Tonight on The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian is joined by three Mississauga residents demanding real transparency in our city’s budget: community advocate, George Tavares, local business owner, Kim Pines, and resident leader for financial accountability, Athina Tagidou.
Together, they break down the big questions City Hall isn’t answering. These include why
taxes are rising faster than inflation every year, how “blended rates” hide the true tax increase, why Mississauga pays 62% of Peel Police costs but gets less than half the say, and why claims of “no room to cut” don’t match the data. Other questions they discuss include why public engagement is collapsing, how quality of life is slipping while the budget keeps growing, and the looming MPAC reassessment that could mean thousands more in taxes. This episode emphasizes that residents deserve honest budgeting, clearer communication, real oversight, and leadership that treats public dollars with the same discipline families bring to their own budgets.
Together, they break down the big questions City Hall isn’t answering. These include why
taxes are rising faster than inflation every year, how “blended rates” hide the true tax increase, why Mississauga pays 62% of Peel Police costs but gets less than half the say, and why claims of “no room to cut” don’t match the data. Other questions they discuss include why public engagement is collapsing, how quality of life is slipping while the budget keeps growing, and the looming MPAC reassessment that could mean thousands more in taxes. This episode emphasizes that residents deserve honest budgeting, clearer communication, real oversight, and leadership that treats public dollars with the same discipline families bring to their own budgets.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
SAGA nine to sixty AM or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Brian Crombie Radio Hour.
I've got some Mississauga concerned citizens with us tonight because
they've reached out worried about the Mississauga budget. And this
is something I think we really need to pay attention to.
And I think one of the big problems we've got
in Mississauga is because we don't have a newspaper anymore,
we don't have a lot of media that are focusing
(00:39):
on Mississauga. The Mississauga Council gets away with tax increases
that would be attacked and addressed and analyzed far more
closely if we were in Toronto. If you take a
look at the Mississauga tax increases, they've been multiples of
inflation for more than a decade right now. And I
do think that we've got a huge issue here. And
(01:00):
you know, you think about Toronto. Last year they put
in a eight nine percent tax increase and there was
a huge uproar about that. Mississauga puts in an eight
to nine percent tax increase for a decade in repeat,
and then there's not enough noise, there's not enough complaints,
and there's not enough analysis, and then they try to
(01:22):
obfuscate the reality by talking about the tax increase relative
to peeled, relative to the police, et cetera, and try
to represent it as as far less than it truly is.
And so I want to welcome to today three Mississauga citizens,
concerned citizens that are part of a larger group. The
first is is George Savers, who's a long term Mississauga resident.
(01:44):
He ran twice for by election and for a general
election for mayor. He's been very active politically. We've also
got Kim Pines, she's a local business owner and a
community advocate. And Athena Tajido who is a resident voice
for financial trans purrency, and they've reached out along with
other people really concerned about where tax increases are going.
(02:07):
George deaveris, tell me what's your group all about and
what are you trying to achieve?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, thanks for having us, Brian, and great introduction. One
of the issues that we think happens is we think
Mississauga taxpayers aren't concerned, aren't confused about the budget. I
think that they understand it, but I think they're frustrated
because they understand it too well. So we see higher
tax we see higher taxes, we see stalled projects, we
(02:32):
see recycled promises, and the city keeps calling these hikes responsible.
But the real problem is the lack of revenue. We
think it's a lack of discipline, transparency, and we don't
see any measurable value. So you know as well as
I that the groups of people in Mississauga have left.
There was forty thousand less residents of Mississauga that just
(02:53):
chose to abandon Mississauga go elsewhere, And we actually had
a discussion. We don't think that the reason they were
doing it was because it was too expensive. We think
that they didn't see a value for their dollar. So
if you go to a restaurant and you eat at
that restaurant and it turns out the quality starts to
lower and lower, you stop eating at that restaurant.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And eventually you just stop going entirely.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I think that's what's happening with the city of Mississauga,
that people started realizing that crime is increasing. We noticed
that the infrastructure was failing, We noticed the transit wasn't
getting any better, Traffic was getting terrible. I can go
down the list if you want, but the reality of
it is they didn't see their return on their investment
and their shareholders, and in order for them to get
their return on investment, they want things.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
They don't want money.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
They want things like a safe place to eat, sleep, drink,
and an easy way to get to and from.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
We're not getting that. So we have a.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Suspicion, a very good suspicion, that the people of Mississauga
hit it all well and eventually they're going to say
enough is enough. So I'll leave it now for Kim
or for Athena if they want to say anything.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Kim, what's your concern? Why are you involved?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
My concern is the property. I feel the pain my wallet,
and I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
I own my own business. I can't increase my prices
like this on the fly. I can't.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
I can't go to my clients every time and say, hey,
I'm increasing my prices ten percent this year and ten
percent next year. You can do maybe small increases. I
actually have not been able to raise my prices in
a couple of years, and certainly my salary is not
going up as fast, and I'm sure a lot of
people are in the same boat. Their salaries in the
(04:28):
private sector are not jumping every year. Some people in
the public sector in Ontario had a three year wage freeze,
salary freeze. So why is the city not doing City Mississauga,
I'm not doing the same thing. Should they not be
tightening their belt and learning to work with what they have,
work within their means like the rest of us have
(04:50):
to do. That's kind of my concern, and not going
with a nine percent increase. I think even this year
for twenty twenty six, we're looking probably around that, correct.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think, why are you involved? You're immute Asina, Why
are you involved?
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Correct? Yes, through the Apple with us and has Residents
Association of which I am one of the lead members of.
You know, we communicate to our local residents about issues,
various issues, and this is a key issue that many
residents have emailed us about, telling us they're very concerned.
Especially with last year's nine point two record increase that
(05:27):
we had, property owners had to experience very very discouraging,
very disappointing. Now we hope that this will be far
less this year, and that is one of the reasons
why we're advocating for this, But this is the reason
why I'm involved, because we need to advocate for our
community and we need to take action. We've communicated to
(05:47):
the city our concerns and we've gotten feedback from our
community that we've shared with city council because we need
to communicate and the city has to understand that there
are real issues and not just expressed by us, but
by the groups as well on this particular property tax
concern moving forward, not just for twenty twenty six, but
for years coming after that as well. So this is
(06:10):
why I am a part of all of this because
of the issues that through the association of course, and
also me I have two properties in Mississauga and really
this increase is not there to us, and we need
more transparency on what is happening.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, I agree that you need more transparency, and I
want to challenge you, George, with one of your comments
you said that you think people are well aware. I
really question if people are well aware. I think that
there's not enough media attention paid to you know, what's
going on in Mississauga from a tax as standpoint, whether
it's from a revenue standpoint, or from an expanse standpoint,
because there's just not the media attention from the Toronto Star,
(06:49):
of the Global Mail, of the Sun, the National Post,
et cetera to things going on not just in Mississauga,
but frankly for any city or town around the nine
oh five around Toronto, because all the attention is on Toronto.
And I think that if, as Kim has said, if
any business had increased their pricing by twice or three
(07:09):
times inflation repeatedly for a decade, it would be out
of business. And you you couldn't do that. If any
company had increased as expenses by that and wasn't able
to match those price increases, they be out of business.
But we just in Mississauga seem to think that we
can increase our expenses by that amount because we can
(07:30):
pass it all over to the local residents and they're
not going to complain, and they haven't complained. Turnout in
elections is very low. There haven't been a lot of attention.
You know. I think that a couple of different Great
Pairs organizations and Marinet come to some of the budget
meetings and complain. But what the counselors do too often
is number one they office gate and one of the
(07:52):
things they've done is they've said, you know, we have
an eight percent to price tax increase, but it's four
percent or three percent on miss the SAGA and five
percent on a region appeal. Because what they're doing is
they're they're dividing the Mississauga tax increase by the Mississauga
and the Peel tax increase. Uh and they're dividing the
(08:13):
Peel tax increase by the Mississauga and the Peel tax
increase and adding them together to get the eight or
nine percent overall, rather than saying both are eight or
nine percent and it's averaging eight or nine percent. So
they're trying to they're trying to fool us, and even
when it's pointed out, they continue with that that that
attempt at trying to obfuscate, to fool to to not
(08:34):
have transparency on what the tax increases are. But then
frankly more importantly, they just say, we got we can't
do anything, but it it's the kind of of service
demands that people are making, and they don't go through
the budget in detail and find out where they could cut.
It seems like it's a runaway train and there's nothing
(08:55):
we can do about it. And yet the people don't
get up in arms, they don't get mad, they don't complain,
and so I really congratulate you for the role that
you're playing, but I disagree with you, George, that people
are aware of it. I don't think they are.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
So i'll just mention two quick points.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I know there's a third one in there that I
wanted to make, but the two points that you made.
The comment that you were making is a blended rate.
The blended rate is the region appeal, then the City
of Mississauga, and then the education and education is always
said that zero, they don't increase the education rate.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
So we actually divided by three, which is a joke.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So if it was if it was nine percent, nine percent,
you take the eighteen divided by three, and then they
say that that's what they say, that's the blended rate.
So it's actually hidden. One more one more time. There
was another one that you said, Oh here's something that
we thought was a bit strange. So you said that
people aren't informed. A lot of people are. So you
and I both campaigned more than a year and a
(09:52):
bit ago. Most of the people that I knocked on
their doors when they asked or when they said they
are having a problem, really struggling with trying to keep
to live in their home homes. So they get the
fact that the prices have to go up for everything,
but they don't understand why they can't cut fat. So
they get an idea, but they really have no idea
who to reach out to because there's an issue with transparency.
(10:13):
There's a real issue with communication, and frankly, most people
are having such a hard time working day to day
that they cannot, they absolutely cannot spend the time that
I have the luxury of to go through the budget
and to find these issues. And that's why we came
up with this committee to identify opportunities to save us
some money. Now, there is something that you have to
(10:34):
point something that I thought was neat The counselors have
reached out to most of their people and said we've
had some meetings. We want you to come and we
go and we chat. And the one thing that I
find a bit strange is that they always mentioned this
capital infrastructure levee. And again we're going to get in
a little bit of the weeds here, but they mentioned
that the infrastructure levee and they said, you know it's
(10:55):
a three percent. If we drop into two percent, you know,
the average household will save maybe fifty bucks. Right, So
they mentioned these things where they're saying if we lower it,
but that's not the true number. They're talking about the
smallest slice of a pie, which is the capital infrastructure.
We have a billion dollar budget, and if they actually
lowered the budget, or if they found savings in the
budget in the millions, it would save hundreds and hundreds
(11:18):
of dollars for the average homeowner. So that's the first one.
The second point that I wanted to make is that
I think the people in Mississauga were left kind of
on their own for far too long.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
And you'll appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Most people don't understand that their counselor when they're for
their voting, they're under the impression that they vote for
their counselor and they vote for their mayor and that's all.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The power that they have. The reality of it is.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That's a fallacy because somebody in ward one has, like
a councilor, in ward one, has just as much a
right to say something happening in ward nine as anybody
in ward three. So the reality of it is the
people the voters don't understand when voting happens. We know
that there's going to be a vote next there's a
(12:03):
vote next year, that they need to reach out not
only to their mayor or the potential mayor, or the
candidates in their ward, they need to reach out to
the candidates of every ward to suggest, Listen, I have
a problem with and you can say I have a
problem with development my area, I have a problem with
prime in my area. I have a problem with high
taxes in my area. So you need to not only
(12:27):
say I'm going to protect your ward, but you have
to protect Mississauga as a whole, because they if you
don't do that, you lose ninety percent of your voting power.
