals. They were meant to be
condominiums, and so we need toget those purpose built rentals built, and
part of that is looking at differentoptions and thinking differently. I've asked for
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an audit on Airbnbs because seventy percentof our airbnbs and the city of Mississauga
are not registered. They're illegal,and quite often you're finding rooms that are
being chopped up in a house andrented out one by one by one.
Some of them just have hot platesin them and things like that, as
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that would be the kitchen, forexample. Deplorable living conditions and plus the
infrastructure of the area cannot handle itgarbage recycling. These are meant to be.
For the zoning permits you're parking issame thing. All of these were
meant to be done in a certainway. Same with schools and parkland and
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your libraries, et cetera. Sothis is where I always look at,
how can we do that, becauseif we can get rid of the people
that are coming in to spend thatnight or that two nights and then off
they go somewhere else to have itfor some more longer term rental accommodation,
it's every bit that we can doin a measured way needs to be looked
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at. Yeah, for sure,And let's talk a little bit about transportation,
and you know it's one of thebiggest issues that's facing Mississauga. We've
we've got a growing population. Wedon't have enough transportation. It's extremely,
extremely inconvenient. Tell us about howyou're going to go about addressing that if
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you become there one hundred percent,And this is something if you want to
become a world class city, whichI am held in and very passionate to
know that we are going to getthere. We're good, we need to
be great. We need to beworld class, and world class cities go
with world class transit, and ourfirst one I'm not going to go with
anything that's pie in the sky tosell somebody something that I think is just
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for a vote. What I goback to it's what we are offered twice
as a city. We need togo back to it. We need to
think and be bold about it becauseI believe the interest would be there at
the province as well. And thatis We've got a bus rapid transit line.
We've got two of them right now, but i'll speak of the first
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one is down on Lake Shore.There was a ministerial zoning order which doubled
the density down in the Lakeview areaand it's going to be challenging to get
people through that area. It's anarea that's between a lake and a railway
track and how you move fifty thousandpeople back and forth is going to be
very interesting. But it's one thatwe have to tackle. Now. What
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I've said, and this is alittle bit different yet again, is we
have to I believe there's a twokilometer three stop bus rapid transit that's slated
for there that was based on eightthousand units. We're into sixteen thousand units,
which is about fifty thousand people.And right now what we have to
look at is I believe working withthe TTC and also with the province to
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extend the streetcar where it terminates justat the Toronto border on Lakeshore and bring
that right across along Lakeshore. Itgoes down through East Avenue and loops through
the New Lakeview and comes right backup to Lakeshore again to turn around.
Not to me is a world classpeople mover's we can co brand that.
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The other, and this is thebig one, is we have a bus
rapid transit line which we're doing workon and it's been funded for Dundas,
the Dundas Street Corridor. The applicationswe're seeing are a lot significantly above what
they're what they're allowed to be,and I think that's okay provided that we
have the world class transit. That'swhy this is our opportunity to make and
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build the subway. And this isthat would go from the Kipling station,
go along Doune Das and then andright at here Ontario where it connects with
the light wrap Hazel mckellian light rapidtransit line that truly makes that whole connection
work. To think that people arenot going to be coming from Toronto into
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Mississauga and Mississauga to Toronto is we'rejust not being realistic. It happens,
and then that's where we get peoplemoving northeast southwest, and then the west
part is we continue building that.You know, from there, we're going
from here Ontario out to UTM that'sUniversity of Toronto Missaga campus and that would
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be done via the bus rapid transitbecause the density numbers wouldn't work for that,
nor should they, but the busrap and transit would certainly be a
great people mover and that's how weget people around. And of course the
electrification of the Go train lines andtwo way all day that we that we've
needed for a long time as well. Perfect thank you for your thoughts on
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that. Stephen. I'm just gonnacut you off right now if you're talking
way too much, take a break, have some water, and listen to
some commercials, pay some bills,and when we come back, we're going
to talk more with Stephen dasco mayorcandidate for It's in Misstaga about crime and
what his thoughts are on what's happeningwith our city. So stay tuned right
here on New Stocksaga nine sixty amno Radio No Problem. Stream is live
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on SAGA nine sixty am dot cA. You're listening to Beyond the Ballot
with Ryan Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rubeand welcome back to Beyond the Ballad.
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I'm here with Noah, my cohosts are beyond about where we're interviewing all
the meural candidates. And if you'rejust joining us, you've missed Stephen Dasco's
exclusive platform reveal. He hasn't.He's not gonna miss it. That's it.
He's not going to tell anybody else. You just have to re listen
to the show. Uh So,we were talking about housing, and we
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spoke about transportation and how he planson getting Mississauga moving into a right way.
And now I'm just talking about moving. Let's talk about moving crime outside
of Mississauga or just getting rid ofit altogether. There's been a lot of
h auto thefts recently in here andamong other crimes too, like housebreaking,
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breaking, enters, and vandalism.And I'm wondering, what are your thoughts,
how are you planning on tackling this. It may be a regional issue,
but you do have a seat atthe table as a regional voice as
well as mir So what are yourthoughts on that, Steve crime is a
massive issue. It is one thatI know. When I first came on
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council in twenty eighteen, one ofthe things I started to do was work
with Safe City, and that wasto go and when I heard about the
reboot, essentially to revive the neighborhoodwatch programs, I loved it because I
thought it was very, very powerfulback in the eighties when it was really
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in its heyday and then you know, it just faded out. I thought,
well, this is a great it'sa great community builder. But on
top of that, it makes surethat everybody has those eyes, the collective
eyes on the street, and there'sgood dialogue going on with everybody. Well
now they become very important. SoI let a lot of that in my
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first term and so I do alot of work with Safe City. Right
now, I think that's certainly onepart. But I'll just mention having anybody
having to look outside of their frontwindow before they go to bed to see
if the car is still there.I mean, it's an outrage quite frankly.
And then in the morning you wakeup and then you go to look
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out and you're kind of you're holdingyour breath to see that it's still there
before you can go and sometimes haveto take that to go to work or
drop your kids off to school.I mean, this is an outrage or
the fact that somebody might knock yourfront door down to go and rob you
is something that this shouldn't be.It's you know, it's absolutely unacceptable.
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So you're right. I do interactwith Peel Regional Police quite a bit,
and as a matter of fact,as a ward counselor, I've accomplished what
I think has has had to havehappened and something that hasn't been done since
the eighties. I've got funding inplace right now to purchase land for a
new police division. We have elevenDivision and twelve Division in the City of
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Mississauga. We've doubled in size sincethat was the case when we built last
I mean not renovating a station.I mean a full on new station because
we need it and to be ableto invest into law enforcement the way that
we do. But we also needa new courthouse because the courthouse is bursting
at the seams, and that's havinga mayor. It's also going to work
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with our provincial and federal counterparts.And that's because we all want the same
thing. Everybody's talking about safety,and this is the opportunity to get rid
of partisan affiliations or any of thename blaming or any of this kind of
stuff. You move past it.We need to deliver for the citizens of
Mississauga. And if anybody thinks differently, then they need to go and check
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out and do something else, becauseit's this is the time now that we
have to go and get it done. And the other part that I've worked
on with law with our law enforcementis there something called a Community Intervention Response
Team SEARCH for lack of a betterword. What it comes down to is
basically seeing more police in your communities. That the community policing model where you
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get to see the police. They'vestarted rolling that out first in Brampton,
downtown Brampton because there was some TLCthat was needed down there and still is
needed. And then you look atas well, what we've got in a
lot of certain pockets of Mississauga needingthat TLC and that reassurance that when you
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need a police officer that they aregoing to be there for you and when
you call them, they need tobe there and we need to back them
up. But at the same time, you know, we're all in this
together, so we all have toyou know, work on this. That's
the first part coming in with thenew station coming in with these response teams.
