Crombie's pitch to Mississauga voters: New subway line, lower property taxes and fiscal oversight

Election day is quickly approaching and we're talking with the top four candidates who are vying for Mississauga's top job. Let's talk to Bonnie Crombie. Just so that we're clear, will you raise property taxes and if so, by how much or how little? No, my goal is to ensure that they stay at or below the rate of inflation. That's where they always were and that's where they should be. People can't afford higher property taxes. I would be going line by line looking for savings. I'll be challenging departments to cut back, even if it means staffing. But honestly, this council has been on a spending spree. We don't have a revenue problem in Mississauga. We have a spending problem. And unfortunately, that has to be curtailed. And that's starting job one, the next budget. Honestly, people can't afford the increases that they've been seeing. I mean, when I opened my own tax bill, my heart skipped beats. I'm sure that was true of almost everyone seniors worried about losing their homes people who are seniors who are renters or are still affected by the increases young families nobody can afford those and they're not sustainable and people who are promising tax freezes let's be honest those aren't sustainable either because the reality is we have union contracts that go up at the rate of inflation so our costs are going up at the rate of inflation and you can only dip into the reserves like they did this year to lower the tax rate you can only do that once maybe you can do it twice but now you're missing that portion that you've taken out in the reserve fund that's that's needed for other other things like paving of our roads our capital investments it won't be there for when we do need it how will you make it easier for businesses the small businesses to thrive in the city so approvals let's start with that even for something like a new sign approval for a permit for a new business this takes exceptionally long in Mississauga and that would have been my next order of business had I stayed on in the mayor's chair that is what we really need to do understand where those bottlenecks are and make it easier if the city of Toronto can provide permits and make approvals within three month period of time so should Mississauga and that is my commitment so we need to really facilitate things in any new business looking to locate in Mississauga I'm going to give them a concierge service to give them that 90-day service so that is one way we can make it easier for our businesses but you know as you well know i put forward a plan to protect jobs and make our economy more resilient during this tariff war that we're in so we need to put more cash back in cash flow back in the hands of these companies so we would pay our bills within 15 days rather than the usual 30 or 60 or 90 days that'll help the concierge service we need also to if they're directly impacted to waive the increase on their their business tax bill and i would consider They're waiving their taxes for a one-year period. I'm wondering, considering what you have been able to notice and see with Ridgeway Plaza, how would you go about encouraging more Ridgeway Plazas in the society? So Ridgeway Plaza has become a tourist destination. And, you know, I plan to eat my way through that mall. And it's got fantastic restaurants, and it's a great gathering place as well. But there is a darker side to it. Late at night, there have been altercations. There's noise. the neighbors feel there's increased crime, and also there's street racing. So we have to get a handle on the negative side. And the reality is there are an overabundance of restaurants because other service industries that have closed have opened up as restaurants, and they have limited parking available. We have to encourage someone in the parking lot business to create more accessible parking. I like the idea of creating part of it to be a walking mall and beautified with fountains. I like that very much. But parking has been a challenge, and so we need to encourage someone to build a lot so that we can have more parking. They also need a business improvement area. I have been dealing with a loose business association. Now, let's be honest. These are entrepreneurs. They are generating income for our economy here. They're contributing to the business revenue to the city of Mississauga, and they are employing our young people, probably thousands of young people at Ridgeway Plaza. And all those are the upside, but there are other issues, and I hear from the residents often. In fact, this morning I was at an event, and two residents pulled me aside that live very close to Ridgeway Plaza, and they are affected by late-night noise and street racing, and they're very concerned, so there has to be a balance. So before we open a new Ridgeway Plaza, we have to address the negative concerns. And then, you know, it probably would have to be located not so proximate to existing residential. Let's talk about your subway. If you were elected mayor and you said this is your second order of business is to make sure this plan