So I think that's one of the biggest misunderstandings of voting.
When kids say, when we were campaigning, a lot of
the kids would say, I don't understand why I'm voting,
or I don't understand the weight of my vote. And
(12:47):
when I explained it to them that way, the light
turns on. They realize, oh my god, I have so
much more power, and they go back and they tell
their parents. So this is how we start to change slightly.
And there's another point that I wanted to me before
I know, Kim, I'm gonna let you get in there. Sorry,
there is an There are some wonderful people. There's Chris
(13:08):
M and Sue s. I didn't get permission to use
their last names. They're constantly at council demanding changes, demanding
fair play. And the brilliant thing with Chris M is
Chris doesn't just say we want we want change. He
actually goes through the budget line by line and tells
you what they should be doing. And it was fabulous.
(13:30):
Some of the ideas. Not all of them are gems,
don't get me wrong, some of them are absolutely good.
But with that, I actually found about seventeen more items
that they could do which could alleviate our taxes. We
could go from six percent to three percent. I can
find cost savings of three percent just on the surface
level possible, the surface level budget that they provided for
(13:53):
us last year in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So I'll leave you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I leave you with that, George again, and I apologize.
I've got to disagree with you. You know, Chris and
Sue whoever they are, And I think I know who
you're speaking about and Marinette and some of the ratepayers
organizations have been going to council for a decade or more.
I was a chair of the Mississauga City Summit back
in the two thousands, and I've been involved in municipal
(14:20):
politics and other politics in Mississauga for a long period
of time. And smart, very capable, well intentioned residents have
been making presentations to city council for two decades, if
not longer, but two decades that I'm well aware of.
But they don't seem to be getting through the noise.
And we only have twenty or thirty percent of the
(14:40):
people that turn out at the ballot box. And so
I really believe strongly that either people don't care, or
probably they care, but they're not educated because they're not
made aware of it. And they also don't think they
have a voice, and so they're not making use of
that voice that they do have because only twenty or
thirty percent of them turnout and vote. And the power
(15:03):
of incumbency, the power of name awareness is so strong
that that that that the same people get elected over
and over again, and they're passing through tax increases that
are two or three percent, two or three times inflation
for more than a decade without without complaint, and and
and yes, with some complaint, but the complaint is so small,
(15:25):
so narrow, so diffuse, that that it's not being able
to move the needle anyway. We've got to take a
break for some messages, and we gonna come back and
we're going to ask Kim and Athena what they think
about this. Stay with zenyone back in two minutes with
a group of concerned Mississauga taxpayers, citizens, residents that I
think we've got to have more attention paid to the
(15:46):
tax increases to the budget of Mississauga. Stay with uz
everyone back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Stream us Live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Wellcome back everyone to the Brian Kreby Radio. We've gotta
a group of concerned Mississauga taxpayers, residents, electors that are
concerned that there's not enough attention paid to the budget
process in Mississauga, to the expense increase and to the
tax increases. And George and I have had a little
bit of an argument about whether people are knowledgeable enough
(16:32):
about the process and have that opportunity to make their
voices heard. Huh, Kim, what do you think tell us
a little bit about your group and what you're trying
to do.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
So there's about eight of us in our group, and
we're all from different wards. We've been meeting weekly since
the budget started coming out.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
The region appeal, the appeal Police.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
The city is holding back on theirs till January, in
which we kind of wonder why they're holding back and
not coming out with their numbers. Now, the city councilors
have been hosting budget meetings. We've gone to almost all
of them. Applewood is the only residents association that's actually
(17:14):
hosted their own budget meeting. But the number of people
that show up, it's kind of crazy. There's only maybe
twenty thirty people that show up at each event that
we've gone to. One thing I found really interesting was
the City of Mississauga councilors, the brad Butt made a
(17:37):
motion to go to the asset departments all to find
two percent in savings.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
That motion did not pass.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Half of the councilors voted no for that, and I
can't even understand why why would you.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Vote no to that?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
You know, the public is really upset from last year's
budget increase of nine point two percent and this year,
he said, just go back.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Everyone should look every department should look for two percent.
That was his motion. It got it was vetoed.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
So that was very concerning to me, and I would
like to ask those counselors that all voted that down, why,
what was the reason for saying no to that. However,
after Carolyn Parrish, Mayor Parish just said, well, I do
think that we could ask them to go back and
maybe look for some savings. I don't see the difference.
Why would she not just support Counselor Butt's motion. She
(18:31):
asked to say afterwards she didn't want to make it
a formal motion I did. That's all smoking mirrors to me.
They're playing games.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So last year, during the mayor mayalty by election, one
counselor that was campaigned for mayor committed to a zero
percent tax increase and another counselor committed to tax increases
only at inflation. So, given that, you know, there were
four counselors that were running for mayor and two of
(19:00):
that made those kinds of commitments, why isn't that kind
of expense reduction program voted in favor of and paid
attention to, and actually implement it. When you think about
where the federal government was in nineteen ninety four. That's
what Paul Martin and Jean Quci did. They said, everyone's
got to find decreases, everyone's got to find savings, and
(19:23):
everyone found savings. But why aren't we doing it right?
Speaker 6 (19:28):
You know?
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Brian, may I make a comment, please, I'll hear the
discussion about the residents of Mississauga and not being angry enough. Well,
I can tell you from speaking to many residents in
our community and even others outside our community or the
Outwood community, people feel that even if they speak up,
they will not be heard. They feel that, Okay, we'll complain,
(19:49):
we'll complain, city council will still do what they want.
This is a very common voice that we hear amongst
many of the RESIDENTSHS is very disappointing and very discouraging.
And this is why, again, you're what we're doing, because
we want people to feel that they do have a voice,
and we will take those extra steps because we care
about a community where we live and we want it
for the better mode of our compan This is why
(20:10):
we do what we do. And this apathy is very
discouraging and very disappointing. That's another issue altogether. However, we
need people to feel that if they speak up, they
will be heard and action will be it will be
reflected an action being taken by the people who make
those decisions, who have the authority to do so, so
that I believe is very important. And also to Kim's point,
(20:33):
absolutely why was that two percent motion that was put
forward by counselor Bradback not accepted and it had to
be viewed afterwards, So that is a concern. We need
that transparency. We need openness of what we can do
to communicate, of course, as best as possible to the
residents of Missistaga of what is actually happening and where
(20:54):
their dollars are spent, which I believe you know through
the meeting that we had through the alcohol soation. We
did have a great presentation by the CFO Mississauga, Mary
said Chew, and also Brand Council band Butt was there,
so we were able to get information. However, we need
to do more from the city level to accommodate for
the demands I would say from the residents. We cannot
(21:18):
continue these increases. We know of residents, seniors who can't
turn on the heat or who are you know, I
have to save my money for these increases that we're having.
So we're hearing stories like that which are very real
and are happening, and people the city council has to
listen that these are absolutely true stories. Just like we
have to count our you know, make ends meet, so
(21:40):
does the city have to find a way to make
ends meet the many that they have from our tax dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I think, why do you think that apathy is there?
Because no actual exists.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
I believe that people do complain and they go to
and then up to a certain point and then okay,
thank you very much for all you have to say,
and then we just whatever we want. Anyways, there's no
real care, I believe, and certain things to make that change.
And we've had various issues in our community that I've
always you know, advocated for, and we try, we try,
(22:14):
we do everything we're told, and at the end, nothing
ever happens. We're being misled and this is extremely disappointing
and discology, and this is why people feel the way
they feel it because things have happened that they have
not been heard or they have been you know, Okay, okay,
we'll do this we'll do this and then nothing happens,
and because of lack of communication and effect of communication
(22:35):
and really working with the residents, really working with the
community for what's important.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Kim, why do you think that apathy exists?
Speaker 6 (22:44):
I kind of agree with Athena.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
There a lot of times when I was working in
the Saved blu Or campaign, a lot of people, oh,
you can't fight city Hall. Why are you wasting your time?
That's one aspect, but the other as people are just
trying to.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
Survive right now.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
They are so busy, just worried about day to day stuff,
and of course people's with young family. They just it's
going to take. I don't know what it's going to
take to get all these people interested. I see it coming.
I'm seeing more of an interest every week as we're
getting closer to the budget. But again there's such a
(23:21):
low turnout. I don't know, And I think part of
it also has to do with the lock that.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
We don't have.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Media in Mississauga. We no longer have a newspaper, and
there's still a lot of people that would rely on
that kind of information. That we have an aging demographic
that may not be looking online all the time. Or
going on to WhatsApp or next door or Facebook, and
even then you want to get your news from Facebook.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Not really, George, what.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Do you think is there apathy or do you think
people are involved and aware? You know, you and I
have argued back and forth as to whether people are
aware and involved. The other three of us have argued
that there's apathy and people either aren't aware or don't
think they can fight city Hall. So what do you think, George?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
So the reality of it is you nailed it when
you said very few people vote, but that doesn't mean
that they don't know what's going on or they don't
understand it.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
One of the issues I think is the Faulkner's law.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I think I've mentioned this before and it's a lot
of the military uses, and it's if you don't know
what to do when the decision is being made, don't
make any decisions, and the decision will be made for you.
And the idea is, well, just let the masses make
the decision for us. I think that's a legitimate reason
for people not to vote. In the city of Mississauga,
(24:39):
we had a mayor for thirty six years that apparently
took care of the City of Mississauga. According to them,
they did, she did a great job. We'll leave that alone.
I don't want to talk about that. But there's some
people that believe that they just let the masses make
the decisions for them. The second thing that I always
toy with this idea. There's an old story where there's
(25:00):
a mouse to find themselves in a tube full of cheese.
And as the mouse starts to eat its way down
the tube, finding more and more cheese at the very
bottom of the tube, it finishes off the last piece
and realizes it's now trapped in this tube. It can't
get out, and it can only eat if somebody puts
food in the tube. And I think a lot of
people are terrified that if they push back on the
(25:21):
city hall, they'll be forced either out of their homes
or they won't be able to live in their homes.
So rather than create a problem, they'll sit quietly and
receive the cheese. Whatever they think is important, or whatever
the city thinks is is they're fortunate enough to get
and they'll take it and they'll like it. And I
think that's a real possibility what people are thinking. So
(25:42):
I have a really hard time doing something like that,
because you know me, I fight for just about anything.
And the groups of people that we have in our
little community of people that are fighting against the tax
increase are the same people that are helping create a
get out and vote campaign for the City of Mississauga.
We have a counselor that's really involved in this, and
(26:05):
he seems to be really interested in the idea of
getting more people out to vote. So I think that, yes,
there's a problem, but you also know that when I
see a problem, I try to find solutions. So this
is one of the solutions that we're trying to put
out a get out of vote campaign the city in
Mississaga with the limited resources that we have.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
So I'm not sure if I answered your question. I'm
hoping I did.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Unfortunately, I think people are just reactionary. You're going to
get more of a reaction when the budget comes out.
When actual number comes out there probably I don't. I disagree, George.