Eleven Division is getting it, hasjust gotten it. Twelve Division is
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going to be rolled out in Ithink July. It's June July, but
I think it's going to be moreJuly. And then as well. This
is where we all can roll upour collective sleeves and also look at things
like crime stoppers where we can anyanything right now, where we can forge
people together have that have that commoninterest of keeping an eye on each other's
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properties. And also at the federalgovernment, the bail reform issue, it's
one that gets talked about a lotthat has to happen. The catch and
release programs are this just isn't working, and so that we need to change
that, change that that narrative andreally end the catch and release from I
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mean, we we saw the goldheist that happened at the Pearson Airport,
massive, massive criminal undertaking, andpeople were literally being released within a day
after all of that police hard workthat went through and you know, same
thing with that, and then ofcourse there's the Port of Montreal with making
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sure that we have those the scanningequipment that's in place, and that to
me is just it's low hanging fruit. It's a no brainer, and it's
something that for everything that's going onright now, I'm sure that you could
find if the federal government wants todo part of it, I'm sure you'd
be able to co brand that witha whole bunch of insurance companies right now
that are losing millions and millions ofdollars a day because in our first three
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months in Mississauga, we had fourteenhundred vehicles stolen, and that is just
jaw dropping. Let's talk a littlebit about property taxes. So Mississauga has
increased property taxes over the last numbermany years. One of the other candidates
(33:06):
has been speaking publicly about you knowhow high that those property taxes are and
the increase and you know what italso means with the regional taxes. Another
candidate is talking about freezing taxes fortwo years. How would you go about
(33:28):
addressing that? What's the plan forfor that? Sure, Well, if
anybody tells you that they're going tocut your taxes, or they are going
to come in and freeze taxes andthen start rating the reserves. Buyer beware,
be very, very cautious. Brampton'stried that they're basically broke right now,
They've drained all of their reserves.But fiscal fiscal prudence and responsibility is
(33:54):
very much something that I practice ona daily basis. And I'm not a
career politician. So for me,I was in the finance industry before,
and I also turned around a companythat was on the verge of bankruptcy.
So I know what it is tomake payroll. I know what it is
to make sure that something can surviveand thrive. And when it comes to
(34:15):
the City of Mississauga, I don'thave to wait for an election to make
a campaign promise I'd do it.And so this year, for example,
we had a budget increase that camein at six point eight percent two point
two percent at the City of Mississauga, which I thought was on the high
end of what was acceptable, andthen four point six percent at the region
(34:37):
of what was supposed to be ourfinal budget year. Because they were going
to dissolve at the province, theywere going to dissolve the region. So
we were supposed to be winding thingsdown and then what happens instead is the
region puts out the highest budget increasein its history. And I had asked
for efficiencies to see what could notthat didn't need to go through. They
(35:00):
kept telling us that, you know, we have to put forward retention bonuses,
for example, to people that areworking at the region, because we're
losing people with the uncertainty of what'sgoing on. And then at the same
time they're saying, well, weneed to hire over two hundred new people
as well. We're going to fillthe holes that are occurring because of people
leaving. The retention bonuses are alreadyin place, which is already costing the
(35:24):
taxpayer. And then on top ofthat, we're going to hire over two
hundred people, and a lot ofthem I'm thinking, are we going to
even get through hiring them before dissolutionhits? And then once they get what
they call on board or they getbrought on, then what And then not
only that, but there was upgradesto software that were basically new programs that
(35:47):
we were putting money through reserves thatwe're going to cost out to build or
repair roads and things like that thatwere set for twenty seven twenty eight.
In twenty nine, well after dissolutionwas going to be finished January first to
twenty twenty five, and I said, you know what we're the efficiencies that
(36:08):
we can find here, and theysaid there can't be. I said,
really, I can't support this budget. And there's nobody else running for mayor
right now, not one that actuallyvoted against it. Everybody else said no
problem with the budget. And thatis to me, what leaders do is
(36:28):
they lead whether you're in an electionor not. Hazel mckellian always said that
the date of your next election isthe last day of your last election,
and so this is what you do. You practice what you preach. And
plus in twenty nineteen, when wewere going through this whole plan of dissolution
(36:50):
the first go around, you know, for me this was the second,
but the first one, there wasover five and a half million dollars that
we were going to be spending onnew office furniture and the same thing,
I said, well, if thisis going to be winding things down,
why in the world would we bespending five and a half million dollars of
taxpayer money I'm getting new office chairs. If this is what's going to happen,
(37:10):
people are going to still need tobe employed at the city to handle
all of the services that the regionis doing. Why don't we find out
what happens there first. Then let'sstart lining up what type of office furniture
and investments we should be making.So I cut that five and a half
million dollars out of the budget thisyear. I wasn't able to cut as
(37:32):
much. When I was able toget through that council agreed to. My
motion was to save us over fourhundred thousand dollars. But absolutely I want
to get value for our dollar andtarget those spendings that we have because doing
a division by division audit to makesure that we're getting the best deal and
making sure that what we're doing istotally transparent, that's got to be the
(37:58):
most important as well, because weever, I think, our best services
when the transparency is there. Andlet's talk a little bit about affordability.
It's been a really big issue fora lot of people. You talked a
little bit about housing, that ofcourse has a huge impact on affordability overall.
Tell us about how you would goabout addressing the affordability crisis and help
(38:24):
the average Mississauga resident. Well,there's a lot of strain and stress that
everybody has been under, I thinkjust from what prices have done, and
and just to see what our foodbanks are doing right now is it's staggerant.
(38:45):
It truly is. Thank God thatwe have the kind of people that
are just operating the food bank,that are volunteering in our food banks,
and also that are donating on aregular basis because the pain of what's happening
out there keeps increasing. Area spotslike the Compass Food Bank for example,
(39:06):
has yet to see a down month, and same thing I'll sp speak with
Megan Nichols at Food Banks Mississauga.Same thing I'll say, Megan, have
we seen a down month yet?Not even close. The numbers are still
going up and so it's coming back. It's addressing the you know, the
bread and butter affordability issues, andagain, can the city solve everything?
(39:29):
No, we can't, but canwe do some things to help out especially
our seniors. Our seniors quite oftenare on fixed incomes and so those price
increases it's a killer for everyone.We're saying, well, we want you
to be in your house longer,you know, stay in your home as
long as you can. Well,you know, this is where some of
the work that I do in thecommunity right now is is there's a Peel
(39:52):
program out there that pairs some ofour some of our seniors with students.
They get properly vetted, et cetera. The students will pay a reduced amount
of rent, but at the sametime they have I believe, seven hours
of service that they have to doin the household in a week, and
(40:13):
quite often that can be from cuttingthe lawn and doing the dishes, shoveling
a driveway, doing these types ofthings, and also being there for some
companionship. But that helps out withthe bills. That's certainly one. The
other is we have to go backand reduce what we're charging our seniors for
a lot of our seniors programs.We're trying to keep everybody active and healthy.
