Get Ready Ontario — Mississauga Mayoral Campaign.png

Mike Matulewicz

When people feel safe in their neighbourhoods,

when emergency services arrive,
when no one goes hungry or homeless or forgotten,
when health care and social support are present and working,
communities become resilient.

They become places worth protecting. Worth belonging to.

They close the door on criminal recruitment, radicalization, and the politics of blame.

The promise that drew people to Canada, a safer life, a fair chance,

a country that includes, rather than excludes, is not a sentiment.

It is Canada's strength, it's future and it's sovereignty.

It is the Mayor's job, to ensure their cities are prepared to face the challenges of today's uncertain world.

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To my fellow candidates for Mayor and Council in Mississauga, and the GTA

I'm running for Mayor of Mississauga on one idea: that the safety, health, and affordability of a community come before everything else.

Over this campaign I've put forward a set of plans built on that idea : the Community Response Unit, a safe shelter for women fleeing violence, Food as Infrastructure, and Watchdogs You Can't Fire.

They come from 34 years of watching, up close, what happens when a community is left to react to a crisis instead of preventing it.

I'm not protecting these ideas. I'm offering them.

If any of them fit your community, take them. Build on them. Make them better. I'd be glad to walk you through the costing, the sources, and what I've learned putting them together; just ask.

We are competitors for these seats. We are not competitors on whether our residents are safe, fed, and housed. On that, we stand on the same side.

Reach out any time. Best of luck in your race and remember who we are all working for.

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Mobile phone users scroll down for more content.

My Folding Chair Driveway Campaign.

With Luke my golden retriever and my folding camp chair,

I will come to any driveway, sit for a few minutes and discuss any of these issues with you and your neighbours.

I will not ask for donations,
I will not ask for help canvassing,
I will not try to convince you that I am right.
I only offer my opinion and will listen to yours.

This is your campaign, it is your community needs that are the issue.

To get the Province to change its priorities.

This needs to be a community grass roots movement.

It will spread to other cities.

I will speak to any group within Mississauga or to schedule a driveway chat.

Contact me at : matulewiczmike@hotmail.com

Help Luke and his old detective friend find 100,000 votes. 

Here in Mississauga, about 8 in 10 residents don't vote.

That's the case we're working — and you can help us crack it.

Talk to a neighbour. Share your reason.

Vote on October 26. 

The city works for the people.

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Why a Zero-Dollar Campaign

The economic and social harms to our city from $500 million dollar annual provincial shortfall are real.

The province knows this and still refuses to support, the people that voted them into office.

A mayor elected by 100,000 residents,

with zero dollars spent,
is proof of the one thing money cannot buy,
a community that has had enough and has decided to be heard.

Provincial politics runs on millions of dollars and respects one thing only: votes.

Money it can match. Advertising it can outspend.

A community's resolve it cannot buy.

I will not fight on the field they own, where the deepest pockets win.

I will fight on the one field that beats them: the ballot.

No one can outspend a vote.

And if it can be done here, every shortchanged city in Ontario gets the same key for the next provincial election!

That will get the Province’s attention!

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THE MISSISSAUGA YOUTH CORPS

If you are 18 to 21 years old and live in Mississauga, this program is for you.

It offers a real paid job inside your city.

No university degree required.No experience required.

Just a willingness to show up and contribute.

Every dollar of wages is paid by the federal and provincial governments , not by Mississauga taxpayers.

1,000 Paid jobs for young Mississauga residents every year.

$27.5 Million In direct wages flowing into Mississauga families annually.

$40 Million In total economic activity generated in our city every year.

$0 Cost to the Mississauga taxpayer.

WHAT IS THE MISSISSAUGA YOUTH CORPS?

It is a city-brokered program that connects young Mississauga residents,

aged 18 to 21 with paid, 12-month placements across city departments, local colleges, and Mississauga technology firms.

At the end of 12 months, participants have: A real work record with the City of Mississauga. A career portfolio with their name on it. A fast-track path to college, university, or a tech job.

Young people choose the stream that fits them best.

1. CLEAN AIR AND ENERGY

Air quality monitoring, city building energy studies, solar energy research, and green space projects.

2. FOOD AND URBAN AGRICULTURE

Container farming pilots, food desert mapping, and food bank supply research.

3. DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY

Helping seniors use digital tools, city data projects, and open data research.4. ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFEWildlife studies, urban ecology, conservation, and stormwater research.

5. COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES

Mental health resource mapping, paramedic demand research, and homeless shelter data support.

6. CYBER SECURITY — THE CIVIC CYBER CORPS

Protecting city computer systems, teaching fraud prevention to residents, and working inside Mississauga tech firms.

THE EDUCATION BRIDGE

This program fills the gap between a bright young person and the cost of further education.

For participants who prefer a trade over a university degree,Sheridan's Hazel McCallion Campus — in the heart of Mississauga— already runs a fully approved apprenticeship program.The pathway is built.

This program connects young people to it.

THE TECH APPRENTICESHIP REGISTRY

The City creates a small office inside the Economic Development Division called the Youth Workforce and Innovation Office.

Keep a list of Mississauga tech firms willing to sponsor paid apprenticeships for young residents.

Keep a list of Youth Corps graduates looking for placements.

Match them — actively, personally, with follow-through.

Handle all the federal subsidy paperwork so firms face no administrative burden.

The City does not hire the young people.

The City does not pay the firms.

The City connects them and gets out of the way.

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT

All wages below are paid by the federal or provincial government.

Program. Positions Investment Cost

Civic Innovation (YESS) 400 $12,000,000

Digital Skills for Youth 300 $9,000,000

Civic Cyber Corps 150 $5,250,000

Canada Summer Jobs 150 $1,200,000

TOTAL .... 1,000 jobs. 1,000 $27,450,000

THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT

Young workers spend locally, on groceries, rent, transit, and meals in Mississauga.

That $27.5 million in wages generates an estimated $40 million in total economic activity in our city every year.

THE LONG-TERM EARNINGS EFFECT

The Auditor General of Canada found that young people who complete structured placements like these earn $6,000 more per year for the rest of their careers.

For 1,000 participants over a 30-year working life:$180 million in additional lifetime earnings.

This is not charity. This is economic development.,

WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM

This program draws on six existing federal and provincial funding streams.

1. Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Employment and Social Development Canada. Over $5.2 billion committed nationally from 2019 to 2025.