They're not paying attention that much right now, but when
the number comes out and it comes up on their
tax bill, then they cry.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
But by then it's too late.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Exactly. I think it's too late, and I think the
problem is several fold. I think number one it is
lack of awareness and information. I think that's mainly because
of the lack of media, but I also think it's
because the city officegates the actual results of the budget
to process and how big the tax increases are. I
think number two it is it's low turnout. When you
(27:05):
have twenty to thirty percent turnout, it's older people, established people,
people that have been around for a long period of
time that are the only ones that are going out
and voting. And then I think the third is name
awareness incumbency. The power of name awareness and incumbency means
that it's very difficult for anyone new, anyone independent, anyone
(27:27):
that is a blank disturber to get involved and shake
things up. You know, in Toronto, you can have a
John Tory from the outside or an Anthony Fury from
the outside that comes in and says what's going on
is wrong and shakes things up. Even if they don't
get elected, they can shake things up and they can
get some attention. But in Mississauga that's very difficult, if
(27:51):
frankly not impossible. And you know, I used the example
a year ago about the Titanic and the Titanic is headed,
but there's no one that is shaking things up to
make sure that we change the Titanic. Maybe that George
is your example of the cheese and the two. But
I think until such time as we get turnout up
such that there can be someone new that gets elected
(28:14):
that shakes things up, that makes people pay attention, because otherwise,
you know, why wouldn't you do what you're doing. If
you're a counselor you know that you can get a
nine percent tax increase past, and you know you're still
going to get elected because not enough people are going
to object and vote against you.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So do the easy thing. Just get that nine.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Percent budget increase approved, get the nine percent tax increase approved,
and get your job again next October and continue on
because there's no risk because you've got the name, you've
got the ability to put signs up about your budget meeting.
You get to go and open up the new yoga
studio or restaurant or meeting hall, you get to cut
(28:55):
all those ribbons, You get the attention, and people are
still going to come out and vote for you. We're
just we've got this inertia, this Titanic, and no one
can change it.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
I kind of see on council you can literally see
some of them are not that way. I in my mind,
after I saw that vote for voting down the two
percent that councilor Brad but wanted, you could see this
di vibe. You can see who was more fiscally responsible
or what's concerned about it. And then and then the
ones that said no for whatever reason, I can't fantom
(29:29):
I and Diepka de Merdla also came up with a
second motion and that was also rejected. That had to
do with, you know, limiting increases to the CPI. It's
you can kind of see some of the new some
of the people where they're they're more fiscally responsible, and
then the other ones you're just kind of wondering what's
(29:49):
going on?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
What are they thinking?
Speaker 8 (29:52):
You know?
Speaker 7 (29:52):
And also another point that I'd like to add is
you mentioned earlier Brian about you know, the premium on
the previous biodaps that we had for mayor and how
accounts for I believe had who was running from mayor,
had committed to a zero percent property tax increase. But
when the discussions came to talk about that there and
he said that there was a plan that he had
(30:13):
in place for this, Well, why wasn't that presented to
counsel and discussed when that time came for you know,
to present what his plan was for a zero property
tax entry. So when when people make promises like that,
when they're running for a position and those promises are
not fulfilled, be it if they win or if they not.
Because at the end of the day, our common goal
(30:35):
is to work for the betterment of our community, even
if we win or if we don't win an election.
The key point is where we have to work together
for all of us. So I believe when we have
you know, candidates who do make commitments that are not
based what was that based on? If it's not going
to follow through whether you win or not, those are
(30:55):
the kind of people we want representing us, people who
will really care about our community ease and the city
of Mississauga to move forward.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
George, you mentioned that we had fifty thousand people that
left Mississauga. This is out migration from Mississauga. I understand,
for the first time in history. Aren't people voting with
their feet and say Mississauga is unaffordable, I'm leaving and
that out migration. We don't know where it's gone, but
(31:24):
probably it's two more suburban locations and or at Alberta.
And the people that we're losing are young people. There
are kids that are choosing not to stay in Mississauga
because number one, the taxes are unaffordable. Number two of
the housing is unaffordable. So isn't this the worst you know, sentencing,
This is the accus This is the worst proof that
(31:45):
things aren't working when people are voting with their feet
to leave town.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Isn't the case Politicians, Well, politicians will spend it any
way that they want.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
They'll spend it as a positive. But both you and
I will know.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
But the reality of it is, it isn't just the
students that are leaving. That's the Great brain Do you
remember this In the late eighties, we had the Great
Brain train where everybody was getting their education in the
cities in Canada and they were moving over to the US,
and we were actually getting less quality people working in
the industries in our countries, so they made an effort
(32:15):
to protect them. The other thing that you had mentioned,
So it wasn't just students and younger people. The people
that could afford to leave the city of Mississauga left,
but there was hoards of people that absolutely could not
leave the city in Mississauga. They can't afford to leave
the city. They can't afford to sell their homes because
they can't afford to buy something new or old or
(32:37):
anywhere else. So they are absolutely handcuffed to our city
with the current positions that they decided to take. So yes,
there is a real problem and it's going to get
worse because those that could leave could leave financially did
those that can't leave now they're stocked.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
So there were two more things that you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Some people definitely were voting out of loyalty, so they
made not have understood the position that their candidate had
run on, but they'll vote for them because of either
name recognition or I like the way they talk or
something along those lines. You'd mentioned the last election, the
by election that we had, we had two medical doctors,
(33:17):
we had two international business people. I mean, the list
of talent that we had that were running inside of
the for the mayorial by election was staggering. Twenty people.
And I can tell you for the top ten were fabulous, brilliant,
wonderful options with great ideas, and I don't think anybody
(33:38):
actually took a look at seriously, and I know that
for myself. I think there were seven thousand people on
the day of the election that looked at my website
and they spent all of seven seconds on my website.
So yeah, they don't really put it that much of
an opportunity to educate. There was another thing that somebody
had said about one of the counselors that was running
(33:59):
for had come up with some ideas to save money.
These ideas could have been implemented as a counselor. They
could still be implemented as counselors, So why aren't they
doing it? People like you me, Kim Athena, We can't
do that from this side of the podium. We can
only do it on that side of the podium. You
can only suggest it, but it can be easily ignored.
(34:20):
So you are right, we don't have enough power. But
the election next year there's a real possibility that people
will start applying themselves, and when they understand the power
of their vote, they may very well make an effort
to go up to the voting boots and actually make
an effort to look at the opportunity that's existing. In
(34:40):
front of them and the people that are running.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I think people got to take a look at the
reality of their tax build increases over the course of
the last couple of years, if not ten years, and
pay attention. Because if we don't pay attention and we don't,
you know, like that old movie network, I'm mad as
blank and I'm not going to take it anymore. We're
not going to have any change. Got to take a
break for some messages and were back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Stay with us, everybody, No Radio, No Problem. Stream is
live on SAGA nine sixty am dot.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
C A.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Welcome back everyone to the Brian Crown Radio r. I've
got a few concerned citizens, residents taxpayers for Mississauga that
have reached out to me asking for an opportunity to
voice their concerns, which I think is great because we
need actual citizens to get involved, to do the analysis,
to do the work and complain and make their concerns heard.
(35:44):
Otherwise our elected representatives just aren't going to pay attention
to make any changes. Kim, Are there specific areas that
you think we need to pay attention to? Are there
suggestions or or are you just throwing your hands up
in the air what can we do well.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
I don't like that the councilors are saying, what services
would you like to see us cut? Isn't that their
job to go in there and find savings. There's no accountability.
As George has mentioned before, there's no transparency. We ask
them questions on certain budget items, we don't get an
answer or it's a very vague answer. But for example,
(36:22):
there's a difference between wants and needs. The window removal
that they've now added on is an additional service for
the entire city.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
Why.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
I understand people throw their backs out, but for me,
it's always neighborly. All the neighbors get out. We're helping
each other. It builds a sense of community. Now we're
paying extra to have this additional service, which is going
to be fuck come like six hours after the first
snow pass for twenty one dollars per house. So those
households that are paying it, the secondary sidewalks are clearing. Okay,
(36:57):
I'm not gonna wait ten hours to clear sidewalk. When
I go out to do this, shovel the snow, or
rather my husband he's going to be the one that's
going to shove. We're not going to wait till the
next day when it could actually freeze and harden. It
even be worse to shovel. We shovel when we shovel
the driveway. It's kind of like, who are they doing
this for? For a few amount of people just to
(37:19):
get better votes. It's not a requirement, And it added
another added more money to our budget that we could
have waited us.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It seems like we pay a lot of attention to
things we can add, but not a lot of attention
to whether there's anything we can subtract exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
And for them to ask us, it's kind of like, well,
that's your job. You're supposed to be watching our money.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Are are they?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
I've heard stories of incredible bureaucracy and and you know,
having to go back for approvals over and over and
over again, and reviews over and over and over again.
I don't know if it's true, but I think that
you're right. You know, we we elect these people to
review the budgets. I think we need to have far
attention because I come back to if any business increased
their expenses by two or three times inflation every year
(38:06):
for a decade, there'd be a problem. And the only
The only salvation for the for the municipal government is
that they've been able to increase their taxes by the
same amount. And we haven't complained about it. We haven't
other than uh, you know, fifty thousand of us leaving
the city this year. We we haven't voted against them. George,
you were saying that you're worried that it's not just
(38:26):
tax increases that are of concern, that there's lifestyle interested
lifestyle issues. You're unmute. What is your what are your concerns?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
You're right, I did mention it, so we'll be quick
about it.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Some of the people don't they rent out, they rent property,
they don't they don't live here, so they think they're
not being effective. But the reality of it is the
quality of living and the standards of our living. The
standards of life have dropped significantly h and these are
non tangible but significant. So our traffic has never been worse.
Police placing. Let's face it, we've got high the highest
(38:59):
prime that I've ever seen in the City of Mississauga.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Our transit city is an absolute joke.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I think that's the one that bugs me the most
because the majority of people that are using transit are
the people that the lowest income, so they needed the most.
So there was a recent motion to put six hundred
thousand dollars to make them my Way at a little
bit more accessible, making it easier for them to navigate
the city. This would help the lowest income people and
(39:27):
it's a small investment of six hundred thousand dollars into
those people, and the city shows now we don't want
to do that. So the people's quality of living, who's
quality of living is probably lower than most of the standards, they're.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
The ones that are affected the most.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
And I can go on about the here Ontario construction
that's being done, we can talk about all of the
speeding that's happening on the major roadways. I can continue,
but the reality of it is we're lowering our standard
of living, in our quality of life, and they're doing
it slowly and to a point where we need to
stand up and say this isn't okay. The second part
that I wanted to bring up is that the Kim
(40:03):
mentioned it, and she mentioned it incredibly well, where she
said that the city has reached out to us, the residents,
what would you do in order to save money? One
of them was what services would you lower in order
for us to save money. I think that's an insult.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Reality of it is they all ran with this idea
that we're going to give you increased services at a
reasonable price. Now they're telling us what services do you want?
I want better services and I want lower pricing to
do it, and that's the reason why we hired them.
The second, the third point that you made, you asked
what are the options? Kim made this point really well,
and she said that we're not really in a position
(40:40):
to tell people or tell the city how they can
save money. But you and I, we both know that
we ran and so we had some ideas. So I
came up with a few that I thought was important.
So one of the biggest ones was the city blocks
real competition and his procurement processes. So whenever they were
doing any type of work, and I remember this was
a couple of splash pads that were being reimagined in
(41:04):
the City of Mississauga, they got bidding from five different people.
One of the persons had met the minimum requirement significantly more,
but were completely ignored and they were a really really
low bid by six or seven million. They weren't chosen,
and then when they asked, can we do an audit?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
They said sure.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
And the people that chose the procurement, they were the
people that did the audit. So of course they're going
to find justifications. So that's got to change, right, So
that's one of them. So we have the city has
too many low vehicle and equipment. We could basically get
rid of some of the vehicles some of the equipment
that were no longer using. My favorite one is consultants.