(40:35):
That's also why I pushed very hardto have our priority sidewalks cleared,
and that was because if we're talkingabout keeping people in their home, well,
what are we going to do literallykeep people inside the house. I
don't think so for somebody that wantsto go for a walk and stretch their
legs and catch their breath. Absolutely, these are a few, but also
(40:57):
having the other things out there thatto have everybody you know involved in some
sort of activity that they'd like toI think is paramount. This is some
of the things that the city cancontrol. For example, and part of
that too is I built a skatingtrail in the ward that I represent.
It's artificially cooled, it's two dand twenty meters round, and it's going
(41:22):
to be open every year from Novemberthrough March free for everybody to use.
Plus this coming season, we're goingto be bringing in skate rentals and part
of that, I and others willbe sponsoring free skate rental days so that
nobody has a barrier to be ableto go and enjoy themselves and for families
to be able to gather. Andalso what we're offering in our communities has
(41:45):
to be affordable solutions for people.And part of that, I've even put
in chess and checker tables along waterfrontarea and some of our community parks,
just to get some different things fordifferent people of all different walks of life.
Because I don't care who you are. Everybody deserves to be having a
(42:07):
great quality of life. Let's talka little bit about Stephen. Tell us
a little bit about Stephen. Whatshould people know about you? What you
see is what you get. I'msomebody that I absolutely love what I'm doing.
I love helping people. That's whatgets me out of bed in the
morning. And for me, ifI can help make a difference in somebody's
day in a problem that they're having, to build something that I think is
(42:31):
going to have value to it,listen to our communities that I believe need
to be shown proper respect. That'swhat I love doing. And I want
to build a city that, truly, as Hazel used to say, is
second to none, because I've gotthe passion. I know what we're capable
of, and that to me iswhat we're in for next. But somebody
(42:54):
that's got the city's best interests atheart, that wants to listen to the
city, that wants to build acity, and does not want to shortcut
our way through anything. We wantto get things done. We want to
get things done now, but wewant to get it done so that in
five, ten, fifty years outfrom now, we're going to say,
holy smokes, this was awesome,And this is the opportunity that we have.
(43:17):
Am I the person slowly to doit? No, But that's what
it takes leadership to help bring everybodytogether and get it done. And that's
where whether it's our arts that we'reworking on, it's culturally. We've got
the entire globe here in the Cityof Mississauga, and I think that we
truly are a model for what wecan do around the world. There's a
(43:39):
lot of pain out there right now, and can we solve all the world's
problems? No? But can welead by example? You're darn right we
can. And that's where I findthere's so much opportunity. And that's why,
you know, truly, I believeI'm the best choice for mayor because
this is how this is just,this is how I operate as a person,
(44:00):
and for me, it's it's apurpose driven life. Well, thank
you for that, Steven, Leadingfor tomorrow like that that used to be.
I think who Mississauga is mottoed onceupon a time, leading today for
tomorrow or something like that, andit's great that you you took some time
shared your vision for us. Wespoke about crime, ideas on what makes
(44:22):
the city, more affordable housing.A lot of good things in what you're
saying, a lot of bad thingstoo, And I'm joking, but it
really makes you think and it givesus a nice picture of who we're voting
for. So I want to thankyou for taking some time to chat with
us today. We're going to takea quick break and when we come back,
you know, can I well talkmore about what's happening in the selection.
(44:46):
So stay tuned right here on NewsTALKTAGA nine sixty am. Live at
SAGA nine sixty am dot CA.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
(45:08):
Gurcharn and Nokah Duck Rube and welcomeback to Beyond the Ballot. Noka.
(45:30):
What an interview. We spoke tocounselor Stephen Dasco, who is running from
here with Mississauga, and he toldus quite a bit about, you know,
what his thoughts are on transportation,on housing, on affordability, taxes
and who is this person? AndI want to know what is your takeaway
(45:52):
from that. I thought it wasit was great we got to know him
a little bit more. He gaveus, you know, his thoughts on
what's going on in the city andhow he'd go about tackling some of these
issues that we talked about. Hetalked a lot about his record. He
talked a lot about things he's donein the past. And it's interesting when
(46:15):
someone's already been elected and they've they'vedone, they've done a lot of work.
Well, here's the thing, though, Like Carolyn has been I think
elected long than he has. He'sa second term counselor. Yeah, and
she was counselor not just of Wardfive, but also Word six. I
think for a time before a runstar and before that, she you know,
(46:37):
worked and I don't recall her talkingabout her record as much as Steven
that Stephen was really like, thisis what I've done, This is you
know I've done before. These aresome programs that exist. Stop reinventing the
wheel. We just need to getpeople involved in these programs. You know.
He really talked about it as somebodywho has that experience, and I
(47:00):
think it showed. And I thinkit's a little surprising to me him being
only a second term counselor speaking likethis. So I found that interesting.
Is it second a third term?Third term? Now twenty eight? Oh,
second term? Second term? Right? Oh wow, that's okay.
I didn't know that more than twentyeighteen, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
(47:22):
four. No, you don't know, but it's it's I found that for
me was a big whoa. Thatkind of threw me because I wasn't expecting
that level of like him to say, you know, I voted for this,
and I was the only one whodid this, and really, and
I don't I'm gonna but I don'tknow, aside from Peter mccallian, if
(47:45):
anybody else is really using the Hazelname for this. So I saw him
mentioned Hazel a couple of times.So that was a little interesting as tactic
and tactics ago. Sure, Ithink we have one candidate left. We
do, we have one final candidate. We're very excited. Uh Dippica will
(48:06):
be joining us next week. It'sgoing to be really exciting. I'm so
happy that we were able to dothis, Ryan, aren't you happy that
we were able to do this?We actually were able to bring all the
candidates to sit down with us andhave a conversation. Well, I mean
all the candidates at least have finsup five right, Yeah, Like you
know, there are some other candidatesout there, like somebody I think he
(48:28):
wants to get rid of property taxesaltogether. Yeah, and no, I
meant like the top the top fivecandidates. We were able to bring them
all uh to to have conversations withus and and and really get to know
them a little bit more. AndI'm really excited about that. And then
we've got we've got the election nightcoverage that's coming up as well. I
(48:50):
guess we'll talk more about that.And we have one more show actually after
the final candidate interview to wrap itall up. That actually excited for that
one more that's gonna a wrap upwith a bunch of folks, political minded
folks. And really, if youmissed any of the interviews, you want
to listen to that show because we'llwrap everything up with a nice little bow
(49:15):
for you so you'll know what you'rewho you're voting for on June tenth.
If you have June tenth and advancedbulls are starting to ryan so well on
that show, we would have beenyeah, for sure, but but for
information, if you know who you'revoting for, go out and vote.
It's really important. Twenty fifth Junefirst and second, that's when it all,
(49:38):
it's all going down, it's allhappening. It's happening, it's happening.
We're gonna get a new mayor,all right, and with that we're
gonna call it a show. Let'scall it a show. Let's call it
a show. All right. Well, thank you for joining us, and
join us next time. Until then, stay safe and get involved. No
(50:05):
radio, no problem. Stream uslive on SAGA nine sixty am dot c a
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 Bryan Gurcharn andNoka duck Ru and welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to another week of Beyond theBallot where you get all the news you
need to make up your mind onwho you're voting for this election, for
(00:46):
the future of Mississona and joining me. That's right, Nikos is noka no
hi, Noka Hi. How areyou? Ryan? How is your week
watching and monitoring this election? Whatare you thinking? You know what it's
been. It's been a little quietthis week. I gotta say it's not
been the most busy week. Wehaven't seen too too much going on from
(01:12):
from our candidates. Haven't seen anynew attacks, haven't seen any new new
drama. Nothing, lots of signs, lots of signs on the street.