2. Digital Skills for Youth (DS4Y) Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. $23.8 million announced April 2026 for cybersecurity, AI, and digital skills. Up to $30,000 per placement.

3. Canada Summer Jobs $297 million in 2026. 100,000 positions nationally. 100 per cent wage subsidy for public sector employers.

4. Student Work Placement Program 55,000 work-integrated learning placements currently funded nationally.

5. Cyber Security Cooperation Program Public Safety Canada. Grants up to $300,000 per year. Municipal governments eligible for 100 per cent of costs.6. Ontario Youth Jobs Strategy Provincial matching funds for qualifying placements.

The City of Mississauga contributes:Space, department mentors, and the problems to be solved. Not wages.

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The Clean Air Mississauga Plan

Mississauga residents deserve to know what is in the air they breathe, the water near their homes, and the soil under their children's feet.

For too long, neighbourhoods like Clarkson have carried the health burden of industrial pollution while the city looked the other way.

The Clean Air Mississauga plan changes that. It commits the city to building a real-time neighbourhood monitoring network, partnering with the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College for independent research, and using Mississauga's own Official Plan 2051 as the legal foundation for action.

Paid positions in the Mississauga Youth Corps — funded through federal and provincial grants, not property taxes — will put young people to work monitoring, studying and protecting the community they live in.

Clean air, clean water, and clean soil are not luxuries. They are the foundation of a healthy city.

Complete plan at bottom of this web page.

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Environmental and Community Health Specialty Clinic

Mississauga residents are contributing $390 million toward the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital — the largest hospital project in Canadian history.

That investment deserves a return that reflects the city's documented and unmet health needs.

Peer-reviewed research already links sustained exposure to highway noise and industrial air pollution to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and measurably impaired learning in children.

No existing clinical service in Mississauga adequately addresses these environmental health burdens.

A Matulewicz administration will formally request that Trillium Health Partners and Ontario Health include an Environmental and Community Health specialty clinic — with a dedicated paediatric stream — as part of the new hospital's clinical programming.

This request will be made while payment terms are still being finalized, when the city's leverage is greatest, and will be supported by independent health impact research commissioned through the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Mississauga is paying for Canada's largest hospital.

Its residents deserve Canada's most complete one.

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The Quiet Communities Mississauga Plan

Noise is not merely an inconvenience. Decades of peer-reviewed research link sustained traffic noise to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and in children, measurably slower development of memory and attention.

Mississauga residents living near Highway 403 and the QEW deserve better than a noise bylaw written in 1979.

The Quiet Communities Mississauga Plan commits the city to a real-time neighbourhood noise monitoring network, an updated Official Plan that treats noise as the public health issue it is, a modernized bylaw with enforceable standards, and direct advocacy to the province on the planned 403 noise barrier project.

Paid positions in the Mississauga Youth Corps — funded through federal and provincial grants, not property taxes — will put young people to work measuring and reporting noise levels across every affected neighbourhood.

Quiet streets, quiet parks, and quiet classrooms are not luxuries. They are the foundation of a healthy city.

Full plan attached at end of web site.

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Watchdogs You Can’t Fire

Shared Accountability Across Peel

I spent 34 years with the Toronto Police Service.

The job teaches one rule above all others: the law is the same for everyone, and it should weigh heaviest on the people with the most power.

I’m running for Mayor to bring that rule inside City Hall.

The finding: City Hall’s watchdogs have holes

Mississauga has two basic watchdogs the law requires: an Integrity Commissioner and an investigator for closed-door meetings.

But the Integrity Commissioner only watches elected members — not senior staff, and not whether you got value for your money.

The team that checks spending, Internal Audit, reports to the very City Manager it audits.

And the strongest spending watchdog — an independent Auditor General — was put to council in March 2026, and voted down.

The risk: now the watchdogs can be fired

In 2025, the Mayor gained “strong-mayor” powers.

A Mayor can now fire the City Manager, and certain senior staff, alone — with no council vote.

That includes the people who keep the administration honest.

We have already seen a top official fired without cause — no public reason given, and no public price tag, though the settlement quietly cost residents hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As power concentrates, oversight must rise to meet it.

The fix: share the watchdogs — and no one can fire them

Mississauga does not have to build its watchdogs alone. It can share them with its neighbours — Brampton, Caledon or others.

A watchdog hired by three councils, answering to all three together, cannot be fired by any one Mayor.

No single office can dismiss it, pressure it, or starve it of funds.

Shared oversight is harder to capture — and it costs less, split three ways.

For a small town, sharing is about saving money.

For a city our size, it is about something better: independence you can trust.

What we’d share: one shared office, jointly run.

Rather than three cities each hiring the same people, Peel’s cities could stand up one shared office jointly funded, jointly governed.

The watchdogs

Independent Auditor General — Watches how your money is spent, and whether you got value for it.

Integrity Commissioner — Watches the conduct of elected officials against the code of conduct.

Closed-meeting investigator — Makes sure decisions aren’t made behind closed doors.

Lobbyist Registrar — Keeps a public record of who is lobbying City Hall.

Shared specialists

Cybersecurity officer — Protects your data and the city’s systems from attack — a threat that crosses every border.

Internal audit team — Independent checks on spending and process, not reporting to the people audited.

Building-inspection support — Extra qualified inspectors when demand spikes, so safety checks don’t fall behind.

Emergency-management coordinator — One plan that works across the whole region when something goes wrong.

Joint purchasing — Better prices on equipment and services by buying together.

Shared legal and records help — Specialized support no single city needs full-time, available to all.

The guardrails: two limits that keep it honest

The Clerk and the Treasurer stay local — every city needs its own. They are not shared.

And no shared officer wears two hats: a watchdog is never also the city’s lawyer or advisor.

Independence only counts if it is real.

The commitment: this binds the Mayor too!

Build the watchdogs Mississauga is missing — and build them shared, so they answer to three councils and can be fired by none.

You cannot quietly remove a watchdog that three councils jointly hired.

The city works for the people.

And the people deserve watchdogs that work for them, too.

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Mike Matulewicz for Mayor of Mississauga

Community First. It's That Simple.

A Mississauga that is safe, that you can afford, and that leaves no one behind.

That last part is not charity.

It is the cheapest, smartest way to run a city — because a neighbour who is housed, fed, and safe never becomes the emergency we all pay for later.