(41:40):
We hired consultants to do city work that the staff
promised that they would do. That's a ridiculous idea, so
we should be doing that. And then oh wait, I
got a really good one here. The city manages growth
every year without strong evaluation, so we wind up spending
more money into a problem that we should That's the
other one, and I like this one because it actually
(42:01):
came up with the I got a great example of it.
The city funds major projects before delay, before the design
work is finished, and then the city then the money
sits in sits frozen for years when the delay occurs,
and then the taxes rise up and then we have
to cover the cost of the gap. Bluer Street integration
project is a perfect example of it. They originally said
(42:22):
it was gonna be twenty seven million dollars. This was
supposed to happen ten years ago. It didn't happen. I
guarantee you that twenty seven million dollars now is going
to be thirty two In order to offset that cost,
we're now talking about adding another five million dollars. That
means we're gonna have to increase the taxes. This is
all because of poor planning and bad fiscal understanding what
(42:46):
needs to be done.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
We've only got a few minutes left. I want to
ask you one last question on a topic here that
I think really hasn't had enough attention paid to it.
And George, you mentioned increases in crime. I think a
lot of people you have heard either sprains personally themselves
or heard about neighbors that have have been broken into,
car jackings, home invasions, you know, shootings in pork Credit,
(43:10):
you know issues in Brampton. You know, we've heard lots
of issues about crime in our city. Last year there
was a twenty three percent increase in the Peel Police budget.
And I think about this two ways. You know, the
mayor and a couple of people on council voted against
that twenty three percent increase, which which concerns me because
(43:31):
if there really was a need, and a lot of
us felt that there was a need because crime had escalated,
you know, why would they vote against that twenty three percent?
And then I think in addition, you talk about poor planning.
If there was that need, isn't it really the responsibility
of all those people that were on the on council
and particularly on the ap Peel Police Board in prior
(43:54):
years that hadn't voted for appropriate increases in the past
that put us in this situation that required a twenty
three percent. So it's almost as if you know, if
you've got a twenty three percent increase in the police budget, Frankly,
everyone that was on the board, everyone that was on
council in the prior couple of years that allowed this
(44:16):
crime situation to escalate to the extent that it did
such that we needed a twenty three percent should be
out of business, should be out of a job, should
be sent packing. And the people that that that put
their heads in the sand and didn't realize that we
needed that increase. If we really did need that increase
should similarly be sent packing, Like, how do you guys think?
(44:38):
I think this is atrocious, both for the past people
as well as the current people. If we had to
have it, if we really truly had to have a
twenty three percent increase, and now it's going to be
still a substantial increase this year, so even that is
going to be multiples of inflation this year. We got
a problem here that no one's been planning for, paying
(44:59):
attention to and addressing.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
So I actually have the budget numbers for the Peel
Police for twenty twenty three years an increase of eight
point two percent, and twenty twenty four, fourteen, and twenty
twenty five was the twenty three percent. This year it's
eleven nine point nine percent plus the levee. Oh no,
the levee is being removed, so it's nine point nine
percent increase this year. The presentation made by the Peel
(45:24):
Police show that with the addition of these additional three
hundred police officers they hired from the twenty twenty five budget,
crime has decreased and response time has decreased.
Speaker 6 (45:37):
I just saw this the other day. So there.
Speaker 5 (45:41):
They're saying that it was necessary According to some of
the research we've done, Mississauga is under Peel police force
is underserved, there's not enough, we should have more. And
this year they're asking for one hundred and seventy five
new officer, another one hundred though three hundred last year,
(46:04):
one hundred and seventy five this year, and then they're
going to uh, was it thirty five or twenty five
civilians new civilians. But the problem is part of our
problem is that Peel pays sixty five or sorry, City
of Mississauga pays sixty five percent of it, and Brampton
(46:25):
pays only thirty eight percent. Caldon pays nothing, even though
they're voting on they have votes on this budget. So
it's it's kind of two things. They're one the inequality
on the voting, whether that twenty three percent those people
should have been watching the police more. But on the
(46:46):
other hand, they're not allowed to the province. The police
budget falls under provincial legislation and they do not have
to share any information about the budget, can appeal.
Speaker 6 (46:58):
The only thing they can do is ex is that
what they see or reject it.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
If they rejected, look, I don't think that's true. I
think that there are several representatives from Mississauga Council that
are on the Peel Police Board and they get an opportunity.
So you're correct that the whole councilors only cannot. The
whole council cannot, but the members of the Peel Police
Board can and have a real opportunity to have input
(47:25):
on and those those members include the mayor unless the
mayor wants to give it to someone else, and other councilors.
And so I think that they've abdicated their responsibility, and
too often they'll use the excuse I think that you
just use, which is, oh, well, you know the province
can I mandate that. You know, the reality is, if
(47:46):
you needed a twenty three percent increase on top of
what you just outlined were increases that were substantial in
the past, you've done something wrong. You've allowed crime to escalate,
and you know to say, well, well, it's because we're
paying a disproportion to share. You know, criminals don't know
where the Mississauga Brampton border is. They go back and
(48:06):
forth whenever they want. We've got to have a police
force that stops crime from happening, and I think I
think we've had a police board and a council that
haven't been paying attention to safety and crime to the
extent that they need to.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
Well, I think the police board was saying that they
didn't have enough resources, hence why they had to hire
three hundred new officers last year.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
And I think you're probably right that they may not
have had enough resources. But isn't that the fault of
the people that didn't give them the resources in the past,
which is frankly the same people were talking about. It's
the counselors that are still on council and the mayors.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Yeah, I think so much. It's the pure Police Board
because it's the Pere Police Board that makes decisions for
the pure police budgets. So except that the Peer Police
Board that this would need to be addressed with, because
as kim I saied earlier, counselors at the regional level
can on either accept or not accept the peer Police
Board budget that's presented to them.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
So I apollow, Joes, I disagree with you because the
mayor has a seat on that Police Services Board and
shed in case unless she gives it up, which this
time she did give it up, which I think is
really really a shame because if the mayor has the
opportunity to be on one of the most important boards
and doesn't take that opportunity to get inside the room
(49:22):
and argue for what she believes is right, I think
that that's a problem. And then there's another counselor that
also gets appointed, and so Mississauga has got seats on
that police board, and I think you need to take
that opportunity to have your input anyway. I just I
think the fact that that crime is up and maybe
down this year, thankfully, but crime is certainly up over
(49:43):
over time that the Police Board hasn't and the Police
Services Board and the police haven't been able to stamp
down crime to the extent that I think we all
need to have them do so so that we feel
safe in our homes. And there's just no question that
people don't feel as safe in Mississaugas as they did
in the past. I person only had two home invasions
and burglaries in the past eighteen months, and I hear
(50:06):
about it in my neighborhood all the time. And second
of all, that people are voting with their feet to
leave the city out migration for the first time in history,
when we used to be proud that people wanted to
come to Mississauga, and now people want to leave Mississauga.
And the fact that we have increased our taxes and
our expenses in Mississauga almost non stop for a decade
(50:29):
at two to three times inflation, I think is tatamaount
to a failure, a failed system, A business would never survive. Frankly,
I think that you know a country, you know runs
into problems like Canada did in the nineteen nineties, like
lots of different countries around the world are facing. I
think we've got a major problem, and I think that
(50:52):
we're not getting media attention to it. I don't think
we're getting political attention to it. I don't think we're
getting community attention to it. And so I really congratulate
the role that the three of you are playing and
your group is playing, and I thank you for that,
and I hope that I hope that you get hurt,
and so thank you very much for coming on my
show and sharing your concerns. I hope that are people
are listening. That's our show for everybody. Thank you for joining.
(51:14):
I think that this is going to be one of
the most important issues in the upcoming election campaign, and
I hope to blank that people listen and pay attention
and use the franchise they're given to go out and
vote and not just vote for the name that they recognize.
And that's how we get inertia, That's how we get
institutional malaise. That's how we get the Titanic still heading
(51:37):
to the iceberg without making any changes. Good night, everybody,
thanks for joining Kim Athena. George really appreciate it. I
want to end with a message for every resident of Mississauga,
whether you want a home or rent an apartment, run
a small business, or simply care about the future of
the city, because the conversation we had tonight was not
just about taxes. It was about trust, transparency, and whether
(52:01):
local government is being honest with the people who fund it.
Over the past several weeks, a group of residents, George Taveras, Campaigns,
Tagidou and many others I'm told, have done something our
city rarely does. They went through the budget line by
line and what they uncovered is deeply concerning. Despite the
city's messaging, Mississauga does not have a revenue problem. It
(52:22):
has a spending discipline and accountability problem. For more than
a decade, taxes have risen faster than inflation, faster than wages,
faster than almost every comparable municipality. And yet residents, I
don't think see better services. They see stalled projects, reduced
transit quality, rising crime, and unfilled promises. And instead of transparency,
(52:44):
they're getting accounting accounting tricks. Most residents doun't know that
the city uses a blended rate reporting, dividing in the
tax rate by three to make the increase seem smaller.
That's not clarity, it's camouflage. The actual city portion of
your tax rate is far higher than the number you're shown.
They take the Mississauga tax increase and divide it by
(53:06):
the Mississauga and Peel taxes and cut it in half.
And then there's the governance I balance. Mississauga pays sixty
two percent of the Peel regional police budget. Yets hold
less than half of the votes on regional council that
oversees policing. That's taxation without proportional representation, and it means
that Mississauga residents paid most of the bill while others
(53:28):
decide how the money is spent. Police budget went up
by twenty three percent last year. I think that says
the people that under budgeted in prior years that led
to this incredible crime suite, the spree that we've been seeing,
the burglaries, the home invasions, the car jackings, they're the
ones at fault, not the ones that have actually met
(53:51):
the demand today. Meanwhile, residents have identified realistic opportunities to
save two to three percent across every department, without touching
essential services and without the knowledge of what's really going on.
But when a motion came forward to look for just
two percent in efficiencies, almost every councilor voted against it,
even though two of the councilors in last year's Miss
(54:12):
Saga Marity by election committed to either no tax increase
or tax in tax increases only to the rate of inflation.
So not because savings aren't possible, because there's no political
will to actually look for it. And now we face
another loomy challenges the next MPAC assessment. As property values rise,
taxes could jump by thousands for many, a massive hidden
(54:34):
tax increase unless council lowers the mill rate, and based
on past behavior, I dot they will. This means residents
could pay dramatically more without any council debate, without any vote,
and without any accountability. Most troubling of all is civic
engagement in Mississauga. I fear is collapsing. Residents don't attend
(54:54):
budget meetings, they voter turnout keeps falling twenty something percent
in the last by election, and people feel their voices
no longer matter. But apathy isn't the problem. It's the
symptom when people try to speak and nothing changes. Eventually
they stop trying, they stop speaking. Mississauga is a great city.
But great cities don't stay great by accident. They stay
(55:17):
great because people pay attention and ask questions, demand transparency,
refuse to accept spin when they deserve the truth, and
get involved. We need discipline budgeting, We need honest communication.
We need leadership that treats every tax dollar like it
came from their own wallet. And we need citizens who
stay engaged because the cost of disengagement will always show
(55:38):
up on your tax bill. Mississaga deserves better, and as time,
we insist on it. That's our show for tonight. Thank
you everyone for joining us.