I think they're all busy actually doingthe work, the ground game. They're
putting up signs. They don't havetime to be fighting. No nor should
(01:38):
they be. They should be outthere door knocking talking to folks. They
should be putting up signs, gettingtheir volunteers together, fighting, you know,
finding money that it takes too,It takes a lot of money.
And I think one of our candidateswe've spoken to, Alvin, said they're
not going to be knocking on everydoor. There's no possible way they could
(01:59):
get to every door in Mississauga,but they have to try and get to
as many as possible. Yeah,and that's that's where you know, you've
got to have a good strategy.You've got to prioritize what do you where
do you prioritize Where do you thinkyou'll do best? Voter turnout will be
a huge part of part of that. Yeah. And I'm in Ward five,
(02:22):
so I'm always surprised when I seesigns that aren't Carolyn, because I
don't know if the candidates just takefor granted that Ward five is just going
to vote for Carolyn because they knowthe name already. But I have seen
a lot more Steven Dasco's signs,Alvin signs, Typicas signs. I don't
think I've seen any other male candidatesto be honest, I don't think I've
(02:45):
seen any other signs up for anyother just those, and it's interesting to
see. Oh and Litz, haveyou seen any lits this week? No,
not yet yet. Really, Igot lits from all of those folks,
and I'm yeah, mailouts or likepeople knocked on your door, mail
outs, mailouts. Yeah. SoI'm always like interested in seeing that they're
(03:08):
not taking that they're for granted,they're actually you know, going into Ward
five, which is well, thereality is, yeah, the reality is
with a by election in Ward five, you would assume that you're going to
have a higher voter turnout from Wardfive than the rest of the city because
you have so many candidates working toget people out to vote for them.
(03:30):
So if I were running from mayor, I would spend a little bit more
resources in Ward five. Although havingsomebody who was as strong as Carolyn locally
also it was a bit of adeterrence. That's what I thought would be
a term, but it's not.It's not. There's I think enough push
(03:52):
in that area in my area ofthose other folks that we're seeing, so
it's not like there don't have anyskin in the game. They're least making
a show of it. Uh.And what's interesting is that, I mean,
there are caroline signs on you know, houses, but also I think
I would say a lot of commercialproperty, a lot of plazas, a
(04:14):
lot of uh. And I thinkit's there legally, like she got permission
to put him and stuff. ButI'm not seeing a lot of the commercial
area has been taken by any ofthe other candidates. I'm seeing all the
ones I've seen so far, likefor Alvin Steve and Dipiccar have been on
homes. So let me they areconnecting with folks like yeah, absolutely.
(04:36):
Now I won't reveal my science strategywhat I like to do with my signs,
but I will say that the highvisibility areas is not a bad idea
for a meryoral race. So plazasare really helpful because those are very high
visibility areas, lots of traffic goingthrough through the city. Sure, not
(04:59):
ever, everyone who drives on drylives in Mississauga, but it's safe to
assume that most people who live inMississauga are going to have to drive on
the major streets to get somewhere forsure. And if we're talking in strategy,
one thing I think I've seen onTwitter was a pizza a pizza store
(05:20):
was giving a pizza shop was givingout pizzas with Carolyn's flyer on them.
So every pizza gets goes out,there's a flyer on it. So the
strategy to if you, if you, if, if you have somebody who
owns a pizza store who likes youthat much, Yes, it's a great
(05:41):
it's a great opportunity that doesn't happenvery often though. You know pizza,
So every time you want pepperoni,pizza Chi, you're thinking, Carolyn Brian,
you're making me want pizza. Now, well, we s some pizza.
Want we take a break, havesome pizza, And I think you
have no we have a candidate.I'm kind of excited for this, one
(06:02):
of the kids that we've heard thata lot of the transportation's happening in his
area right in the south of Mississauga, and like we're credit to the Hazel
mccallian LRT, So I'm curious tosee what his thoughts are. Stephen Dasco
will be joining us after this break. He'll be talking about his ideas and
(06:25):
why he's running for mayor of Mississauga. So stay tuned right here on New
Stoksaga nine sixty am and you'll hearmore of that stream us live at SAGA
(06:46):
nine to sixty am dot CA.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rube And welcomeback to Beyond the Ballot. I'm your
(07:13):
host Ryan Gertarn, my co hostNoka group. She stuck around hasn't left
me yet. And we have agreat candidate another candidate. I don't want
to say the greatest because I'm notallowed to, so I won't. I
may say the shortest. Can Isay that the shortest? Can't know?
I can't even say that. Ithink Alvin may have you beat there.
(07:35):
Okay, I'll pass it off toyou. So today we have Stephen Dasco,
who is a counselor for Ward one. He was elected in twenty eighteen
and he is now running for mayorand we're going to hear all about Steven.
We're going to hear from Stephen.We're going to learn more about all
the issues that Stephen wants to tackleat the city and how he's gonna know
(07:57):
how he's going to go about that. Welcome Stephen, thank you for going
Hi. Well, thank you forhaving me. And this is by the
way, this is a great show, as you know, both of you
and some of the view some ofthe listeners tuning in. I am and
always have been a massive supporter oflocal media because this is really where it
(08:20):
affects your day to day life,and it becomes more and more challenging as
we go to be able to tapin to find out what's going on.
And then we're going quite often tothere is like social media and hitting getting
little hits of one thing or another. But that's provided that your social media
you know, friendly. A lotof people aren't and so now it's a
(08:41):
bit of a different time that wego through. So thanks for doing what
you're doing. I think it's reallyimportant. Oh, thank you for having
for being on the show. Andthis is one of the few I think
outlets that Mississauga actually does have.And I know you've been on many times
a Norm and the other host ofnews Talk Saga nine sixty and it's great
(09:01):
to have you back on and tohear about why you were running. If
you don't mind, okay, canI the first question just run off the
back housing is really, we've askedall the candidates so far about their housing
plan. Tell us about yours.Well, this is this is this is
more than just hey, I've gotan idea, this is this has lived
(09:26):
experience. I have over forty percentof all the development applications and density that's
coming to the city right now.In the war that I happen to represent.
Quite often I say that I am, you know, the counselor for
an area. It's essentially a citywithin a city because we have residential we
have employment land, we have apark land, we have a tourist destination.
(09:50):
We've got a lot of different movingparts from from transit oriented projects going
on to quite frankly getting people aroundfrom a micro mobility point of view as
well. So we have a lotof things happening. So when it comes
to affordable housing is certainly one partof it. There's housing in different forms
(10:11):
and this is where I'm often,you know, talking about how we provide
housing because we have an official planin place, in local area plans in
place, and the biggest thing thatwe need to do is tackle the underlying
issue. And that's how the heckdo we work all together to get shovels
(10:31):
in the ground. We have eightythousand approved units right now and as of
right which means that you know,you don't have to make any zoning changes
or anything like that. And thewhole issue is how do we get those
building permits pulled? How do weget the shovels in the ground. And
you know, the thing that everybodyneeds to really show leadership on of all
(10:52):
levels of government is stop hitting theblame game button one, saying oh,
it's the city's doing this, it'sthe province doing that, it's the federal
government and doing that. You know, really we need to all sit down
figure this out because in some casesit's not economical for developers to actually pull
that permit and stick a shovel inthe ground. In other areas, you
(11:13):
know, some people just want toincrease the value of the land that they
have by increasing the density with nointention of building it, for example.