I spent 34 years with the Toronto Police Service — as a detective, a supervisor, and a planner of front-line operations.

I have lived in Mississauga for over forty years.

Now I am running for Mayor.

What Is Happening in Your Community Right Now

Emergency room waits of six to twelve hours.
Police buried under 911 calls they cannot reach.
More than one in five of us without a family doctor.
Paramedic and firefighter shortages — help that arrives too slowly.
Food banks busier than ever: 503,705 visits last year, nearly one in three a child.
Seniors who spent forty years paying off a home, now unable to stay in it.
Trade disruptions threatening up to 500,000 Ontario jobs.

These are not policy problems. They are your neighbours' lives.

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The Deal Is Broken — The Fair Share We Are Owed

For every dollar you pay in taxes, Mississauga gets back about 37 cents in services. The Ontario average is 76 cents.That gap is about $500 million every year — roughly $578 per resident — and it has held for two decades.

You paid for the shortfall twice: once in taxes, and again in the services that never came.

The City has documented this. City Council has endorsed it without a single vote against. The number is not in dispute. The action is.

There is a second gap, closer to home. Mississauga funds about 62 percent of the Peel Regional Police budget; Brampton funds about 38 percent — with a nearly equal population.

A fair share is owed at both levels: by the Province that sets the formula, and by the Region that splits the bill.

A fair share is not a favour. It is arithmetic.

For decades, Mississauga's own mayors — Hazel McCallion, Bonnie Crombie, and today Carolyn Parrish — have said the same thing across different parties: this city does not get its fair share.

Everyone agrees on the problem. The only question left is how to make the Province and the Region finally act.

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What I Stand For

1. Recover the money we are owed. Fight the Province, every year, to close the 37-cent gap — and put what we recover back into the health, policing, and city services families have already paid for.

2. Safer streets, done smarter — a Community Response Unit. 305 trained civilian responders for the roughly 40 percent of 911 calls that are not crimes. Faster help for you, police freed for real crime. (Full plan below.)

3. Let seniors keep their homes. A property-tax deferral so no senior loses the home they spent forty years paying off — based on a plan the City of Ottawa already runs.

4. Homes you can afford — and keep. A Community Land Trust that keeps housing affordable permanently, built on city land at no cost to taxpayers. (Full plan below.)

5. Food as infrastructure. Claim Mississauga's share of new federal food funding and build local food production — not just another charity drive. (Full plan below.)

6. A safe bed for every woman fleeing violence — funded like fire and ambulance, not by donations. (Full plan below.)

7. Open City Hall. An independent Auditor General and city business published by default, so you can see how your money is spent. (Full plan below.)

8. City-run medical clinics. A model already working in B.C., where a city clinic in Colwood (population 20,000) drew 100 doctors within weeks of opening.

9. A prepared city — one that sees problems coming and acts before they arrive, not after.

10. Press for a transit levy. Push the Province to let Mississauga put a small fuel levy toward public transit, as Victoria and Montreal already do.

11. Mississauga as a national training hub — for Canadian Armed Forces, doctors, nurses, and cyber specialists — building the local economy while serving the country.

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The Community Response Unit (CRU)

Faster police response to real crime.
Better care in a crisis.
Most effective use of our tax dollars.

Right now, a large share of the calls our police answer are not crimes — a wellness check, a mental-health crisis, a noise complaint, a fender-bender with no injuries.

The officers we need fighting crime spend hours on calls that do not need a badge and a gun.

The person in crisis gets an armed response when they needed care.

The real victim waits longer.

And the taxpayer pays the highest-cost responder for the lowest-risk call.

A Community Response Unit is a team of 305 trained civilian responders who take the roughly four-in-ten 911 calls that are not crimes in progress or threats to life: mental-health crises and wellness checks, collisions without injuries, noise complaints and neighbour disputes, found property and lost persons.

The CRU adds responders.

It removes no officers and no dollars from the police budget.

It works in partnership with Peel Regional Police, who keep every call involving a crime or a danger.

Our officers are freed to do the work only they can do — and they get to it faster.

This is not defunding the police. It is backing them up.

It costs about $27.4 million a year — close to $38 per resident — less than the hidden cost of sending our most expensive responder to calls that never needed one.

It is built to qualify for funding that already exists (the federal Building Safer Communities Fund and Ontario's Community Safety and Policing and Mobile Crisis grants), and I have already written to the Ontario Solicitor General and the federal Minister of Public Safety to confirm the fit.

The City can act now.

Ontario already requires every city to have a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan, and Mississauga has one.

Under the Municipal Act, Council can set this up and pay for it without a new law or the Province's permission.

The City already wrote the plan. The CRU is how we keep the promise.

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Care is not charity. It is the infrastructure of a safe city.

Food as Infrastructure

Feed our people today. Grow our own food tomorrow.

Last year there were 503,705 visits to food banks in Mississauga — a record.

Nearly one in three was a child.

A food bank was meant to be an emergency. It has become a fixture.

Charity hands out food when people are already in trouble.

Infrastructure makes sure the food, the jobs, and the supply are there to begin with.

We will do both.

Fund food security like a public good — not a year-to-year drive that runs short every winter.

Claim Mississauga's share of the new federal food money — $750 million for greenhouses, $1 billion for food hubs — with applications opening in 2026. A city with a plan gets a share. A city without one does not.

Open careers in food for young people, with Sheridan College and our school boards.

Modern food production is high-tech work — real skills, real wages.

Grow food at every scale: home gardens, co-op greenhouses, container farms, and commercial growers the city helps make possible.

Answer the energy question first — waste heat, solar, off-peak power — so a greenhouse can pay its way through a Canadian winter.

##...Require food-growing space in large new buildings, the way we already require parkland. It costs the taxpayer nothing.

A mayor does not run farms. A mayor clears the path — through zoning, city land, partners at one table, and a hand on the federal money before other cities reach it.

Our opponents are arguing about the size of the food-bank line.

We are building the city that needs a smaller one.

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Housing — You Pay Either Way

Homelessness and unstable housing are not free.

We pay for them every day — in emergency rooms, shelter beds, police calls, court time, and the work and school a family loses when it loses its home.

We will pay either way.

The only question is whether we keep paying for the crisis, or start paying for the solution.

The cheaper choice is also the humane one.

