Jammu Journal

Mississauga needs a mayor who can tell the difference between a priority and a vanity project – Bonnie Crombie

Mississauga, Ontario – 14th October, 2026 – Mayoral candidate Bonnie Crombie has released her full election platform, A Future You Can Afford. Experience You Can Trust. It is built around four priorities: protecting jobs and affordability, cutting congestion, making neighbourhoods safer, and stopping Mayor Carolyn Parrish’s proposed redevelopment of the Living Arts Centre.

“Mississauga should be a city where hard work pays off,” Crombie said. “That is the future I am running to deliver.”

Crombie says residents are working hard and watching their spending but still struggling to get ahead. Businesses face uncertainty, parents are worried about their children’s future, and seniors wonder whether they can afford to stay in the community they helped build. She says City Hall needs to understand those pressures and act on them.

1. Jobs and affordability

Support for businesses hit by tariffs

• A time-limited program would let businesses that are directly and materially affected by U.S. tariffs defer the City portion of qualifying commercial and industrial property taxes, interest-free, starting with the next tax bill. Businesses would need to show tariff exposure to qualify. Crombie would ask Peel Region and Ontario to offer comparable relief on their portions.
• Qualifying Mississauga-based small and medium-sized suppliers would be paid within 15 days.
• A Mayor’s Tariff Action Team would give employers one senior point of contact. Major employers facing significant job losses or investment decisions would get a response within 48 hours.
• Canadian and Ontario purchasing preferences would be written into the procurement by-law wherever the law allows. This would be backed by a Made-in-Mississauga procurement strategy, fair access for smaller firms on large contracts, a requirement to identify Canadian alternatives before buying internationally, and an annual public scorecard of City purchasing.

Attracting investment and better jobs

• Tariff Investment Fast Track. Qualifying projects would get a senior City contact, an approvals roadmap within 10 business days, and a target of 90 days to complete City-controlled approvals wherever possible. Deferring eligible fees until construction or production begins would also be examined.
• Employment lands. Strategic employment lands would be protected for advanced manufacturing, logistics, research and life sciences, with a public inventory of investment-ready sites.
• Pearson Economic Zone. Crombie would build it into a centre for trade and investment, targeting aerospace, logistics, advanced manufacturing and life sciences, and helping firms reach Europe, Asia, the Gulf and Latin America.
• Lakeview Innovation Corridor. The waterfront corridor would become central to investment attraction.
• Export help. A searchable supplier and exporter network would be created, along with targeted export missions and help reaching federal trade commissioners and Export Development Canada.
• Seats at the table. A Mayor’s Economic and Trade Council would be formed, and Crombie would personally represent the city at major economic tables.
• Tracking results. A quarterly Trade and Jobs Dashboard would report on progress.

Taxes and spending

• Keeping City tax increases at or below inflation would be the goal, supported by a line-by-line review of every department while frontline services are protected.
• An independent Auditor General would report directly to Council, with public findings and tracked recommendations.
• Full financing, staffing and maintenance costs would be disclosed before major projects are approved. The same scrutiny would apply to Peel Region spending.
• Homeowners who pay their annual property tax in January would get an early-payment discount. The City Treasurer would assess a rate between 2 and 5 per cent, it would be proposed in Crombie’s first budget, and it would take effect the following tax year. Monthly and instalment options would remain.

Help for families

• The ActiveAssist recreation credit would rise to $500 per eligible participant.
• Free MiWay travel for children and the low-income transit discount would be protected, with simpler applications and help registering for PRESTO.
• A targeted emergency transportation fund would be delivered through community agencies.

Seniors

• The property tax rebate for eligible low-income seniors would increase to $1,000, and support for eligible residents with disabilities would be maintained.
• Eligible homeowners aged 65 and older could defer annual tax increases for one year, interest-free.
• A Stay at Home partnership fund would pay for minor safety upgrades such as grab bars, and windrow clearing would be expanded where demand exceeds spaces.
• Free MiWay travel and free City fitness memberships for seniors would be protected, with more adapted programs and indoor pickleball.
• Benches, accessible bus stops and safer crossings would be added near seniors’ destinations.
• A Mississauga Seniors Advantage Program would be created, along with multi-year support for groups that reduce isolation.
• City land and partnership opportunities for affordable seniors’ housing would be published within the first year, and garden suites and multigenerational housing would be made easier.