So a lot of different things.That's why I always talk about use it
or lose it when it comes toonce you get something improved, that you
should have a reasonable period of timeto go through the system and to be
(11:33):
able to go and get those buildpermits pulled, get your shovels in the
ground or else, why are yougoing through to try to get that done.
So that's certainly one part of whatI think we have to do.
The other is we should also belooking at how we can provide more affordable
you know, it's like truly affordableunits, and that's sometimes thinking outside of
(11:56):
the box. And right now theword that I rep at present, we're
actually building the most affordable housing outof the entire pil region. Right now,
there's three hundred units that we're building, which is not nearly enough.
It's essentially a drop in the ocean. We need over eight thousand units right
now, but there's three hundred unitsthat are being built, just built another
sixty eight at end well, andso i'll you know, i'll also maybe
(12:22):
finish off. I don't want togo on too long before you want to
ask another question. But I'll alsosay that what I truly believe we need
to do is is rethink how we'reproviding it. The federal government was the
one that used to provide affordable housing. They put it down to the province.
The province then puts it down tothe municipality, the one that has
the least amount of true deep pocketsand funding to deal with it is the
(12:48):
municipality and the developer. A lotof people think the developers have a bottomless
pot of money, and they don't, and so that's where everybody has to
work together on this. There wasand I think what we really should look
at is in the two thousand andeight meltdown financially, there was the concept
of having a fund for infrastructure thatyou could tap into, and we had
(13:11):
a bunch of things built here,from a bus rap and transit terminal along
that by Eastgate, for example,to libraries and things like that. Right
across the country, we had thingsbuilt. Right now, I think is
the time to go back to thattype of model and have a fund available
that if the developer in the citywould submit a joint application for affordable units
(13:37):
for inclusionary zoning for example, thatthey would be able to put that in
and you tap into basically a grantand then that money comes back and they'll
say, you know, we're certifyingthat. You know, you get X
amount of dollars to build your units, as opposed to having it redistributed to
all the other units that people arebuying, which are increasing their units.
(13:58):
Even more so, if we wereto do that, that truly allows the
developer to build those affordable units thatwe desperately need. It lets the developer
know that yes, they can takethat paper into the bank to get their
construction financing and say we've got Governmentof Canada certified money here to build x
amount of units and that is goingto help them get shovels in the ground.
(14:22):
So thinking a little bit differently,but also it's one as opposed to
knocking somebody. It's how we canwork together because I think we all want
to get to the same result,getting people with roofs over their heads.
And also I don't have any interestin warehousing anybody. I want to make
sure that everybody has the same opportunitiesin life and that everybody can have a
(14:45):
great quality of life. And that'sbuilding a great city and that's having housing
units of all types. So havinga fund like this, I think is
certainly one, and also having communitybonds, quite frankly, is something else
that we should be looking at.I know Hamilton starting to do some work
on that. Good friend of mine, Michelle Bielick, She's she's been talking
(15:05):
to me a lot about that andto me, these are things that we
really need to start looking at asopposed to going back around all the time
to blame somebody and not getting ahead. A lot of a lot of candidates
are talking about reducing red tape atthe city. There's a lot of red
(15:26):
tape at the city and that isa big part of the problem as to
why things are a little bit slower. We've also heard some of that coming
from the province. We also knowthat Missaga has not met it's housing targets,
which comes with a you know,large sums of money that could be
used for many different things. Tellus more about that, tell us more
(15:52):
about how you're absolutely you know,and I'll cut some of the misinformation that
goes around because some of this stuffis just politically charged, unfortunately. And
with a house and goal that theprovince is mandated of one hundred and fifty
thousand units by twenty fifty one,we've actually come in with eighty thousand so
far. The city, of course, does not build, None of the
(16:15):
municipalities build. We approve and it'sthen up to the developer to actually get
those permits pulled, get the shovelsin the ground, and right now we're
at a situation where there's interest rateshave been rising and it's been almost like
an Arctic chill that's gone across thedevelopment industry because the buyers aren't there.
And that's really what it comes downto. Are things more expensive? Oh,
(16:40):
my gosh, of course they are. But this is the other part
of the issue that I talk aboutthat we need to all jointly roll up
our sleeves and get together on becauseif you're going to cut out a parking
space, well, now sometimes you'vejust shifted a problem from one person to
the other person. That you can'tfind a spot underground. You need that
(17:03):
because you can't afford to go andtake you know, two hours to get
to where you need to get toon transit to get to work. You
need to drive. And now you'relooking to find shelter that's reasonably priced,
which is you know how how thatis for you know, the individual,
which is reasonable is not really reasonablethese days. And then you say,
(17:25):
okay, well I need that carto be able to get to work to
make all of my payments. Andthen they say, well you can't get
a parking space. Okay, Well, then you know what I'm going to
park down the street. Well,now you know the the the neighbors down
the street, you're parking in frontof their house. They're upset and this
is and it just kind of cascadesdown. So having a real decent solution
(17:48):
when we're planning is always the mostimportant thing. But I'll come back to,
you know, the red tape partof it. So what we really
do need is we really need toreopen city Hall to the public. And
it's it's everyone's city Hall. It'sthe people's hall, or you know,
quite frankly. And what we needto do is reopen things like the window
(18:10):
where you go in to get yourbuilding permits done. If you have issues
where you can't find out, Okay, well you know what, I've got
my drawings. I want to talkto somebody about putting that addition in.
Who do I talk to, youknow, to set things up remotely,
et cetera. I mean it wasit got us through COVID, But we're
past that. We're at a pointright now where we need to be customer
(18:33):
friendly. That's number one in myoffice as a counselor, is it's the
customer service experience. Nobody is comingin or calling you because they've just won
the lottery or they had the bestday of your life. They're coming in
because they have questions, they haveissues they need answers to and that's what
we're here for. So from thecity's point of view, that's what we
can certainly do. But I wantto make sure that we're not just doing
(18:57):
it in isolation or a lot ofpeople talk about it, Oh, we're
in a silo of doing things.You know, that's where you want to
turn that upside down, shake itand say, okay, well, how
do we make all this stuff work? Because at the end of it,
the goal is the same that weall have, and it's we want to
get the job done. And that'sreally what it comes down to me is
(19:18):
how we get that job done.And part of that it's you know,
it gets to be pretty complex,and we can certainly talk about things that
I think we should be placing inplace to make sure that we can shake
out some more affordable housing options ofall different types. And renting has to
be very much there because for thelongest time, people were not building rentals
(19:41):
because there was no incentive to doit. There was nothing there for you
for people to do it. Theincentive was on the other side, it
was it was the purchaser of acondo unit was purchasing the unit to then
flip it to rent it. Becauseinterest rates were so low, people were
using that as their investment viahicle.And then once you see rates start to
(20:03):
go up, you start to seethe eel effects of bad planning. And
this is where I keep coming backto planning, planning, planning, because
they were not meant to be purposebuilt rentals. They were meant to be
condominiums, and so we need toget those purpose built rentals built, and
part of that is looking at differentoptions and thinking differently. I've asked for
(20:26):
an audit on Airbnbs because seventy percentof our airbnbs and the city of Mississauga
are not registered. They're illegal,and quite often you're finding rooms that are
being chopped up in a house andrented out one by one by one.