The national At Home / Chez Soi study found that for the highest-need residents, every $10 spent on housing-first saved about $21.72 elsewhere — fewer hospital stays, fewer arrests, fewer emergency nights.

A home costs less than a crisis.

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Affordable homes

A Community Land Trust is land the community owns and keeps affordable permanently.

The Trust holds the ground; homes and shops are built on it; and because the community owns the land, the affordability cannot be flipped away.

One Trust can do several things at once: affordable rental homes for working families, a path for small local investors, ground-floor shops that keep rents stable, room for community clinics — and right-sized bungalows for seniors.

That last one matters. Many seniors live in family-sized homes they can no longer manage and will not leave, because there is nowhere dignified to go.

A bungalow in the Trust gives them somewhere to land, in the community they helped build. One move. Two families housed.

This costs the taxpayer nothing.

The City already holds the levers: surplus city land offered to the Trust instead of the highest bidder, affordable-housing requirements where provincial law allows, and community-benefit agreements on large developments.

Where the Province has limited these tools, I will use what remains and press for the rest — as advocacy, never as a promise I cannot keep.

We can begin with the levers we already hold.

A home is the foundation everything else stands on — and we are paying for it either way.

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A Safe Place to Go

In Mississauga and across Peel, a woman fleeing violence often cannot find a bed, because the shelters are full and funded by donations instead of by government.

A shelter bed is a safety service, like fire and ambulance. It should be funded the same way: in full.

A mayor does not run the shelters, but the office holds real levers.

I will:

Use the Mayor's seat on Peel Regional Council to push for full funding of victim services every budget year.
Press Queen's Park to fund shelters to match the emergency it has already declared.
Fast-track shelter and transitional-housing projects, and waive or reduce municipal fees for them.
Offer suitable city land to build safe beds faster.
Direct city grants to the agencies keeping women safe.
Keep the shelters, the Region, Peel Police, and our MPPs and MPs at one table, reporting to Council every year.

We pay for this violence either way — in shelter beds today, or in police calls and funerals tomorrow. I would rather pay for the beds.

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Open City Hall

You pay for this city.

You should be able to see how it is run and how your money is spent — without filing a form, paying a fee, or waiting a month.

As the mayor's office gains more power — to hire, to fire, to set the budget — the independent watching of it must grow too, not shrink.

Hire an independent Auditor General

one that no single mayor or council can fire
shared with neighbouring cities to keep the cost low.

Publish by default: budgets, contracts, expenses, and audit reports posted online before anyone has to ask.

Keep a public FOI log: when one resident receives a Freedom of Information report, publish it so every resident can see it.

Power that works in the open earns trust.

Power that works in the dark spends it.

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What Has Been Cut by the Province.

Governments often say they are spending more. Sometimes that is true.

But spending more is not the same as keeping up.

When costs rise and population grows, a smaller increase is still a cut in real terms.

The numbers below come from Ontario's own financial watchdog, hospital unions, and school boards.

They are not opinions. They are reported facts — check them yourself.

Health Care

Ontario funds its hospitals at the lowest rate in Canada.

Average emergency-room wait for admission: 20 hours. The government target is 8. (Ontario hospital unions, 2026)

Surgical wait times have doubled since 2019. (CUPE Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, 2026)

About 2,000 patients a day are treated in hallways and storage rooms for lack of beds; a 4,080-bed shortfall is projected. (CUPE research report, January 2026)

More than 1,000 hospital jobs are being cut across North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, Niagara, and the GTA. (CBC News, April 2026)

4 in 10 nurses plan to leave their job or profession within a year; 4 in 5 show clinical symptoms of burnout. (Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, 2024)

15,000 long-term-care beds were promised by 2023; 2,385 were added.

At that rate, 125 years to keep the promise. (Ontario Health Coalition, 2024)

Hospitals received a 4% funding increase for 2026–27.

They need 6% just to hold current service.

The difference is paid for by cutting staff and closing services.

Social services (mental health, housing help, disability support, child protection, Ontario Works)

A 17.8% real cut from 2018 to planned 2028 spending, adjusted for inflation and population. (CUPE Ontario, March 2026)

The Financial Accountability Office identified a $3.7 billion shortfall, with a $1.8 billion annual gap projected by 2026–27. (FAO of Ontario, 2024)

Ten of seventeen supervised consumption sites were ordered closed by the Province. Closing them does not end addiction — it ends the safety net around it.

Ontario Works pays a single adult up to $390 a month for shelter. Average Ontario rent passed $2,200 a month in 2024. That gap has only grown.

By 2030, Ontario's debt-interest payments are projected to exceed total spending on all social services combined. (The Hub, analysis of the Ontario 2026 Budget)

Education

$6.3 billion total underfunding of public education since 2018. (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, cited by CUPE, 2026)

A $1.4 billion cut to per-pupil funding in 2025–26 alone; a 10% effective cut in per-student funding since 2018, adjusted for inflation. (Ontario School Board Council of Unions / OSSTF, 2024–2026)

Toronto DSB is cutting roughly 607 teaching positions; York Region DSB is cutting 249, including educational assistants and library technicians — staff who support students with disabilities and literacy.

How these cuts connect

These are not three separate problems.

They are one problem with three faces.

When social services are cut, more people end up in emergency rooms.
When school mental-health supports are cut, more young people reach crisis.
When addiction services close, more people end up in shelters and wards.
When hospital staff burn out and leave, wait times grow for everyone.

Every cut in one place creates a cost somewhere else.

The cost does not disappear. It moves, and it grows — until it lands on your kitchen table.

A mayor cannot control provincial funding decisions.

But a mayor can be honest about what is happening, hold the Province accountable publicly and persistently, and require plain-language annual reports to residents on outcomes — not just dollars spent.

Good government is not measured by announcements. It is measured by what happens to real people in real communities.

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When Did We Decide This Was Okay?

When did we accept that an ambulance might take thirty minutes?

That a family doctor is now a luxury?

That a child in a struggling home should go hungry — and feel ashamed of it?

You and I decided.

Not because we stopped caring, but because we were told, again and again, that nothing can change.

The Province is counting on us believing that. They are wrong.

One mayor cannot force the Province to change.

One hundred thousand voters can.

Strong communities are not a luxury. They cost less than a broken one.

They are how we get through what is coming.

Share this site. Talk to your neighbour.

Send it to two people you know in Mississauga.