Speaker 8 (55:46):
I'm on every Monday through Friday at six o'clock on
nine to sixty am. You can stream me online at
Triple W Saga ninety sixty am dot CA. You can
you get all my podcasts and videocasts on Briancrombie dot com,
on YouTube, on Facebook and Instagram, and on audible polyadcasts,
on Apple Podcasts and on Speakeasy. Thank you, check me out,
Good night, everybody.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Thank you, No radio, no problem. Stream us live on
Saga nine six am dot co.
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of
SAGA nine to sixty AM or its management.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Brian Crombie Radio Hour.
I've got some Mississauga concerned citizens with us tonight because
they've reached out worried about the Mississauga budget. And this
is something I think we really need to pay attention to.
And I think one of the big problems we've got
in Mississauga is because we don't have a newspaper anymore,
we don't have a lot of media that are focusing
(00:39):
on Mississauga. The Mississauga Council gets away with tax increases
that would be attacked and addressed and analyzed far more
closely if we were in Toronto. If you take a
look at the Mississauga tax increases, they've been multiples of
inflation for more than a decade right now. And I
do think that we've got a huge issue here. And
(01:00):
you know, you think about Toronto. Last year they put
in a eight nine percent tax increase and there was
a huge uproar about that. Mississauga puts in an eight
to nine percent tax increase for a decade in repeat,
and then there's not enough noise, there's not enough complaints,
and there's not enough analysis, and then they try to
(01:22):
obfuscate the reality by talking about the tax increase relative
to peeled, relative to the police, et cetera, and try
to represent it as as far less than it truly is.
And so I want to welcome to today three Mississauga citizens,
concerned citizens that are part of a larger group. The
first is is George Savers, who's a long term Mississauga resident.
(01:44):
He ran twice for by election and for a general
election for mayor. He's been very active politically. We've also
got Kim Pines, she's a local business owner and a
community advocate. And Athena Tajido who is a resident voice
for financial trans purrency, and they've reached out along with
other people really concerned about where tax increases are going.
(02:07):
George deaveris, tell me what's your group all about and
what are you trying to achieve?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, thanks for having us, Brian, and great introduction. One
of the issues that we think happens is we think
Mississauga taxpayers aren't concerned, aren't confused about the budget. I
think that they understand it, but I think they're frustrated
because they understand it too well. So we see higher
tax we see higher taxes, we see stalled projects, we
(02:32):
see recycled promises, and the city keeps calling these hikes responsible.
But the real problem is the lack of revenue. We
think it's a lack of discipline, transparency, and we don't
see any measurable value. So you know as well as
I that the groups of people in Mississauga have left.
There was forty thousand less residents of Mississauga that just
(02:53):
chose to abandon Mississauga go elsewhere, And we actually had
a discussion. We don't think that the reason they were
doing it was because it was too expensive. We think
that they didn't see a value for their dollar. So
if you go to a restaurant and you eat at
that restaurant and it turns out the quality starts to
lower and lower, you stop eating at that restaurant.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And eventually you just stop going entirely.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I think that's what's happening with the city of Mississauga,
that people started realizing that crime is increasing. We noticed
that the infrastructure was failing, We noticed the transit wasn't
getting any better, Traffic was getting terrible. I can go
down the list if you want, but the reality of
it is they didn't see their return on their investment
and their shareholders, and in order for them to get
their return on investment, they want things.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
They don't want money.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
They want things like a safe place to eat, sleep, drink,
and an easy way to get to and from.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
We're not getting that. So we have a.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Suspicion, a very good suspicion, that the people of Mississauga
hit it all well and eventually they're going to say
enough is enough. So I'll leave it now for Kim
or for Athena if they want to say anything.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Kim, what's your concern? Why are you involved?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
My concern is the property. I feel the pain my wallet,
and I don't understand.
Speaker 6 (04:02):
I own my own business. I can't increase my prices
like this on the fly. I can't.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
I can't go to my clients every time and say, hey,
I'm increasing my prices ten percent this year and ten
percent next year. You can do maybe small increases. I
actually have not been able to raise my prices in
a couple of years, and certainly my salary is not
going up as fast, and I'm sure a lot of
people are in the same boat. Their salaries in the
(04:28):
private sector are not jumping every year. Some people in
the public sector in Ontario had a three year wage freeze,
salary freeze. So why is the city not doing City Mississauga,
I'm not doing the same thing. Should they not be
tightening their belt and learning to work with what they have,
work within their means like the rest of us have
(04:50):
to do. That's kind of my concern, and not going
with a nine percent increase. I think even this year
for twenty twenty six, we're looking probably around that, correct.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think, why are you involved? You're immute Asina, Why
are you involved?
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Correct? Yes, through the Apple with us and has Residents
Association of which I am one of the lead members of.
You know, we communicate to our local residents about issues,
various issues, and this is a key issue that many
residents have emailed us about, telling us they're very concerned.
Especially with last year's nine point two record increase that
(05:27):
we had, property owners had to experience very very discouraging,
very disappointing. Now we hope that this will be far
less this year, and that is one of the reasons
why we're advocating for this, But this is the reason
why I'm involved, because we need to advocate for our
community and we need to take action. We've communicated to
(05:47):
the city our concerns and we've gotten feedback from our
community that we've shared with city council because we need
to communicate and the city has to understand that there
are real issues and not just expressed by us, but
by the groups as well on this particular property tax
concern moving forward, not just for twenty twenty six, but
for years coming after that as well. So this is
(06:10):
why I am a part of all of this because
of the issues that through the association of course, and
also me I have two properties in Mississauga and really
this increase is not there to us, and we need
more transparency on what is happening.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, I agree that you need more transparency, and I
want to challenge you, George, with one of your comments
you said that you think people are well aware. I
really question if people are well aware. I think that
there's not enough media attention paid to you know, what's
going on in Mississauga from a tax as standpoint, whether
it's from a revenue standpoint, or from an expanse standpoint,
because there's just not the media attention from the Toronto Star,
(06:49):
of the Global Mail, of the Sun, the National Post,
et cetera to things going on not just in Mississauga,
but frankly for any city or town around the nine
oh five around Toronto, because all the attention is on Toronto.
And I think that if, as Kim has said, if
any business had increased their pricing by twice or three
(07:09):
times inflation repeatedly for a decade, it would be out
of business. And you you couldn't do that. If any
company had increased as expenses by that and wasn't able
to match those price increases, they be out of business.
But we just in Mississauga seem to think that we
can increase our expenses by that amount because we can
(07:30):
pass it all over to the local residents and they're
not going to complain, and they haven't complained. Turnout in
elections is very low. There haven't been a lot of attention.
You know. I think that a couple of different Great
Pairs organizations and Marinet come to some of the budget
meetings and complain. But what the counselors do too often
is number one they office gate and one of the
(07:52):
things they've done is they've said, you know, we have
an eight percent to price tax increase, but it's four
percent or three percent on miss the SAGA and five
percent on a region appeal. Because what they're doing is
they're they're dividing the Mississauga tax increase by the Mississauga
and the Peel tax increase. Uh and they're dividing the
(08:13):
Peel tax increase by the Mississauga and the Peel tax
increase and adding them together to get the eight or
nine percent overall, rather than saying both are eight or
nine percent and it's averaging eight or nine percent. So
they're trying to they're trying to fool us, and even
when it's pointed out, they continue with that that that
attempt at trying to obfuscate, to fool to to not
(08:34):
have transparency on what the tax increases are. But then
frankly more importantly, they just say, we got we can't
do anything, but it it's the kind of of service
demands that people are making, and they don't go through
the budget in detail and find out where they could cut.
It seems like it's a runaway train and there's nothing
(08:55):
we can do about it. And yet the people don't
get up in arms, they don't get mad, they don't complain,
and so I really congratulate you for the role that
you're playing, but I disagree with you, George, that people
are aware of it. I don't think they are.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
So i'll just mention two quick points.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I know there's a third one in there that I
wanted to make, but the two points that you made.
The comment that you were making is a blended rate.
The blended rate is the region appeal, then the City
of Mississauga, and then the education and education is always
said that zero, they don't increase the education rate.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
So we actually divided by three, which is a joke.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So if it was if it was nine percent, nine percent,
you take the eighteen divided by three, and then they
say that that's what they say, that's the blended rate.
So it's actually hidden. One more one more time. There
was another one that you said, Oh here's something that
we thought was a bit strange. So you said that
people aren't informed. A lot of people are. So you
and I both campaigned more than a year and a
(09:52):
bit ago. Most of the people that I knocked on
their doors when they asked or when they said they
are having a problem, really struggling with trying to keep
to live in their home homes. So they get the
fact that the prices have to go up for everything,
but they don't understand why they can't cut fat. So
they get an idea, but they really have no idea
who to reach out to because there's an issue with transparency.
(10:13):
There's a real issue with communication, and frankly, most people
are having such a hard time working day to day
that they cannot, they absolutely cannot spend the time that
I have the luxury of to go through the budget
and to find these issues. And that's why we came
up with this committee to identify opportunities to save us
some money. Now, there is something that you have to
(10:34):
point something that I thought was neat The counselors have
reached out to most of their people and said we've
had some meetings. We want you to come and we
go and we chat. And the one thing that I
find a bit strange is that they always mentioned this
capital infrastructure levee. And again we're going to get in
a little bit of the weeds here, but they mentioned
that the infrastructure levee and they said, you know it's
(10:55):
a three percent. If we drop into two percent, you know,
the average household will save maybe fifty bucks. Right, So
they mentioned these things where they're saying if we lower it,
but that's not the true number. They're talking about the
smallest slice of a pie, which is the capital infrastructure.
We have a billion dollar budget, and if they actually
lowered the budget, or if they found savings in the
budget in the millions, it would save hundreds and hundreds
(11:18):
of dollars for the average homeowner. So that's the first one.
The second point that I wanted to make is that
I think the people in Mississauga were left kind of
on their own for far too long.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
And you'll appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Most people don't understand that their counselor when they're for
their voting, they're under the impression that they vote for
their counselor and they vote for their mayor and that's all.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The power that they have. The reality of it is.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
That's a fallacy because somebody in ward one has, like
a councilor, in ward one, has just as much a
right to say something happening in ward nine as anybody
in ward three. So the reality of it is the
people the voters don't understand when voting happens. We know
that there's going to be a vote next there's a
(12:03):
vote next year, that they need to reach out not
only to their mayor or the potential mayor, or the
candidates in their ward, they need to reach out to
the candidates of every ward to suggest, Listen, I have
a problem with and you can say I have a
problem with development my area, I have a problem with
prime in my area. I have a problem with high
taxes in my area. So you need to not only
(12:27):
say I'm going to protect your ward, but you have
to protect Mississauga as a whole, because they if you
don't do that, you lose ninety percent of your voting power.
So I think that's one of the biggest misunderstandings of voting.
When kids say, when we were campaigning, a lot of
the kids would say, I don't understand why I'm voting,
or I don't understand the weight of my vote. And
(12:47):
when I explained it to them that way, the light
turns on. They realize, oh my god, I have so
much more power, and they go back and they tell
their parents. So this is how we start to change slightly.
And there's another point that I wanted to me before
I know, Kim, I'm gonna let you get in there. Sorry,
there is an There are some wonderful people. There's Chris
(13:08):
M and Sue s. I didn't get permission to use
their last names. They're constantly at council demanding changes, demanding
fair play. And the brilliant thing with Chris M is
Chris doesn't just say we want we want change. He
actually goes through the budget line by line and tells
you what they should be doing. And it was fabulous.