Some of them just have hot platesin them and things like that, as
(20:47):
that would be the kitchen, forexample. Deplorable living conditions and plus the
infrastructure of the area cannot handle itgarbage recycling. These are meant to be.
For the zoning permits you're parking issame thing. All of these were
meant to be done in a certainway. Same with schools and parkland and
(21:08):
your libraries, et cetera. Sothis is where I always look at,
how can we do that, becauseif we can get rid of the people
that are coming in to spend thatnight or that two nights and then off
they go somewhere else to have itfor some more longer term rental accommodation,
it's every bit that we can doin a measured way needs to be looked
(21:30):
at. Yeah, for sure,And let's talk a little bit about transportation,
and you know it's one of thebiggest issues that's facing Mississauga. We've
we've got a growing population. Wedon't have enough transportation. It's extremely,
extremely inconvenient. Tell us about howyou're going to go about addressing that if
(21:52):
you become there one hundred percent,And this is something if you want to
become a world class city, whichI am held in and very passionate to
know that we are going to getthere. We're good, we need to
be great. We need to beworld class, and world class cities go
with world class transit, and ourfirst one I'm not going to go with
anything that's pie in the sky tosell somebody something that I think is just
(22:15):
for a vote. What I goback to it's what we are offered twice
as a city. We need togo back to it. We need to
think and be bold about it becauseI believe the interest would be there at
the province as well. And thatis We've got a bus rapid transit line.
We've got two of them right now, but i'll speak of the first
(22:36):
one is down on Lake Shore.There was a ministerial zoning order which doubled
the density down in the Lakeview areaand it's going to be challenging to get
people through that area. It's anarea that's between a lake and a railway
track and how you move fifty thousandpeople back and forth is going to be
very interesting. But it's one thatwe have to tackle. Now. What
(23:00):
I've said, and this is alittle bit different yet again, is we
have to I believe there's a twokilometer three stop bus rapid transit that's slated
for there that was based on eightthousand units. We're into sixteen thousand units,
which is about fifty thousand people.And right now what we have to
look at is I believe working withthe TTC and also with the province to
(23:25):
extend the streetcar where it terminates justat the Toronto border on Lakeshore and bring
that right across along Lakeshore. Itgoes down through East Avenue and loops through
the New Lakeview and comes right backup to Lakeshore again to turn around.
Not to me is a world classpeople mover's we can co brand that.
(23:48):
The other, and this is thebig one, is we have a bus
rapid transit line which we're doing workon and it's been funded for Dundas,
the Dundas Street Corridor. The applicationswe're seeing are a lot significantly above what
they're what they're allowed to be,and I think that's okay provided that we
have the world class transit. That'swhy this is our opportunity to make and
(24:11):
build the subway. And this isthat would go from the Kipling station,
go along Doune Das and then andright at here Ontario where it connects with
the light wrap Hazel mckellian light rapidtransit line that truly makes that whole connection
work. To think that people arenot going to be coming from Toronto into
(24:32):
Mississauga and Mississauga to Toronto is we'rejust not being realistic. It happens,
and then that's where we get peoplemoving northeast southwest, and then the west
part is we continue building that.You know, from there, we're going
from here Ontario out to UTM that'sUniversity of Toronto Missaga campus and that would
(24:55):
be done via the bus rapid transitbecause the density numbers wouldn't work for that,
nor should they, but the busrap and transit would certainly be a
great people mover and that's how weget people around. And of course the
electrification of the Go train lines andtwo way all day that we that we've
needed for a long time as well. Perfect thank you for your thoughts on
(25:18):
that. Stephen. I'm just gonnacut you off right now if you're talking
way too much, take a break, have some water, and listen to
some commercials, pay some bills,and when we come back, we're going
to talk more with Stephen dasco mayorcandidate for It's in Misstaga about crime and
what his thoughts are on what's happeningwith our city. So stay tuned right
here on New Stocksaga nine sixty amno Radio No Problem. Stream is live
(25:49):
on SAGA nine sixty am dot cA. You're listening to Beyond the Ballot
with Ryan Gurcharn and Noka Duck Rubeand welcome back to Beyond the Ballad.
(26:19):
I'm here with Noah, my cohosts are beyond about where we're interviewing all
the meural candidates. And if you'rejust joining us, you've missed Stephen Dasco's
exclusive platform reveal. He hasn't.He's not gonna miss it. That's it.
He's not going to tell anybody else. You just have to re listen
to the show. Uh So,we were talking about housing, and we
(26:41):
spoke about transportation and how he planson getting Mississauga moving into a right way.
And now I'm just talking about moving. Let's talk about moving crime outside
of Mississauga or just getting rid ofit altogether. There's been a lot of
h auto thefts recently in here andamong other crimes too, like housebreaking,
(27:07):
breaking, enters, and vandalism.And I'm wondering, what are your thoughts,
how are you planning on tackling this. It may be a regional issue,
but you do have a seat atthe table as a regional voice as
well as mir So what are yourthoughts on that, Steve crime is a
massive issue. It is one thatI know. When I first came on
(27:29):
council in twenty eighteen, one ofthe things I started to do was work
with Safe City, and that wasto go and when I heard about the
reboot, essentially to revive the neighborhoodwatch programs, I loved it because I
thought it was very, very powerfulback in the eighties when it was really
(27:55):
in its heyday and then you know, it just faded out. I thought,
well, this is a great it'sa great community builder. But on
top of that, it makes surethat everybody has those eyes, the collective
eyes on the street, and there'sgood dialogue going on with everybody. Well
now they become very important. SoI let a lot of that in my
(28:17):
first term and so I do alot of work with Safe City. Right
now, I think that's certainly onepart. But I'll just mention having anybody
having to look outside of their frontwindow before they go to bed to see
if the car is still there.I mean, it's an outrage quite frankly.
And then in the morning you wakeup and then you go to look
(28:38):
out and you're kind of you're holdingyour breath to see that it's still there
before you can go and sometimes haveto take that to go to work or
drop your kids off to school.I mean, this is an outrage or
the fact that somebody might knock yourfront door down to go and rob you
is something that this shouldn't be.It's you know, it's absolutely unacceptable.
(29:03):
So you're right. I do interactwith Peel Regional Police quite a bit,
and as a matter of fact,as a ward counselor, I've accomplished what
I think has has had to havehappened and something that hasn't been done since
the eighties. I've got funding inplace right now to purchase land for a
new police division. We have elevenDivision and twelve Division in the City of
(29:26):
Mississauga. We've doubled in size sincethat was the case when we built last
I mean not renovating a station.I mean a full on new station because
we need it and to be ableto invest into law enforcement the way that
we do. But we also needa new courthouse because the courthouse is bursting
at the seams, and that's havinga mayor. It's also going to work
(29:48):
with our provincial and federal counterparts.And that's because we all want the same
thing. Everybody's talking about safety,and this is the opportunity to get rid
of partisan affiliations or any of thename blaming or any of this kind of
stuff. You move past it.We need to deliver for the citizens of
Mississauga. And if anybody thinks differently, then they need to go and check
(30:08):
out and do something else, becauseit's this is the time now that we
have to go and get it done. And the other part that I've worked
on with law with our law enforcementis there something called a Community Intervention Response
Team SEARCH for lack of a betterword. What it comes down to is
basically seeing more police in your communities. That the community policing model where you
(30:30):
get to see the police. They'vestarted rolling that out first in Brampton,
downtown Brampton because there was some TLCthat was needed down there and still is
needed. And then you look atas well, what we've got in a
lot of certain pockets of Mississauga needingthat TLC and that reassurance that when you
(30:53):
need a police officer that they aregoing to be there for you and when
you call them, they need tobe there and we need to back them
up. But at the same time, you know, we're all in this
together, so we all have toyou know, work on this. That's
the first part coming in with thenew station coming in with these response teams.