Your vote is the only currency this campaign accepts.

getreadyontario.com · matulewiczmike@hotmail.com ·

#GetReadyOntario

All content reflects the personal opinion of Michael Matulewicz.

Please fact-check and form your own conclusions.

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A city that develops the people who serve it !

Mississauga has a plan for its residents. It does not yet have a plan for the people who serve them.

More than 8,000 people work for this city. They answer the calls, clear the snow, keep the water clean, run the rinks, and keep the books.

A city is only as good as the people who do its work.

This plan treats them that way.

What it means for you why you should care how the City treats its staff.

When the City develops its people: It keeps its knowledge.
When a worker retires, decades of know-how should not walk out the door with them.
It leans less on costly outside consultants.
Your service improves, because experienced people who know the city are doing the work.
The City competes for good people and keeps them.

Every dollar spent developing a worker comes back as better service and lower cost later.

It is cheaper to build well than to repair badly.

That is the idea behind this whole campaign.

An institution, not just an employer

A city can be two things at once. It is an employer. It can also be an institution; a place that teaches, trains, and builds careers.

Anyone who joins the City should be able to rise as far as their effort and ability allow, with no ceiling but their own ambition.

By working with local colleges and universities, the City can let work and study go together.

A person could start on a front-line crew and, over a career, earn the credentials and experience to help run a department or a city.

What I will do

Name it in the plan. Make developing our own people a stated priority of the City’s plan, Imagine Mississauga (2026–2031), under its own value of Excellence and report on it each year.

Partner with colleges and universities. Pair real work with real credentials, so the skills earned here are recognized anywhere.

Build a career ladder. A clear path from the front line to senior roles, open to every employee.Make experienced workers the teachers. The people who know how the city actually runs become the mentors.

This is built with the City’s workers, not over them.

Open a door for ideas. Tell every employee: we want your ideas, and we will fund the promising ones with full credit to the person who thought of them.

A city others want to hire from.

Here is the part that takes some nerve. A city known for making good public servants is the city the best people want to join and the city they want to stay in.

When another city hires one of our people away, that is not a loss to hide; it is proof we are doing it right.

We do not earn that name by holding people back. We earn it by lifting them up.

What a mayor can actually do

A mayor does not write a worker’s career path. That is the work of the administration and of the staff themselves.

What a mayor can do is set the direction, put this commitment into the City’s plan, and hold the administration to delivering it.

That is the honest scope of the promise and it is enough to start.

A city that develops its people serves its residents better, spends less over time, and keeps faith with the thousands who keep it running every day.

That is a city worth building from the front line up.

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CLEAN AIR MISSISSAUGA

A Plan to Monitor, Expose, and Reduce Air Pollution

With the Mississauga Youth Corps as the Front-Line Workforce

The Problem Mississauga Has Ignored Too Long

For decades, residents of Clarkson and other neighbourhoods along Mississauga’s industrial and transportation corridors have lived with poor air quality. They have filed complaints. They have attended community meetings. And they have largely been told that air quality enforcement belongs to the province not the city.

A city of 800,000 people deserves to know what is in the air its residents breathe, what is in the soil under their children’s feet, and what is in the water that feeds into their neighbourhoods.

A city with a major university, a college, and a $4.1 billion operating budget has no excuse for leaving neighbourhood-level environmental monitoring entirely to Queen’s Park.

The Legal Foundation:

Mississauga’s Own Official Plan Requires This

This is not a new idea imposed from outside. Mississauga’s own Official Plan 2051, adopted by Council on April 16, 2025 and approved by the Province on March 24, 2026, already commits the city to environmental protection as a core planning obligation.

Chapter 4 of the Official Plan 2051, “Sustaining the Natural Environment,” states directly that:The natural environment provides the fundamental necessities of life, clean water, air, and land and is an essential component of the fabric and character of communities. (MOP 2051, Chapter 4, Introduction)

Policy 4.2.1: Mississauga will strive to become a resilient low-carbon city, reducing greenhouse gas emissions through mitigation efforts in buildings and transportation.
Policy 4.2.5: Mississauga will protect, enhance, restore, and expand the Natural Heritage System and the Water Resource System to improve ecosystem structure, functions, and services.
Policy 4.2.6: Mississauga will collaborate with all levels of government to undertake community energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction planning including developing inventories for local community emissions and recommending strategies to reduce them.
Policy 4.3.1.1: Mississauga will give priority to actions that identify, protect, enhance, restore, and expand the Green System and its components in accordance with watershed plans, sub-watershed plans, strategies, and Environmental Impact Studies.

The Official Plan also explicitly states that the natural environment’s ability to provide clean water, air, and land is “increasingly challenged” by climate change and urban growth and that the city must work jointly with conservation authorities, federal, and provincial agencies to address this.

What the Official Plan does not yet contain is a commitment to active, city-operated monitoring of air, water, and soil quality at the neighbourhood level.

That is the gap this platform commitment fills using the authority the Official Plan already provides, and extending it to where residents actually live and breathe.

A Matulewicz administration will direct city staff to prepare an Official Plan amendment that formally embeds neighbourhood-level air, water, and soil quality monitoring as a city obligation not a discretionary aspiration.

What Mississauga Can Do — and Will Do

The city cannot regulate industrial emissions directly. That power belongs to the province under the Environmental Protection Act. But the city has real tools it has not fully used.

A Matulewicz administration will use every one of them.

1. Build a Community Environmental Monitoring NetworkMississauga will deploy a neighbourhood-level monitoring network covering air, water, and soil quality beginning in Clarkson and the QEW industrial corridor, then expanding city-wide.

Air monitoring will measure fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) in real time using low-cost sensor arrays already in use in Hamilton, Ottawa, and dozens of other Canadian and international cities.

Water quality monitoring will track local waterways and stormwater systems for contaminants, using Credit Valley Conservation Authority partnerships and UTM field research capacity.

Soil quality monitoring will focus on brownfield sites, industrial buffer zones, and areas near historic industrial operations — using Environmental Impact Study data required under the Official Plan and augmented by Youth Corps field sampling.

All data will be published openly on a real-time public dashboard in plain language. Every resident in every neighbourhood will be able to see what is in their air, water, and soil — updated regularly, explained clearly.

2. Embed Monitoring in the Official Plan

The existing Official Plan 2051 provides the policy foundation for environmental protection.

