Ontario Construction News staff writer
Mississauga council’s 2022 federal and provincial pre-budget consultation submissions focus on city building, community and the local economy.
“From delivering transit services, to offering outdoor activities in parks and public spaces, to ensuring building permits are approved quickly, cities like Mississauga are the backbone of our province and our country,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie.
“As we look to 2022 and beyond, I’m calling on our federal and provincial partners to continue to work with us. City building is nation building.”
City building recommendations in the reports include:
- Access to continued safe restart funding to financially recover from the pandemic.
- Development of new revenue tools to allow municipalities to deliver quality services while keeping property taxes affordable.
- Sustainable, long-term funding for infrastructure renewal, active transportation and climate change mitigation and resiliency projects.
- Funding and support for the city’s five priority transit projects: Restoring the Downtown Loop (Hurontario LRT), Two-Way, All-Day Service on the Milton GO Rail Corridor, Eglinton Crosstown West Extension to the Airport, Downtown Mississauga Terminal and Transitway Connection and the Dundas Bus Rapid Transit Corridor.
“To build complete communities within world-class cities, municipalities require new sources of revenue beyond the property tax,” the submissions state. “The demands of delivering services, while maintain existing infrastructure in a state of good repair and building new amenities is more than our budgets can bear.”
Also, cities need new funding from upper levels of government because they face new issues including responding to climate change, adapting to changes in the national and global economies.
“Cities need the support of federal and provincial partners to not only fund critical infrastructure, but also provide support for our operations.”
Currently, municipalities receive nine cents of every dollar collected by governments in Canada, but are responsible for 60 cents of every dollar spent on infrastructure.
The City of Mississauga owns about 60 percent of the municipality’s infrastructure worth about $13.6 billion including $3.1 billion in roads, $5.3 billion in stormwater systems and $973 million in bridges.
“With an average annual infrastructure gap of approximately $40 to $45 million, the city continues to struggle with funding shortfalls,” the report states. “The city’s current funding does not fully fund all capital requirements, but balances the need to maintain our infrastructure . . . and as a result, the condition of some of our assets is starting to decline.”