Mississauga Asks Federal and Provincial Governments to Support City-Building Initiatives

Big cities need new ways to fund infrastructure and other projects. The City of Mississauga is taking action by asking the federal and provincial governments to contribute to its city-building projects and initiatives in their 2017 budgets. Today the City’s General Committee approved the proposed requests for the City’s top priorities – transit, infrastructure, job creation and partnerships.

“The City of Mississauga and Members of Council welcome the opportunity to offer recommendations and outline our priorities to the federal and provincial governments as they prepare their 2017 budgets,” Mayor Bonnie Crombie said. “We need to find more options for sustainable funding to address our critical needs in areas such as transit, infrastructure and affordable housing and work together with the federal and provincial governments to build a 21st Century city.”

The downtown segment of the Mississauga Transitway and Regional Express Rail, along with new construction and other infrastructure projects, require sustainable funding. Federal and provincial support for transit and city-building projects such as Dundas Connects and Inspiration Lakeview is critical to boosting economic growth, job creation and productivity.

“Like all municipalities, Mississauga receives only 10 per cent of all tax dollars collected in Canada,” said Janice Baker, City Manager and Chief Administrative Officer. “At the same time, the City owns 65 per cent of its infrastructure, much of which is aging. We acknowledge the contributions the federal and provincial governments have provided; there has been good progress. We ask both levels of government to continue to partner with us to help meet the challenges facing our growing communities.”

Other priorities include support for active transportation, small business and entrepreneurs.

Read the full submissions for further information.