A Matulewicz administration will go further by directing staff to prepare a formal Official Plan amendment that:

Establishes neighbourhood-level air, water, and soil quality monitoring as a standing city obligation not a one-time study.
Requires environmental monitoring data to be considered in every development application in or adjacent to industrial, employment, or former industrial lands.
Links monitoring findings directly to development approval conditions so that new evidence of soil contamination or poor air quality triggers mandatory remediation requirements before any approvals proceed.
Requires the city to publish an annual State of the Environment Report covering air, water, and soil quality across all monitored neighbourhoods tabled at Council each year.

This converts monitoring from a good idea into a legal city obligation with teeth. It also gives residents a formal mechanism through the Official Plan to hold any future council accountable if monitoring lapses.

3. Call Out Polluters — By Name

The city cannot issue provincial environmental orders. But a mayor can use every legal tool available:

Planning power: Attach air and soil quality performance conditions to development approvals, expansion permits, and site plan amendments sought by industrial operators.
Bylaw authority: Pass a municipal environmental nuisance bylaw covering dust, odour, and particulate at the property boundary level as other Ontario municipalities have done.
Public tracking: Formally refer complaints to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, track every referral publicly, and report on whether the province acted.

Public accountability:

Name non-compliant operators at council and in public statements. Accountability is not a regulatory act. It is a mayoral duty.Federal escalation: File formal requests with the Ontario and federal Environment Commissioners where federal lands, port operations, or rail corridors are involved.

4. Partner with UTM and Sheridan for Independent Research

The University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College have faculty and students in environmental science, geography, public health, and applied technology.

A Matulewicz administration will establish a formal academic partnership to:Commission a peer-reviewed Clarkson Air Quality and Community Health Impact Study producing data that stands up in any regulatory or legal setting.

Establish a standing Environment and Community Health Advisory Committee under the Mississauga Civic Intelligence Model, with UTM and Sheridan as co-chairs.

Feed all monitoring network data air, water, and soil to university researchers for independent analysis and annual public reporting.Peer-reviewed data from a credentialed university carries far more weight with Queen’s Park and Ottawa than resident complaints.

5. Advocate Relentlessly for an Environmental Health Clinic

Hospital programming is funded and directed by the province through Ontario Health.
The city cannot require Trillium Health Partners to add an environmental health specialty. But a Matulewicz administration will make the case so clearly and so loudly that the province cannot ignore it:
Pass a formal council resolution calling on Queen’s Park to fund an Environmental Health Clinic in Mississauga.
Present the UTM health impact data to the province as documented clinical evidence of need.
Work with Trillium Health Partners to recognize environmental illness as an underserved specialty in their community health mandate.
Engage Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada when data supports a federal public health argument.

The Mississauga Youth Corps Clean Air and Environment Division

The Mississauga Youth Corps is this campaign’s commitment to creating real careers for young people using existing federal and provincial funding at zero cost to the property tax base.

The Clean Air and Environment Division is a dedicated arm of the Youth Corps, purpose-built to staff the city’s neighbourhood monitoring network across air, water, and soil conducting field research, maintaining equipment, producing public reports, and supporting the city’s environmental advocacy and Official Plan obligations.

What Youth Corps Members Will Do

Deploy, maintain, calibrate, and troubleshoot the neighbourhood air quality sensor network.
Collect field samples air, soil, and water in targeted areas including Clarkson, the QEW industrial corridor, Lakeview lands, and Credit River watershed zones.
Produce quarterly plain-language public reports on air, water, and soil quality for each monitored neighbourhood.
Assist UTM and Sheridan researchers as field technicians on the Community Health Impact Study.
Contribute data to the city’s annual State of the Environment Report required under the Official Plan amendment.
Staff a Clean Environment public education program bringing monitoring data and plain-language explanations to schools, community centres, and senior residences.
Support the city’s formal regulatory referrals and complaint tracking with documented field evidence.

How It Is Funded Zero Cost to the Property Tax Base

The Clean Air and Environment Division will be funded through a coordinated grant strategy. No new property tax dollars are required. The city acts as convener and applicant-partner.

Funding flows through the following streams:

Federal: Canada Environmental Science Opportunity (CESO) — Environment and Climate Change Canada. Up to $150,000 per year per project for up to four years. Available to post-secondary institutions and community partners. UTM leads; the city co-applies.
Federal: Environmental Damages Fund — Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF). Up to $2 million over five years for research and analysis. Open to universities, colleges, and non-governmental organizations. Deadline: July 7, 2026.
Federal: EcoAction Community Funding Program — Environment and Climate Change Canada. Supports action-focused community projects that protect and restore the natural environment. Community groups and non-profits in Clarkson are eligible to apply directly.Federal: Science Horizons Youth Internship Program
Environment and Climate Change Canada. Funds paid internships for environmental science and engineering graduates. This stream directly funds Youth Corps member salaries.
Provincial: Ontario Community Environment Fund (OCEF) Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. Over $2.9 million available annually for community environmental projects.

Funds flow to regions where environmental penalties were collected making Mississauga’s industrial corridor a priority eligible area.

The city’s role is to convene the partnership, provide a letter of support, contribute municipal data and logistical access, and act publicly on findings. Grant money flows to the university, college, and community organizations.

The data and the trained workforce come back to the city as a public good.

Commitments in the First 90 Days

A Matulewicz administration will take the following steps within 90 days of taking office on November 15, 2026:

Direct the Commissioner of Planning and Building to begin drafting an Official Plan amendment that formally embeds air, water, and soil quality monitoring as a standing city obligation.
Meet with UTM Faculty of Science and Sheridan applied health and environmental technology leads to establish the academic partnership framework.Identify priority locations for the first phase of the neighbourhood sensor network, beginning in Clarkson and the QEW corridor.
File a formal letter of support for a joint federal grant application under the Canada Environmental Science Opportunity and the Environmental Damages Fund.
Establish the Environment and Community Health Advisory Committee under the Mississauga Civic Intelligence Model.
Pass a council resolution calling on the province to fund an Environmental Health Clinic in Mississauga.
Launch the first Youth Corps Clean Air and Environment Division intake targeting 25 positions in year one, scaling to 100 by year three.
Publish the first Mississauga Environmental Monitoring Dashboard covering air, water, and soil within six months of taking office.