gets pushed through. How do you plan to do that? Well, the first thing to do would be to create a feasibility study to create the business case, because we have to present that to the Premier to say there's a business case for this. There's wide acceptance for it. You know, I would like, I hope that when I win, I can announce that we have approval for the subway extension to Mississauga. That's what electing Bonnie Crombie will mean. And I'm so excited about this plan. It just makes sense. And it's time for Mississauga. When you think Vaughan has subway stations, they're a lot smaller than Mississauga. Markham and Richmond Hill, they're planned. And, of course, the end of Scarborough. Why not Mississauga? It makes sense. And when you think about it, we would go from Kipling to Sherway Gardens, and across from Sherway is the Queensway Hospital, so that would create better access for that. The next stop could be our beautiful new hospital out here, Ontario, in Queensway. 22 stories, 3 million square feet, a thousand more beds than is there today. That could be the next stop. That'll be a gem. We are so lucky that we are building that hospital, and we're very grateful. It will be the largest hospital in Canada. So that could be the next stop. And then right into the heartland of the downtown Mississauga our City Hall and Square One Shopping Mall. And there are more than 60,000 residents in the downtown that could use that as east-west commute. It's all about regional connectivity. You know, I know back in the day, Hazel thought we might have our own subway one day. We didn't have the density. But today, what we're concerned about is regional connectivity. so we can get to Scarborough to Mississauga easily on one line or Markham to Mississauga easily on one line. You know, that's what makes ultimate sense and that's what will make the business case for the Premier. He's a Premier that's shown that he likes subways. He's building the Ontario line. Kudos to him. He's completing the Eglinton Crosstown. And you know what's important? To keep those crews working. We have skilled workers. We need to keep them working. And building a subway is the way to do it. we should have been building one kilometer a year for the past 30 years and we haven't been but now it's time to catch up and the more we build the better at it we get and the lower the prices i think we're beginning an expertise now in burrowing so i think this is a home run idea people are really excited about it i speak about it in well obviously in the eight debates tomorrow it's the ninth one that i've been at in community meetings public meetings stakeholder meetings There is no one, including at your debate, that said they're not interested in this idea of the subway. It's captured everyone's imagination. Police funding is also top of mind for this election campaign. How do you plan to make Mississauga safer while also fixing the police funding formula? So let's just start with I've done it before. Secondly, people just don't feel as safe in their communities as they once did. We see rashes of home break-ins, car thefts, carjackings. There's extortion rings. People are really troubled. I know people, my friends who have had home break-ins. It's a real sense of violation. I have a friend who was bear sprayed while his home was being broken into. And I want to be an ally to police. I believe in frontline policing. I want to support our police. And I have been there to deliver budgets that were manageable. You know, you can't quit the police board like the current mayor has done. You can't because who's there to negotiate the budget? We know that we pay 62% of it. And that's why it's so important to sit there and negotiate and say, that's a lot this year. Maybe we can spread that over a couple of years, spread that out a little bit. Where was that voice when you quit to criticize the funding formula? Unfortunately, I have fought elections on separation with Peel in 2018 and 2022. The Premier thought he would go about it. I know he is a conundrum with what to do with the growth of Caledon that, of course, Mississauga and Brampton helped support. But until he changes that funding formula, it is the funding formula. We can't change it. I want to make that very clear. We cannot change it. It's up to the Premier. And I've heard from him, and Mayor Brown has reinforced it, he has no intention of changing it. We will keep advocating for it, for sure. But before it changes, you have to sit at the table negotiate knowing you're going to be paying 60 or 62 percent of it and get the best deal for Mississauga that you can not abdicate the board not quit the board so that you can criticize now I have another solution by the way the OPP use a user pay system and so there's you know competition of whether the police spend more time in Brampton or Mississauga why don't we have the user pay system that'll make it a little fairer too so just depending on where please go and what resources there they use I think it's something that could be be considered and maybe it would help help out change the formula. It's worth studying. I think it's an idea worth examining.