Eleven Division is getting it, hasjust gotten it. Twelve Division is
(31:14):
going to be rolled out in Ithink July. It's June July, but
I think it's going to be moreJuly. And then as well. This
is where we all can roll upour collective sleeves and also look at things
like crime stoppers where we can anyanything right now, where we can forge
people together have that have that commoninterest of keeping an eye on each other's
(31:37):
properties. And also at the federalgovernment, the bail reform issue, it's
one that gets talked about a lotthat has to happen. The catch and
release programs are this just isn't working, and so that we need to change
that, change that that narrative andreally end the catch and release from I
(31:59):
mean, we we saw the goldheist that happened at the Pearson Airport,
massive, massive criminal undertaking, andpeople were literally being released within a day
after all of that police hard workthat went through and you know, same
thing with that, and then ofcourse there's the Port of Montreal with making
(32:19):
sure that we have those the scanningequipment that's in place, and that to
me is just it's low hanging fruit. It's a no brainer, and it's
something that for everything that's going onright now, I'm sure that you could
find if the federal government wants todo part of it, I'm sure you'd
be able to co brand that witha whole bunch of insurance companies right now
that are losing millions and millions ofdollars a day because in our first three
(32:44):
months in Mississauga, we had fourteenhundred vehicles stolen, and that is just
jaw dropping. Let's talk a littlebit about property taxes. So Mississauga has
increased property taxes over the last numbermany years. One of the other candidates
(33:06):
has been speaking publicly about you knowhow high that those property taxes are and
the increase and you know what italso means with the regional taxes. Another
candidate is talking about freezing taxes fortwo years. How would you go about
(33:28):
addressing that? What's the plan forfor that? Sure, Well, if
anybody tells you that they're going tocut your taxes, or they are going
to come in and freeze taxes andthen start rating the reserves. Buyer beware,
be very, very cautious. Brampton'stried that they're basically broke right now,
They've drained all of their reserves.But fiscal fiscal prudence and responsibility is
(33:54):
very much something that I practice ona daily basis. And I'm not a
career politician. So for me,I was in the finance industry before,
and I also turned around a companythat was on the verge of bankruptcy.
So I know what it is tomake payroll. I know what it is
to make sure that something can surviveand thrive. And when it comes to
(34:15):
the City of Mississauga, I don'thave to wait for an election to make
a campaign promise I'd do it.And so this year, for example,
we had a budget increase that camein at six point eight percent two point
two percent at the City of Mississauga, which I thought was on the high
end of what was acceptable, andthen four point six percent at the region
(34:37):
of what was supposed to be ourfinal budget year. Because they were going
to dissolve at the province, theywere going to dissolve the region. So
we were supposed to be winding thingsdown and then what happens instead is the
region puts out the highest budget increasein its history. And I had asked
for efficiencies to see what could notthat didn't need to go through. They
(35:00):
kept telling us that, you know, we have to put forward retention bonuses,
for example, to people that areworking at the region, because we're
losing people with the uncertainty of what'sgoing on. And then at the same
time they're saying, well, weneed to hire over two hundred new people
as well. We're going to fillthe holes that are occurring because of people
leaving. The retention bonuses are alreadyin place, which is already costing the
(35:24):
taxpayer. And then on top ofthat, we're going to hire over two
hundred people, and a lot ofthem I'm thinking, are we going to
even get through hiring them before dissolutionhits? And then once they get what
they call on board or they getbrought on, then what And then not
only that, but there was upgradesto software that were basically new programs that
(35:47):
we were putting money through reserves thatwe're going to cost out to build or
repair roads and things like that thatwere set for twenty seven twenty eight.
In twenty nine, well after dissolutionwas going to be finished January first to
twenty twenty five, and I said, you know what we're the efficiencies that
(36:08):
we can find here, and theysaid there can't be. I said,
really, I can't support this budget. And there's nobody else running for mayor
right now, not one that actuallyvoted against it. Everybody else said no
problem with the budget. And thatis to me, what leaders do is
(36:28):
they lead whether you're in an electionor not. Hazel mckellian always said that
the date of your next election isthe last day of your last election,
and so this is what you do. You practice what you preach. And
plus in twenty nineteen, when wewere going through this whole plan of dissolution
(36:50):
the first go around, you know, for me this was the second,
but the first one, there wasover five and a half million dollars that
we were going to be spending onnew office furniture and the same thing,
I said, well, if thisis going to be winding things down,
why in the world would we bespending five and a half million dollars of
taxpayer money I'm getting new office chairs. If this is what's going to happen,
(37:10):
people are going to still need tobe employed at the city to handle
all of the services that the regionis doing. Why don't we find out
what happens there first. Then let'sstart lining up what type of office furniture
and investments we should be making.So I cut that five and a half
million dollars out of the budget thisyear. I wasn't able to cut as
(37:32):
much. When I was able toget through that council agreed to. My
motion was to save us over fourhundred thousand dollars. But absolutely I want
to get value for our dollar andtarget those spendings that we have because doing
a division by division audit to makesure that we're getting the best deal and
making sure that what we're doing istotally transparent, that's got to be the
(37:58):
most important as well, because weever, I think, our best services
when the transparency is there. Andlet's talk a little bit about affordability.
It's been a really big issue fora lot of people. You talked a
little bit about housing, that ofcourse has a huge impact on affordability overall.
Tell us about how you would goabout addressing the affordability crisis and help
(38:24):
the average Mississauga resident. Well,there's a lot of strain and stress that
everybody has been under, I thinkjust from what prices have done, and
and just to see what our foodbanks are doing right now is it's staggerant.
(38:45):
It truly is. Thank God thatwe have the kind of people that
are just operating the food bank,that are volunteering in our food banks,
and also that are donating on aregular basis because the pain of what's happening
out there keeps increasing. Area spotslike the Compass Food Bank for example,
(39:06):
has yet to see a down month, and same thing I'll sp speak with
Megan Nichols at Food Banks Mississauga.Same thing I'll say, Megan, have
we seen a down month yet?Not even close. The numbers are still
going up and so it's coming back. It's addressing the you know, the
bread and butter affordability issues, andagain, can the city solve everything?
(39:29):
No, we can't, but canwe do some things to help out especially
our seniors. Our seniors quite oftenare on fixed incomes and so those price
increases it's a killer for everyone.We're saying, well, we want you
to be in your house longer,you know, stay in your home as
long as you can. Well,you know, this is where some of
the work that I do in thecommunity right now is is there's a Peel
(39:52):
program out there that pairs some ofour some of our seniors with students.
They get properly vetted, et cetera. The students will pay a reduced amount
of rent, but at the sametime they have I believe, seven hours
of service that they have to doin the household in a week, and
(40:13):
quite often that can be from cuttingthe lawn and doing the dishes, shoveling
a driveway, doing these types ofthings, and also being there for some
companionship. But that helps out withthe bills. That's certainly one. The
other is we have to go backand reduce what we're charging our seniors for
a lot of our seniors programs.We're trying to keep everybody active and healthy.