(13:30):
Some of the ideas. Not all of them are gems,
don't get me wrong, some of them are absolutely good.
But with that, I actually found about seventeen more items
that they could do which could alleviate our taxes. We
could go from six percent to three percent. I can
find cost savings of three percent just on the surface
level possible, the surface level budget that they provided for
(13:53):
us last year in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So I'll leave you.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I leave you with that, George again, and I apologize.
I've got to disagree with you. You know, Chris and
Sue whoever they are, And I think I know who
you're speaking about and Marinette and some of the ratepayers
organizations have been going to council for a decade or more.
I was a chair of the Mississauga City Summit back
in the two thousands, and I've been involved in municipal
(14:20):
politics and other politics in Mississauga for a long period
of time. And smart, very capable, well intentioned residents have
been making presentations to city council for two decades, if
not longer, but two decades that I'm well aware of.
But they don't seem to be getting through the noise.
And we only have twenty or thirty percent of the
(14:40):
people that turn out at the ballot box. And so
I really believe strongly that either people don't care, or
probably they care, but they're not educated because they're not
made aware of it. And they also don't think they
have a voice, and so they're not making use of
that voice that they do have because only twenty or
thirty percent of them turnout and vote. And the power
(15:03):
of incumbency, the power of name awareness is so strong
that that that that the same people get elected over
and over again, and they're passing through tax increases that
are two or three percent, two or three times inflation
for more than a decade without without complaint, and and
and yes, with some complaint, but the complaint is so small,
(15:25):
so narrow, so diffuse, that that it's not being able
to move the needle anyway. We've got to take a
break for some messages, and we gonna come back and
we're going to ask Kim and Athena what they think
about this. Stay with zenyone back in two minutes with
a group of concerned Mississauga taxpayers, citizens, residents that I
think we've got to have more attention paid to the
(15:46):
tax increases to the budget of Mississauga. Stay with uz
everyone back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Stream us Live at SAGA nine six am dot CA.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Wellcome back everyone to the Brian Kreby Radio. We've gotta
a group of concerned Mississauga taxpayers, residents, electors that are
concerned that there's not enough attention paid to the budget
process in Mississauga, to the expense increase and to the
tax increases. And George and I have had a little
bit of an argument about whether people are knowledgeable enough
(16:32):
about the process and have that opportunity to make their
voices heard. Huh, Kim, what do you think tell us
a little bit about your group and what you're trying
to do.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
So there's about eight of us in our group, and
we're all from different wards. We've been meeting weekly since
the budget started coming out.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
The region appeal, the appeal Police.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
The city is holding back on theirs till January, in
which we kind of wonder why they're holding back and
not coming out with their numbers. Now, the city councilors
have been hosting budget meetings. We've gone to almost all
of them. Applewood is the only residents association that's actually
(17:14):
hosted their own budget meeting. But the number of people
that show up, it's kind of crazy. There's only maybe
twenty thirty people that show up at each event that
we've gone to. One thing I found really interesting was
the City of Mississauga councilors, the brad Butt made a
(17:37):
motion to go to the asset departments all to find
two percent in savings.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
That motion did not pass.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Half of the councilors voted no for that, and I
can't even understand why why would you.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
Vote no to that?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
You know, the public is really upset from last year's
budget increase of nine point two percent and this year,
he said, just go back.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Everyone should look every department should look for two percent.
That was his motion. It got it was vetoed.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
So that was very concerning to me, and I would
like to ask those counselors that all voted that down, why,
what was the reason for saying no to that. However,
after Carolyn Parrish, Mayor Parish just said, well, I do
think that we could ask them to go back and
maybe look for some savings. I don't see the difference.
Why would she not just support Counselor Butt's motion. She
(18:31):
asked to say afterwards she didn't want to make it
a formal motion I did. That's all smoking mirrors to me.
They're playing games.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So last year, during the mayor mayalty by election, one
counselor that was campaigned for mayor committed to a zero
percent tax increase and another counselor committed to tax increases
only at inflation. So, given that, you know, there were
four counselors that were running for mayor and two of
(19:00):
that made those kinds of commitments, why isn't that kind
of expense reduction program voted in favor of and paid
attention to, and actually implement it. When you think about
where the federal government was in nineteen ninety four. That's
what Paul Martin and Jean Quci did. They said, everyone's
got to find decreases, everyone's got to find savings, and
(19:23):
everyone found savings. But why aren't we doing it right?
Speaker 6 (19:28):
You know?
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Brian, may I make a comment, please, I'll hear the
discussion about the residents of Mississauga and not being angry enough. Well,
I can tell you from speaking to many residents in
our community and even others outside our community or the
Outwood community, people feel that even if they speak up,
they will not be heard. They feel that, Okay, we'll complain,
(19:49):
we'll complain, city council will still do what they want.
This is a very common voice that we hear amongst
many of the RESIDENTSHS is very disappointing and very discouraging.
And this is why, again, you're what we're doing, because
we want people to feel that they do have a voice,
and we will take those extra steps because we care
about a community where we live and we want it
for the better mode of our compan This is why
(20:10):
we do what we do. And this apathy is very
discouraging and very disappointing. That's another issue altogether. However, we
need people to feel that if they speak up, they
will be heard and action will be it will be
reflected an action being taken by the people who make
those decisions, who have the authority to do so, so
that I believe is very important. And also to Kim's point,
(20:33):
absolutely why was that two percent motion that was put
forward by counselor Bradback not accepted and it had to
be viewed afterwards, So that is a concern. We need
that transparency. We need openness of what we can do
to communicate, of course, as best as possible to the
residents of Missistaga of what is actually happening and where
(20:54):
their dollars are spent, which I believe you know through
the meeting that we had through the alcohol soation. We
did have a great presentation by the CFO Mississauga, Mary
said Chew, and also Brand Council band Butt was there,
so we were able to get information. However, we need
to do more from the city level to accommodate for
the demands I would say from the residents. We cannot
(21:18):
continue these increases. We know of residents, seniors who can't
turn on the heat or who are you know, I
have to save my money for these increases that we're having.
So we're hearing stories like that which are very real
and are happening, and people the city council has to
listen that these are absolutely true stories. Just like we
have to count our you know, make ends meet, so
(21:40):
does the city have to find a way to make
ends meet the many that they have from our tax dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I think, why do you think that apathy is there?
Because no actual exists.
Speaker 7 (21:52):
I believe that people do complain and they go to
and then up to a certain point and then okay,
thank you very much for all you have to say,
and then we just whatever we want. Anyways, there's no
real care, I believe, and certain things to make that change.
And we've had various issues in our community that I've
always you know, advocated for, and we try, we try,
(22:14):
we do everything we're told, and at the end, nothing
ever happens. We're being misled and this is extremely disappointing
and discology, and this is why people feel the way
they feel it because things have happened that they have
not been heard or they have been you know, Okay, okay,
we'll do this we'll do this and then nothing happens,
and because of lack of communication and effect of communication
(22:35):
and really working with the residents, really working with the
community for what's important.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Kim, why do you think that apathy exists?
Speaker 6 (22:44):
I kind of agree with Athena.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
There a lot of times when I was working in
the Saved blu Or campaign, a lot of people, oh,
you can't fight city Hall. Why are you wasting your time?
That's one aspect, but the other as people are just
trying to.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
Survive right now.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
They are so busy, just worried about day to day stuff,
and of course people's with young family. They just it's
going to take. I don't know what it's going to
take to get all these people interested. I see it coming.
I'm seeing more of an interest every week as we're
getting closer to the budget. But again there's such a
(23:21):
low turnout. I don't know, And I think part of
it also has to do with the lock that.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
We don't have.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
Media in Mississauga. We no longer have a newspaper, and
there's still a lot of people that would rely on
that kind of information. That we have an aging demographic
that may not be looking online all the time. Or
going on to WhatsApp or next door or Facebook, and
even then you want to get your news from Facebook.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Not really, George, what.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Do you think is there apathy or do you think
people are involved and aware? You know, you and I
have argued back and forth as to whether people are
aware and involved. The other three of us have argued
that there's apathy and people either aren't aware or don't
think they can fight city Hall. So what do you think, George?
Speaker 3 (24:08):
So the reality of it is you nailed it when
you said very few people vote, but that doesn't mean
that they don't know what's going on or they don't
understand it.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
One of the issues I think is the Faulkner's law.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I think I've mentioned this before and it's a lot
of the military uses, and it's if you don't know
what to do when the decision is being made, don't
make any decisions, and the decision will be made for you.
And the idea is, well, just let the masses make
the decision for us. I think that's a legitimate reason
for people not to vote. In the city of Mississauga,
(24:39):
we had a mayor for thirty six years that apparently
took care of the City of Mississauga. According to them,
they did, she did a great job. We'll leave that alone.
I don't want to talk about that. But there's some
people that believe that they just let the masses make
the decisions for them. The second thing that I always
toy with this idea. There's an old story where there's
(25:00):
a mouse to find themselves in a tube full of cheese.
And as the mouse starts to eat its way down
the tube, finding more and more cheese at the very
bottom of the tube, it finishes off the last piece
and realizes it's now trapped in this tube. It can't
get out, and it can only eat if somebody puts
food in the tube. And I think a lot of
people are terrified that if they push back on the
(25:21):
city hall, they'll be forced either out of their homes
or they won't be able to live in their homes.
So rather than create a problem, they'll sit quietly and
receive the cheese. Whatever they think is important, or whatever
the city thinks is is they're fortunate enough to get
and they'll take it and they'll like it. And I
think that's a real possibility what people are thinking. So
(25:42):
I have a really hard time doing something like that,
because you know me, I fight for just about anything.
And the groups of people that we have in our
little community of people that are fighting against the tax
increase are the same people that are helping create a
get out and vote campaign for the City of Mississauga.
We have a counselor that's really involved in this, and
(26:05):
he seems to be really interested in the idea of
getting more people out to vote. So I think that, yes,
there's a problem, but you also know that when I
see a problem, I try to find solutions. So this
is one of the solutions that we're trying to put
out a get out of vote campaign the city in
Mississaga with the limited resources that we have.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
So I'm not sure if I answered your question. I'm
hoping I did.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Unfortunately, I think people are just reactionary. You're going to
get more of a reaction when the budget comes out.
When actual number comes out there probably I don't. I disagree, George.
They're not paying attention that much right now, but when
the number comes out and it comes up on their
tax bill, then they cry.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
But by then it's too late.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Exactly. I think it's too late, and I think the
problem is several fold. I think number one it is
lack of awareness and information. I think that's mainly because
of the lack of media, but I also think it's
because the city officegates the actual results of the budget
to process and how big the tax increases are. I
think number two it is it's low turnout. When you
(27:05):
have twenty to thirty percent turnout, it's older people, established people,
people that have been around for a long period of
time that are the only ones that are going out
and voting. And then I think the third is name
awareness incumbency. The power of name awareness and incumbency means
that it's very difficult for anyone new, anyone independent, anyone
(27:27):
that is a blank disturber to get involved and shake
things up. You know, in Toronto, you can have a
John Tory from the outside or an Anthony Fury from
the outside that comes in and says what's going on
is wrong and shakes things up. Even if they don't
get elected, they can shake things up and they can
get some attention. But in Mississauga that's very difficult, if
(27:51):
frankly not impossible. And you know, I used the example
a year ago about the Titanic and the Titanic is headed,
but there's no one that is shaking things up to
make sure that we change the Titanic. Maybe that George
is your example of the cheese and the two. But
I think until such time as we get turnout up
such that there can be someone new that gets elected
(28:14):
that shakes things up, that makes people pay attention, because otherwise,
you know, why wouldn't you do what you're doing. If
you're a counselor you know that you can get a
nine percent tax increase past, and you know you're still
going to get elected because not enough people are going
to object and vote against you.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So do the easy thing. Just get that nine.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Percent budget increase approved, get the nine percent tax increase approved,
and get your job again next October and continue on
because there's no risk because you've got the name, you've
got the ability to put signs up about your budget meeting.