A fair chance for every resident

• Emergency rent and utility assistance and eviction prevention would be strengthened, with a targeted City contribution in the first budget.
• A dedicated partnership process would support non-profit, co-operative and supportive housing. Suitable municipal sites would be identified within the first year.
• Existing rental buildings would be acquired where possible to preserve affordability, and stable funding for outreach and supportive housing would be pursued.
• Food Banks Mississauga and student-nutrition programs would get multi-year funding.
• More benefits and tax-filing clinics would be offered, and paid work placements and apprenticeships would be expanded.
• A first-year poverty-reduction action plan would set measurable targets, with annual public reporting.

2. Cutting congestion: Mississauga Moves 2.0

“Time stuck in traffic is time away from family,” Crombie said.

• Line 2 subway. Within her first year, Crombie would seek a partnership with Ontario, Metrolinx, Toronto and the TTC on a business case to extend Line 2 west from Kipling through Sherway Gardens into downtown Mississauga. The study would look at Dundas and other routes.
• Hazel McCallion Line. Passenger service by December 31, 2028 would become a formal City priority. A public milestone schedule would be requested within 100 days, and Crombie would push for funding of the downtown loop.
• Faster LRT service. She would press for transit signal priority from opening day and work toward five-minute peak service as ridership allows.
• Rapid-transit grid. Rapid buses, express service and transit priority would come to Dundas, Derry, Dixie, Burnhamthorpe, Eglinton, Erin Mills, Mavis, Britannia, Matheson and Courtneypark.
• Regional connections. A joint transit initiative with Brampton would be launched. An Airport Workforce Transit Network would serve shift workers, and Crombie would push to complete the Eglinton Crosstown West link to Pearson.
• More frequent MiWay. Service would run every 15 minutes or better on major corridors and every 10 minutes or better on the busiest routes, where ridership supports it.
• Milton line. A capacity plan with Ontario, Metrolinx and CPKC would build toward all-day, two-way service.
• GO service. Crombie would advocate for electrification and 15-minute-or-better Lakeshore West service, plus frequent electrified Kitchener line service through Malton.
• Traffic Flow First. Signals would be synchronized, chronic bottlenecks fixed, construction coordinated, and enforcement against blocked intersections stepped up.
• Annual Mississauga Congestion Report Card. This would measure year-over-year results.

3. Safer neighbourhoods

• Police Services Board. Crombie would return to the Peel Police Services Board, which she says Parrish walked away from.
• Priority crimes. Home invasions, break-and-enters, auto theft, extortion, violent robbery and organized crime would be the focus.
• Extortion. She would support specialized police capacity, coordination with the OPP, CBSA and international partners, and multilingual victim support, including for targeted South Asian businesses and families.
• Hate crime and trust. Hate-crime work would be strengthened, and work with the Ontario Human Rights Commission on systemic and anti-Black racism would continue.
• Officers on the street. More civilian staffing and responsible automation would free officers from desk work.
• 911. Next Generation 911 would be modernized, and every 911 call would still be answered by a person.
• Police budget. An annual Public Safety Value Review would examine police spending.
• Mental-health crisis response. Crisis response teams would be expanded.
• Roads and schools. Safety efforts near schools would address speeding and e-scooter use.
• Youth. Crime prevention would be built into the Malton and Glenforest youth hubs.
• Reporting. A quarterly Community Safety Dashboard would track results.
• Repeat offenders. Crombie would advocate for bail reform and action on stolen-vehicle exports.

4. Stopping the Living Arts Centre redevelopment

Crombie called Parrish’s proposed $2.5-billion redevelopment of the Living Arts Centre and surrounding civic lands “the wrong priority at the wrong time.” She pointed to what she described as Parrish’s 15% tax increase.

She would bring forward a motion to stop the proposal and end further discretionary spending on it, subject to a public accounting of existing obligations. The Living Arts Centre would continue as a home for performances, arts education and community programming.

“I will stop the vanity project and put residents’ priorities back at the centre of City Hall’s decisions,” Crombie said.

About Bonnie Crombie

Bonnie Crombie is a business leader and experienced public servant who served as Mayor of Mississauga from 2014 to 2024. She won three consecutive city-wide mandates, with 64 per cent of the vote in 2014, 77 per cent in 2018 and 79 per cent in 2022.

Before becoming mayor, she represented Ward 5 on Mississauga City Council and Peel Regional Council from 2011 to 2014. Earlier, she was the Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Streetsville from 2008 to 2011. From 2023 to 2026 she led the Ontario Liberal Party, which won 30 per cent of the vote under her leadership and regained official party status.

As mayor, she advanced the Hazel McCallion LRT, launched Mississauga’s first city-wide housing strategy, revitalized community centres and attracted new investment. Before public life, she held senior roles at McDonald’s, The Walt Disney Company and the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

She holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto, an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business, and the Institute of Corporate Directors designation. She is a mother of three and a new grandmother, and has lived in Mississauga for nearly three decades.

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