(40:35):
That's also why I pushed very hardto have our priority sidewalks cleared,
and that was because if we're talkingabout keeping people in their home, well,
what are we going to do literallykeep people inside the house. I
don't think so for somebody that wantsto go for a walk and stretch their
legs and catch their breath. Absolutely, these are a few, but also
(40:57):
having the other things out there thatto have everybody you know involved in some
sort of activity that they'd like toI think is paramount. This is some
of the things that the city cancontrol. For example, and part of
that too is I built a skatingtrail in the ward that I represent.
It's artificially cooled, it's two dand twenty meters round, and it's going
(41:22):
to be open every year from Novemberthrough March free for everybody to use.
Plus this coming season, we're goingto be bringing in skate rentals and part
of that, I and others willbe sponsoring free skate rental days so that
nobody has a barrier to be ableto go and enjoy themselves and for families
to be able to gather. Andalso what we're offering in our communities has
(41:45):
to be affordable solutions for people.And part of that, I've even put
in chess and checker tables along waterfrontarea and some of our community parks,
just to get some different things fordifferent people of all different walks of life.
Because I don't care who you are. Everybody deserves to be having a
(42:07):
great quality of life. Let's talka little bit about Stephen. Tell us
a little bit about Stephen. Whatshould people know about you? What you
see is what you get. I'msomebody that I absolutely love what I'm doing.
I love helping people. That's whatgets me out of bed in the
morning. And for me, ifI can help make a difference in somebody's
day in a problem that they're having, to build something that I think is
(42:31):
going to have value to it,listen to our communities that I believe need
to be shown proper respect. That'swhat I love doing. And I want
to build a city that, truly, as Hazel used to say, is
second to none, because I've gotthe passion. I know what we're capable
of, and that to me iswhat we're in for next. But somebody
(42:54):
that's got the city's best interests atheart, that wants to listen to the
city, that wants to build acity, and does not want to shortcut
our way through anything. We wantto get things done. We want to
get things done now, but wewant to get it done so that in
five, ten, fifty years outfrom now, we're going to say,
holy smokes, this was awesome,And this is the opportunity that we have.
(43:17):
Am I the person slowly to doit? No, But that's what
it takes leadership to help bring everybodytogether and get it done. And that's
where whether it's our arts that we'reworking on, it's culturally. We've got
the entire globe here in the Cityof Mississauga, and I think that we
truly are a model for what wecan do around the world. There's a
(43:39):
lot of pain out there right now, and can we solve all the world's
problems? No? But can welead by example? You're darn right we
can. And that's where I findthere's so much opportunity. And that's why,
you know, truly, I believeI'm the best choice for mayor because
this is how this is just,this is how I operate as a person,
(44:00):
and for me, it's it's apurpose driven life. Well, thank
you for that, Steven, Leadingfor tomorrow like that that used to be.
I think who Mississauga is mottoed onceupon a time, leading today for
tomorrow or something like that, andit's great that you you took some time
shared your vision for us. Wespoke about crime, ideas on what makes
(44:22):
the city, more affordable housing.A lot of good things in what you're
saying, a lot of bad thingstoo, And I'm joking, but it
really makes you think and it givesus a nice picture of who we're voting
for. So I want to thankyou for taking some time to chat with
us today. We're going to takea quick break and when we come back,
you know, can I well talkmore about what's happening in the selection.
(44:46):
So stay tuned right here on NewsTALKTAGA nine sixty am. Live at
SAGA nine sixty am dot CA.You're listening to Beyond the Ballot with Ryan
(45:08):
Gurcharn and Nokah Duck Rube and welcomeback to Beyond the Ballot. Noka.
(45:30):
What an interview. We spoke tocounselor Stephen Dasco, who is running from
here with Mississauga, and he toldus quite a bit about, you know,
what his thoughts are on transportation,on housing, on affordability, taxes
and who is this person? AndI want to know what is your takeaway
(45:52):
from that. I thought it wasit was great we got to know him
a little bit more. He gaveus, you know, his thoughts on
what's going on in the city andhow he'd go about tackling some of these
issues that we talked about. Hetalked a lot about his record. He
talked a lot about things he's donein the past. And it's interesting when
(46:15):
someone's already been elected and they've they'vedone, they've done a lot of work.
Well, here's the thing, though, Like Carolyn has been I think
elected long than he has. He'sa second term counselor. Yeah, and
she was counselor not just of Wardfive, but also Word six. I
think for a time before a runstar and before that, she you know,
(46:37):
worked and I don't recall her talkingabout her record as much as Steven
that Stephen was really like, thisis what I've done, This is you
know I've done before. These aresome programs that exist. Stop reinventing the
wheel. We just need to getpeople involved in these programs. You know.
He really talked about it as somebodywho has that experience, and I
(47:00):
think it showed. And I thinkit's a little surprising to me him being
only a second term counselor speaking likethis. So I found that interesting.
Is it second a third term?Third term? Now twenty eight? Oh,
second term? Second term? Right? Oh wow, that's okay.
I didn't know that more than twentyeighteen, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
(47:22):
four. No, you don't know, but it's it's I found that for
me was a big whoa. Thatkind of threw me because I wasn't expecting
that level of like him to say, you know, I voted for this,
and I was the only one whodid this, and really, and
I don't I'm gonna but I don'tknow, aside from Peter mccallian, if
(47:45):
anybody else is really using the Hazelname for this. So I saw him
mentioned Hazel a couple of times.So that was a little interesting as tactic
and tactics ago. Sure, Ithink we have one candidate left. We
do, we have one final candidate. We're very excited. Uh Dippica will
(48:06):
be joining us next week. It'sgoing to be really exciting. I'm so
happy that we were able to dothis, Ryan, aren't you happy that
we were able to do this?We actually were able to bring all the
candidates to sit down with us andhave a conversation. Well, I mean
all the candidates at least have finsup five right, Yeah, Like you
know, there are some other candidatesout there, like somebody I think he
(48:28):
wants to get rid of property taxesaltogether. Yeah, and no, I
meant like the top the top fivecandidates. We were able to bring them
all uh to to have conversations withus and and and really get to know
them a little bit more. AndI'm really excited about that. And then
we've got we've got the election nightcoverage that's coming up as well. I
(48:50):
guess we'll talk more about that.And we have one more show actually after
the final candidate interview to wrap itall up. That actually excited for that
one more that's gonna a wrap upwith a bunch of folks, political minded
folks. And really, if youmissed any of the interviews, you want
to listen to that show because we'llwrap everything up with a nice little bow
(49:15):
for you so you'll know what you'rewho you're voting for on June tenth.
If you have June tenth and advancedbulls are starting to ryan so well on
that show, we would have beenyeah, for sure, but but for
information, if you know who you'revoting for, go out and vote.
It's really important. Twenty fifth Junefirst and second, that's when it all,
(49:38):
it's all going down, it's allhappening. It's happening, it's happening.
We're gonna get a new mayor,all right, and with that we're
gonna call it a show. Let'scall it a show. Let's call it
a show. All right. Well, thank you for joining us, and
join us next time. Until then, stay safe and get involved. No
(50:05):
radio, no problem. Stream uslive on SAGA nine sixty am dot c a
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