Notes and Sources

All figures, policy references, and program descriptions in this document are drawn from publicly available federal, provincial, and municipal sources as of June 2026.Mississauga Official Plan 2051, Chapter 4: Sustaining the Natural Environment. Adopted by Council April 16, 2025; approved by the Province of Ontario March 24, 2026.Ontario Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13. Sections 17 and 26 govern Official Plan adoption and amendment requirements.Canada Environmental Science Opportunity (CESO): Environment and Climate Change Canada, Grants and Contributions Enterprise Management System, May 2026.Environmental Damages Fund, Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF): Environment and Climate Change Canada. $15.48 million available. Application deadline July 7, 2026.EcoAction Community Funding Program: Environment and Climate Change Canada, environmental funding programs.Science Horizons Youth Internship Program: Environment and Climate Change Canada, science and technology internship programs.Ontario Community Environment Fund (OCEF): Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, 2025. Over $2.9 million available annually.Air Quality Ontario: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. airqualityontario.com.Public Health Ontario, Environmental and Occupational Health Air Quality resources. publichealthontario.ca.Mississauga Climate Change Action Plan (2019) and annual progress updates to Council, including December 2024 update reported by The Pointer.

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QUIET COMMUNITIES MISSISSAUGA

A Noise and Community Health Plan

Protecting Residents, Parks, Schools, and Quality of Life from the Health Effects of Noise Pollution

The Problem Is Not Just Inconvenience. It Is a Health Crisis.

Decades of international research including work cited by the World Health Organization have established that sustained exposure to traffic noise causes measurable, serious harm to human health.

Heart disease. Stroke. Diabetes. Depression. Anxiety. Disrupted sleep. And in children, slower development of memory, attention, and learning ability.

Mississauga residents living near Highway 403, the QEW, and major arterial roads are not simply dealing with a noisy environment.

They are living with a documented public health risk that their city has not taken seriously enough.

Mississauga’s Noise Control By-law dates to 1979. It was designed to manage barking dogs and loud parties. It was never built to address the sustained, chronic noise of a major highway corridor running through a city of 800,000 people.

The Quiet Communities Mississauga plan changes that. It brings the science, the monitoring, the university expertise, the grant funding, and the Official Plan authority together into a single, coordinated response.

What the Science Says

The research linking noise pollution to serious health harm is now extensive, peer-reviewed, and consistent.

A Matulewicz administration will govern based on this evidence not dismiss it.

Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes

The cardiovascular evidence is the strongest body of research in this field. Epidemiological studies have found that transportation noise increases the risk of ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 1.6 million healthy life years are lost annually from traffic-related noise in Western Europe alone.

The biological mechanism is well understood. Traffic noise at night causes fragmentation and shortening of sleep, elevation of stress hormone levels, and increased oxidative stress in blood vessels and the brain promoting vascular dysfunction, chronic inflammation, and high blood pressure.

A 2023 meta-analysis found that a 10 decibel increase in road traffic noise was associated with a measurably higher risk of type 2 diabetes, independent of other risk factors.

Mental HealthResearch published in peer-reviewed journals including Nature confirms that exposure to traffic noise can damage the central nervous system, increasing susceptibility to depression, anxiety, and in children and adolescents, serious behavioural problems.

The World Health Organization has formally identified seven categories of harm caused by noise pollution: hearing impairment, communication interference, cardiovascular illness, mental health deterioration, impaired cognition, negative social behaviour, and sleep disturbance with sleep disruption considered the most damaging non-auditory effect because of its cumulative impact on quality of life and daily functioning.

Children: Learning, Memory, and Attention

This is where the evidence becomes hardest to ignore.

Children living and attending school near highway corridors are not just uncomfortable. They are being measurably harmed in their development.

A major population study of 2,680 schoolchildren, published in PLOS Medicine, found that exposure to road traffic noise at school was directly associated with slower development of working memory and greater inattentiveness with measurable declines in cognitive test performance for every five decibel increase in street-level noise.

These effects were independent of air pollution, meaning noise alone was causing the harm. That is peer-reviewed science.Parks and Community Spaces

Research consistently shows that urban parks bordered by major roads are significantly affected by traffic noise and that the closer a park is to a highway, the more severe the impact on the people who use it.

Green spaces are meant to restore health, reduce stress, encourage physical activity, and build community. When highway noise penetrates those spaces, residents avoid them or use them less.

Parks that cost millions of dollars to build and maintain deliver only a fraction of their intended benefit. The community pays for infrastructure it cannot fully enjoy.

Studies across European cities have also found that cities with more green buffer zones experience measurably lower overall noise levels.

Strategic tree planting and green belt design along highway corridors at least 50 metres deep can reduce traffic noise pollution in adjacent neighbourhoods.

This connects Mississauga’s urban forestry policy directly to its noise management obligations.

The Legal Foundation: Mississauga’s Own Official Plan Supports Action

Mississauga Official Plan 2051, adopted by Council on April 16, 2025 and approved by the Province on March 24, 2026 , already commits the city to protecting residents’ health and enhancing the natural environment as core planning obligations.

These commitments are the legal foundation for this plan.

Relevant policies from Chapter 4, Sustaining the Natural Environment, include:

Policy 4.2.1: Mississauga will strive to become a resilient, low-carbon city which includes reducing the environmental stressors that drive public health costs.
Policy 4.2.5: Mississauga will protect, enhance, restore, and expand the Natural Heritage System and the Water Resource System including the green buffer zones that science shows reduce highway noise in adjacent neighbourhoods.
Policy 4.2.7: Development will be designed to assist the City in meeting its environmental sustainability policies, programs, and goals including noise impact management near major corridors.
Policy 4.2.12: Mississauga will encourage tree planting and natural habitat enhancement on public and private lands to reduce the urban heat island effect the same green belt strategy that peer-reviewed research identifies as an effective noise reduction tool.
Policy 4.3.1.1: Mississauga will give priority to actions that identify, protect, enhance, restore, and expand the Green System in accordance with Environmental Impact Studies and other required studies.

What the Official Plan does not yet contain is an explicit commitment to neighbourhood-level noise monitoring, noise impact assessment as a standard planning requirement near highway corridors, or green buffer design standards informed by acoustic science.

Those are the gaps this plan fills.

A Matulewicz administration will direct city staff to prepare an Official Plan amendment that formally embeds noise as a community health and planning consideration — with monitoring, assessment, and mitigation requirements that carry the force of planning law.