You get to go and open up the new yoga
studio or restaurant or meeting hall, you get to cut
(28:55):
all those ribbons, You get the attention, and people are
still going to come out and vote for you. We're
just we've got this inertia, this Titanic, and no one
can change it.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
I kind of see on council you can literally see
some of them are not that way. I in my mind,
after I saw that vote for voting down the two
percent that councilor Brad but wanted, you could see this
di vibe. You can see who was more fiscally responsible
or what's concerned about it. And then and then the
ones that said no for whatever reason, I can't fantom
(29:29):
I and Diepka de Merdla also came up with a
second motion and that was also rejected. That had to
do with, you know, limiting increases to the CPI. It's
you can kind of see some of the new some
of the people where they're they're more fiscally responsible, and
then the other ones you're just kind of wondering what's
(29:49):
going on?
Speaker 6 (29:50):
What are they thinking?
Speaker 8 (29:52):
You know?
Speaker 7 (29:52):
And also another point that I'd like to add is
you mentioned earlier Brian about you know, the premium on
the previous biodaps that we had for mayor and how
accounts for I believe had who was running from mayor,
had committed to a zero percent property tax increase. But
when the discussions came to talk about that there and
he said that there was a plan that he had
(30:13):
in place for this, Well, why wasn't that presented to
counsel and discussed when that time came for you know,
to present what his plan was for a zero property
tax entry. So when when people make promises like that,
when they're running for a position and those promises are
not fulfilled, be it if they win or if they not.
Because at the end of the day, our common goal
(30:35):
is to work for the betterment of our community, even
if we win or if we don't win an election.
The key point is where we have to work together
for all of us. So I believe when we have
you know, candidates who do make commitments that are not
based what was that based on? If it's not going
to follow through whether you win or not, those are
(30:55):
the kind of people we want representing us, people who
will really care about our community ease and the city
of Mississauga to move forward.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
George, you mentioned that we had fifty thousand people that
left Mississauga. This is out migration from Mississauga. I understand,
for the first time in history. Aren't people voting with
their feet and say Mississauga is unaffordable, I'm leaving and
that out migration. We don't know where it's gone, but
(31:24):
probably it's two more suburban locations and or at Alberta.
And the people that we're losing are young people. There
are kids that are choosing not to stay in Mississauga
because number one, the taxes are unaffordable. Number two of
the housing is unaffordable. So isn't this the worst you know, sentencing,
This is the accus This is the worst proof that
(31:45):
things aren't working when people are voting with their feet
to leave town.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Isn't the case Politicians, Well, politicians will spend it any
way that they want.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
They'll spend it as a positive. But both you and
I will know.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
But the reality of it is, it isn't just the
students that are leaving. That's the Great brain Do you
remember this In the late eighties, we had the Great
Brain train where everybody was getting their education in the
cities in Canada and they were moving over to the US,
and we were actually getting less quality people working in
the industries in our countries, so they made an effort
(32:15):
to protect them. The other thing that you had mentioned,
So it wasn't just students and younger people. The people
that could afford to leave the city of Mississauga left,
but there was hoards of people that absolutely could not
leave the city in Mississauga. They can't afford to leave
the city. They can't afford to sell their homes because
they can't afford to buy something new or old or
(32:37):
anywhere else. So they are absolutely handcuffed to our city
with the current positions that they decided to take. So yes,
there is a real problem and it's going to get
worse because those that could leave could leave financially did
those that can't leave now they're stocked.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
So there were two more things that you mentioned.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Some people definitely were voting out of loyalty, so they
made not have understood the position that their candidate had
run on, but they'll vote for them because of either
name recognition or I like the way they talk or
something along those lines. You'd mentioned the last election, the
by election that we had, we had two medical doctors,
(33:17):
we had two international business people. I mean, the list
of talent that we had that were running inside of
the for the mayorial by election was staggering. Twenty people.
And I can tell you for the top ten were fabulous, brilliant,
wonderful options with great ideas, and I don't think anybody
(33:38):
actually took a look at seriously, and I know that
for myself. I think there were seven thousand people on
the day of the election that looked at my website
and they spent all of seven seconds on my website.
So yeah, they don't really put it that much of
an opportunity to educate. There was another thing that somebody
had said about one of the counselors that was running
(33:59):
for had come up with some ideas to save money.
These ideas could have been implemented as a counselor. They
could still be implemented as counselors, So why aren't they
doing it? People like you me, Kim Athena, We can't
do that from this side of the podium. We can
only do it on that side of the podium. You
can only suggest it, but it can be easily ignored.
(34:20):
So you are right, we don't have enough power. But
the election next year there's a real possibility that people
will start applying themselves, and when they understand the power
of their vote, they may very well make an effort
to go up to the voting boots and actually make
an effort to look at the opportunity that's existing. In
(34:40):
front of them and the people that are running.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I think people got to take a look at the
reality of their tax build increases over the course of
the last couple of years, if not ten years, and
pay attention. Because if we don't pay attention and we don't,
you know, like that old movie network, I'm mad as
blank and I'm not going to take it anymore. We're
not going to have any change. Got to take a
break for some messages and were back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Stay with us, everybody, No Radio, No Problem. Stream is
live on SAGA nine sixty am dot.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
C A.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Welcome back everyone to the Brian Crown Radio r. I've
got a few concerned citizens, residents taxpayers for Mississauga that
have reached out to me asking for an opportunity to
voice their concerns, which I think is great because we
need actual citizens to get involved, to do the analysis,
to do the work and complain and make their concerns heard.
(35:44):
Otherwise our elected representatives just aren't going to pay attention
to make any changes. Kim, Are there specific areas that
you think we need to pay attention to? Are there
suggestions or or are you just throwing your hands up
in the air what can we do well.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
I don't like that the councilors are saying, what services
would you like to see us cut? Isn't that their
job to go in there and find savings. There's no accountability.
As George has mentioned before, there's no transparency. We ask
them questions on certain budget items, we don't get an
answer or it's a very vague answer. But for example,
(36:22):
there's a difference between wants and needs. The window removal
that they've now added on is an additional service for
the entire city.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
Why.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
I understand people throw their backs out, but for me,
it's always neighborly. All the neighbors get out. We're helping
each other. It builds a sense of community. Now we're
paying extra to have this additional service, which is going
to be fuck come like six hours after the first
snow pass for twenty one dollars per house. So those
households that are paying it, the secondary sidewalks are clearing. Okay,
(36:57):
I'm not gonna wait ten hours to clear sidewalk. When
I go out to do this, shovel the snow, or
rather my husband he's going to be the one that's
going to shove. We're not going to wait till the
next day when it could actually freeze and harden. It
even be worse to shovel. We shovel when we shovel
the driveway. It's kind of like, who are they doing
this for? For a few amount of people just to
(37:19):
get better votes. It's not a requirement, And it added
another added more money to our budget that we could
have waited us.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It seems like we pay a lot of attention to
things we can add, but not a lot of attention
to whether there's anything we can subtract exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
And for them to ask us, it's kind of like, well,
that's your job. You're supposed to be watching our money.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Are are they?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
I've heard stories of incredible bureaucracy and and you know,
having to go back for approvals over and over and
over again, and reviews over and over and over again.
I don't know if it's true, but I think that
you're right. You know, we we elect these people to
review the budgets. I think we need to have far
attention because I come back to if any business increased
their expenses by two or three times inflation every year
(38:06):
for a decade, there'd be a problem. And the only
The only salvation for the for the municipal government is
that they've been able to increase their taxes by the
same amount. And we haven't complained about it. We haven't
other than uh, you know, fifty thousand of us leaving
the city this year. We we haven't voted against them. George,
you were saying that you're worried that it's not just
(38:26):
tax increases that are of concern, that there's lifestyle interested
lifestyle issues. You're unmute. What is your what are your concerns?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
You're right, I did mention it, so we'll be quick
about it.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Some of the people don't they rent out, they rent property,
they don't they don't live here, so they think they're
not being effective. But the reality of it is the
quality of living and the standards of our living. The
standards of life have dropped significantly h and these are
non tangible but significant. So our traffic has never been worse.
Police placing. Let's face it, we've got high the highest
(38:59):
prime that I've ever seen in the City of Mississauga.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Our transit city is an absolute joke.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I think that's the one that bugs me the most
because the majority of people that are using transit are
the people that the lowest income, so they needed the most.
So there was a recent motion to put six hundred
thousand dollars to make them my Way at a little
bit more accessible, making it easier for them to navigate
the city. This would help the lowest income people and
(39:27):
it's a small investment of six hundred thousand dollars into
those people, and the city shows now we don't want
to do that. So the people's quality of living, who's
quality of living is probably lower than most of the standards, they're.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
The ones that are affected the most.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
And I can go on about the here Ontario construction
that's being done, we can talk about all of the
speeding that's happening on the major roadways. I can continue,
but the reality of it is we're lowering our standard
of living, in our quality of life, and they're doing
it slowly and to a point where we need to
stand up and say this isn't okay. The second part
that I wanted to bring up is that the Kim
(40:03):
mentioned it, and she mentioned it incredibly well, where she
said that the city has reached out to us, the residents,
what would you do in order to save money? One
of them was what services would you lower in order
for us to save money. I think that's an insult.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
Reality of it is they all ran with this idea
that we're going to give you increased services at a
reasonable price. Now they're telling us what services do you want?
I want better services and I want lower pricing to
do it, and that's the reason why we hired them.
The second, the third point that you made, you asked
what are the options? Kim made this point really well,
and she said that we're not really in a position
(40:40):
to tell people or tell the city how they can
save money. But you and I, we both know that
we ran and so we had some ideas. So I
came up with a few that I thought was important.
So one of the biggest ones was the city blocks
real competition and his procurement processes. So whenever they were
doing any type of work, and I remember this was
a couple of splash pads that were being reimagined in
(41:04):
the City of Mississauga, they got bidding from five different people.
One of the persons had met the minimum requirement significantly more,
but were completely ignored and they were a really really
low bid by six or seven million. They weren't chosen,
and then when they asked, can we do an audit?
Speaker 4 (41:19):
They said sure.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
And the people that chose the procurement, they were the
people that did the audit. So of course they're going
to find justifications. So that's got to change, right, So
that's one of them. So we have the city has
too many low vehicle and equipment. We could basically get
rid of some of the vehicles some of the equipment
that were no longer using. My favorite one is consultants.
(41:40):
We hired consultants to do city work that the staff
promised that they would do. That's a ridiculous idea, so
we should be doing that. And then oh wait, I
got a really good one here. The city manages growth
every year without strong evaluation, so we wind up spending
more money into a problem that we should That's the
other one, and I like this one because it actually
(42:01):
came up with the I got a great example of it.
The city funds major projects before delay, before the design
work is finished, and then the city then the money
sits in sits frozen for years when the delay occurs,
and then the taxes rise up and then we have
to cover the cost of the gap. Bluer Street integration
project is a perfect example of it. They originally said
(42:22):
it was gonna be twenty seven million dollars. This was
supposed to happen ten years ago. It didn't happen. I
guarantee you that twenty seven million dollars now is going
to be thirty two In order to offset that cost,
we're now talking about adding another five million dollars. That
means we're gonna have to increase the taxes. This is
all because of poor planning and bad fiscal understanding what
(42:46):
needs to be done.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
We've only got a few minutes left. I want to
ask you one last question on a topic here that
I think really hasn't had enough attention paid to it.
And George, you mentioned increases in crime. I think a
lot of people you have heard either sprains personally themselves
or heard about neighbors that have have been broken into,
car jackings, home invasions, you know, shootings in pork Credit,
(43:10):
you know issues in Brampton. You know, we've heard lots
of issues about crime in our city. Last year there
was a twenty three percent increase in the Peel Police budget.
And I think about this two ways. You know, the
mayor and a couple of people on council voted against
that twenty three percent increase, which which concerns me because
(43:31):
if there really was a need, and a lot of
us felt that there was a need because crime had escalated,
you know, why would they vote against that twenty three percent?
And then I think in addition, you talk about poor planning.
If there was that need, isn't it really the responsibility
of all those people that were on the on council
and particularly on the ap Peel Police Board in prior
(43:54):
years that hadn't voted for appropriate increases in the past
that put us in this situation that required a twenty
three percent. So it's almost as if you know, if
you've got a twenty three percent increase in the police budget, Frankly,
everyone that was on the board, everyone that was on
council in the prior couple of years that allowed this
(44:16):
crime situation to escalate to the extent that it did
such that we needed a twenty three percent should be
out of business, should be out of a job, should
be sent packing. And the people that that that put
their heads in the sand and didn't realize that we
needed that increase. If we really did need that increase
should similarly be sent packing, Like, how do you guys think?
(44:38):
I think this is atrocious, both for the past people
as well as the current people. If we had to
have it, if we really truly had to have a
twenty three percent increase, and now it's going to be
still a substantial increase this year, so even that is
going to be multiples of inflation this year. We got
a problem here that no one's been planning for, paying
(44:59):
attention to and addressing.
Speaker 5 (45:01):
So I actually have the budget numbers for the Peel
Police for twenty twenty three years an increase of eight
point two percent, and twenty twenty four, fourteen, and twenty
twenty five was the twenty three percent. This year it's
eleven nine point nine percent plus the levee. Oh no,
the levee is being removed, so it's nine point nine
percent increase this year. The presentation made by the Peel
(45:24):
Police show that with the addition of these additional three
hundred police officers they hired from the twenty twenty five budget,
crime has decreased and response time has decreased.
Speaker 6 (45:37):
I just saw this the other day. So there.
Speaker 5 (45:41):
They're saying that it was necessary According to some of
the research we've done, Mississauga is under Peel police force
is underserved, there's not enough, we should have more. And
this year they're asking for one hundred and seventy five
new officer, another one hundred though three hundred last year,
(46:04):
one hundred and seventy five this year, and then they're
going to uh, was it thirty five or twenty five
civilians new civilians. But the problem is part of our
problem is that Peel pays sixty five or sorry, City
of Mississauga pays sixty five percent of it, and Brampton
(46:25):
pays only thirty eight percent. Caldon pays nothing, even though
they're voting on they have votes on this budget. So
it's it's kind of two things. They're one the inequality
on the voting, whether that twenty three percent those people
should have been watching the police more. But on the
(46:46):
other hand, they're not allowed to the province. The police
budget falls under provincial legislation and they do not have
to share any information about the budget, can appeal.
Speaker 6 (46:58):
The only thing they can do is ex is that
what they see or reject it.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
If they rejected, look, I don't think that's true. I
think that there are several representatives from Mississauga Council that
are on the Peel Police Board and they get an opportunity.
So you're correct that the whole councilors only cannot. The
whole council cannot, but the members of the Peel Police
Board can and have a real opportunity to have input
(47:25):
on and those those members include the mayor unless the
mayor wants to give it to someone else, and other councilors.
And so I think that they've abdicated their responsibility, and
too often they'll use the excuse I think that you
just use, which is, oh, well, you know the province
can I mandate that. You know, the reality is, if
(47:46):
you needed a twenty three percent increase on top of
what you just outlined were increases that were substantial in
the past, you've done something wrong. You've allowed crime to escalate,
and you know to say, well, well, it's because we're
paying a disproportion to share. You know, criminals don't know
where the Mississauga Brampton border is. They go back and
(48:06):
forth whenever they want. We've got to have a police
force that stops crime from happening, and I think I
think we've had a police board and a council that
haven't been paying attention to safety and crime to the
extent that they need to.
Speaker 5 (48:21):
Well, I think the police board was saying that they
didn't have enough resources, hence why they had to hire
three hundred new officers last year.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
And I think you're probably right that they may not
have had enough resources. But isn't that the fault of
the people that didn't give them the resources in the past,
which is frankly the same people were talking about. It's
the counselors that are still on council and the mayors.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Yeah, I think so much. It's the pure Police Board
because it's the Pere Police Board that makes decisions for
the pure police budgets. So except that the Peer Police
Board that this would need to be addressed with, because
as kim I saied earlier, counselors at the regional level
can on either accept or not accept the peer Police
Board budget that's presented to them.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
So I apollow, Joes, I disagree with you because the
mayor has a seat on that Police Services Board and
shed in case unless she gives it up, which this
time she did give it up, which I think is
really really a shame because if the mayor has the
opportunity to be on one of the most important boards
and doesn't take that opportunity to get inside the room
(49:22):
and argue for what she believes is right, I think
that that's a problem. And then there's another counselor that
also gets appointed, and so Mississauga has got seats on
that police board, and I think you need to take
that opportunity to have your input anyway. I just I
think the fact that that crime is up and maybe
down this year, thankfully, but crime is certainly up over
(49:43):
over time that the Police Board hasn't and the Police
Services Board and the police haven't been able to stamp
down crime to the extent that I think we all
need to have them do so so that we feel
safe in our homes. And there's just no question that
people don't feel as safe in Mississaugas as they did
in the past. I person only had two home invasions
and burglaries in the past eighteen months, and I hear
(50:06):
about it in my neighborhood all the time. And second
of all, that people are voting with their feet to
leave the city out migration for the first time in history,
when we used to be proud that people wanted to
come to Mississauga, and now people want to leave Mississauga.
And the fact that we have increased our taxes and
our expenses in Mississauga almost non stop for a decade
(50:29):
at two to three times inflation, I think is tatamaount
to a failure, a failed system, A business would never survive. Frankly,
I think that you know a country, you know runs
into problems like Canada did in the nineteen nineties, like
lots of different countries around the world are facing. I
think we've got a major problem, and I think that
(50:52):
we're not getting media attention to it. I don't think
we're getting political attention to it. I don't think we're
getting community attention to it. And so I really congratulate
the role that the three of you are playing and
your group is playing, and I thank you for that,
and I hope that I hope that you get hurt,
and so thank you very much for coming on my
show and sharing your concerns. I hope that are people
are listening. That's our show for everybody. Thank you for joining.
(51:14):
I think that this is going to be one of
the most important issues in the upcoming election campaign, and
I hope to blank that people listen and pay attention
and use the franchise they're given to go out and
vote and not just vote for the name that they recognize.
And that's how we get inertia, That's how we get
institutional malaise. That's how we get the Titanic still heading
(51:37):
to the iceberg without making any changes. Good night, everybody,
thanks for joining Kim Athena. George really appreciate it. I
want to end with a message for every resident of Mississauga,
whether you want a home or rent an apartment, run
a small business, or simply care about the future of
the city, because the conversation we had tonight was not
just about taxes. It was about trust, transparency, and whether
(52:01):
local government is being honest with the people who fund it.
Over the past several weeks, a group of residents, George Taveras, Campaigns,
Tagidou and many others I'm told, have done something our
city rarely does. They went through the budget line by
line and what they uncovered is deeply concerning. Despite the
city's messaging, Mississauga does not have a revenue problem. It
(52:22):
has a spending discipline and accountability problem. For more than
a decade, taxes have risen faster than inflation, faster than wages,
faster than almost every comparable municipality. And yet residents, I
don't think see better services. They see stalled projects, reduced
transit quality, rising crime, and unfilled promises. And instead of transparency,
(52:44):
they're getting accounting accounting tricks. Most residents doun't know that
the city uses a blended rate reporting, dividing in the
tax rate by three to make the increase seem smaller.
That's not clarity, it's camouflage. The actual city portion of
your tax rate is far higher than the number you're shown.
They take the Mississauga tax increase and divide it by
(53:06):
the Mississauga and Peel taxes and cut it in half.
And then there's the governance I balance. Mississauga pays sixty
two percent of the Peel regional police budget. Yets hold
less than half of the votes on regional council that
oversees policing. That's taxation without proportional representation, and it means
that Mississauga residents paid most of the bill while others
(53:28):
decide how the money is spent. Police budget went up
by twenty three percent last year. I think that says
the people that under budgeted in prior years that led
to this incredible crime suite, the spree that we've been seeing,
the burglaries, the home invasions, the car jackings, they're the
ones at fault, not the ones that have actually met
(53:51):
the demand today. Meanwhile, residents have identified realistic opportunities to
save two to three percent across every department, without touching
essential services and without the knowledge of what's really going on.
But when a motion came forward to look for just
two percent in efficiencies, almost every councilor voted against it,
even though two of the councilors in last year's Miss
(54:12):
Saga Marity by election committed to either no tax increase
or tax in tax increases only to the rate of inflation.
So not because savings aren't possible, because there's no political
will to actually look for it. And now we face
another loomy challenges the next MPAC assessment. As property values rise,
taxes could jump by thousands for many, a massive hidden
(54:34):
tax increase unless council lowers the mill rate, and based
on past behavior, I dot they will. This means residents
could pay dramatically more without any council debate, without any vote,
and without any accountability. Most troubling of all is civic
engagement in Mississauga. I fear is collapsing. Residents don't attend
(54:54):
budget meetings, they voter turnout keeps falling twenty something percent
in the last by election, and people feel their voices
no longer matter. But apathy isn't the problem. It's the
symptom when people try to speak and nothing changes. Eventually
they stop trying, they stop speaking. Mississauga is a great city.
But great cities don't stay great by accident. They stay
(55:17):
great because people pay attention and ask questions, demand transparency,
refuse to accept spin when they deserve the truth, and
get involved. We need discipline budgeting, We need honest communication.
We need leadership that treats every tax dollar like it
came from their own wallet. And we need citizens who
stay engaged because the cost of disengagement will always show
(55:38):
up on your tax bill. Mississaga deserves better, and as time,
we insist on it. That's our show for tonight. Thank
you everyone for joining us.
Speaker 8 (55:46):
I'm on every Monday through Friday at six o'clock on
nine to sixty am. You can stream me online at
Triple W Saga ninety sixty am dot CA. You can
you get all my podcasts and videocasts on Briancrombie dot com,
on YouTube, on Facebook and Instagram, and on audible polyadcasts,
on Apple Podcasts and on Speakeasy. Thank you, check me out,
Good night, everybody.
Speaker 1 (56:06):
Thank you, No radio, no problem. Stream us live on
Saga nine six am dot co.
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