What Mississauga Can Do — and Will Do

1. Build a Neighbourhood Noise Monitoring Network

Mississauga will deploy a city-wide noise monitoring network, beginning along the Highway 403 corridor and expanding to the QEW, Highway 401, and major arterial roads. The network will:Measure real-time noise levels at the neighbourhood level, street by street, park by park, school by school.

Produce data that is publicly available on the Mississauga Environmental Monitoring Dashboard in plain language so residents can see exactly what noise levels their neighbourhood experiences, at what times of day and night.Identify gaps in the province’s own Highway 403 noise barrier project planned by the Ministry of Transportation Ontario for 2026 to 2027 and document which residential streets and park spaces are not adequately covered.

Generate independent, city-controlled evidence that supports formal advocacy to MTO, the Ontario Environment Commissioner, and the federal Commissioner of the Environment.The city’s monitoring data will not replace MTO’s own noise studies. It will provide an independent check on them and a documented record of where the province’s own project falls short of protecting Mississauga residents.

2. Embed Noise in the Official Plan

A Matulewicz administration will direct the Commissioner of Planning and Building to prepare a formal Official Plan amendment that:

Establishes neighbourhood noise monitoring as a standing city obligation alongside air, water, and soil quality monitoring.
Requires noise impact assessments for all development applications within 500 metres of Highway 403, the QEW, Highway 401, and other designated provincial corridors.
Links noise monitoring findings to development approval conditions so that new residential, school, or park development near highway corridors must meet noise mitigation standards before approvals proceed.
Requires green buffer design standards informed by acoustic science for all new development adjacent to highway corridors including minimum green belt depths of 50 metres where land allows.
Mandates an annual Noise and Community Health Report as part of the city’s State of the Environment Report tabled at Council each year and published publicly.

3. Update Mississauga’s 1979 Noise Bylaw

Mississauga’s current Noise Control By-law was written in 1979 and amended in 2023, but it was never designed to address chronic highway corridor noise as a public health issue.

A Matulewicz administration will direct a full review of the bylaw to:

Incorporate decibel standards for residential areas adjacent to provincial highways, consistent with WHO recommended thresholds.
Define quiet zones around schools, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and major parks near highway corridors.
Create an enforceable complaint and referral pathway that formally connects city bylaw enforcement to provincial MTO accountability.

4. Advocate Directly to the Province on the 403 Project

The Ministry of Transportation Ontario has a Highway 403 rehabilitation and noise barrier project planned for 2026 to 2027, covering the stretch from Glen Erin Drive through to Winston Churchill Boulevard.

This is the right project. The question is whether its scope is sufficient.

A Matulewicz administration will:

Formally engage MTO before construction begins to present city-generated monitoring data and demand that every affected residential street and park space along the 403 corridor is included in the noise barrier scope.
Advocate for the incorporation of solar-integrated noise barrier technology currently being developed with MTO approval which would turn noise barriers into clean energy assets for the surrounding community.
Pass a council resolution formally requesting MTO to extend the noise barrier project to all residential areas where city monitoring data shows noise levels exceed WHO recommended thresholds.
Report annually to Council on the status of MTO’s commitments and any gaps that remain unaddressed.

5. Partner with UTM and Sheridan for Independent Research

The University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College bring the academic capacity to produce research that no provincial ministry can dismiss.

A Matulewicz administration will:

Commission a Mississauga Highway Noise and Community Health Impact Study a peer-reviewed assessment of noise levels along the 403 and QEW corridors and their documented health effects on adjacent populations, including children in nearby schools.
Establish a Noise and Community Health stream within the Environment and Community Health Advisory Committee under the Mississauga Civic Intelligence Model, with UTM and Sheridan as academic co-chairs.
Feed city monitoring data to university researchers for independent analysis, annual peer-reviewed reporting, and direct submission to provincial and federal health authorities.
Support UTM and Sheridan researchers in applying for federal and provincial research grants with the city providing formal co-applicant support and data access.
A peer-reviewed UTM study showing measurable harm to children’s learning in schools near the 403 corridor is not a political argument. It is scientific evidence that the province cannot easily set aside.

The Mississauga Youth Corps Noise and Environment Monitoring

The Mississauga Youth Corps Clean Air and Environment Division will include a dedicated Noise and Environment Monitoring putting trained young people to work measuring, documenting, and reporting on noise levels across the city, at zero cost to the property tax base.

What Youth Corps Members Will Do

Deploy and maintain the neighbourhood noise monitoring sensor network along the 403 corridor, QEW, and designated arterial roads.
Conduct school-by-school and park-by-park noise assessments producing site-specific data for every affected community space near a major corridor.
Produce quarterly plain-language Neighbourhood Noise Reports for every monitored area posted publicly and tabled at Council.
Assist UTM and Sheridan researchers as field technicians on the Mississauga Highway Noise and Community Health Impact Study.
Contribute data to the annual Noise and Community Health Report required under the Official Plan amendment.
Staff a Quiet Communities public education program bringing noise health information to schools, community centres, libraries, and senior residences near highway corridors.
Collect and catalogue resident noise complaints and experiences as qualitative data to complement sensor measurements giving community voices a formal place in the evidence record.

Who Can Join

Post-secondary students in environmental science, acoustical engineering, public health, geography, urban planning, and related fields at UTM, Sheridan, and other institutions.
Recent graduates seeking applied experience in environmental monitoring and community health advocacy.
Young residents from communities most affected by highway noise including neighbourhoods along the 403 corridor who bring direct personal experience to the work they are doing.

How It Is Funded ... Zero Cost to the Property Tax Base

The Noise and Environment Monitoring Stream will be funded through the same coordinated federal and provincial grant strategy as the broader Clean Air and Environment Division.

No new property tax dollars are required.

Federal: Canada Environmental Science Opportunity (CESO) Environment and Climate Change Canada. Up to $150,000 per year per project for up to four years. Available to post-secondary institutions and community partners. Noise and health impact research qualifies under climate and environmental science themes. UTM leads; the city co-applies.
Federal: Environmental Damages Fund . Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF). Up to $2 million over five years. Open to universities, colleges, and non-governmental organizations. Projects investigating the cumulative health impacts of environmental pollution — including noise — are eligible. Deadline: July 7, 2026.
Federal: EcoAction Community Funding Program , Environment and Climate Change Canada. Community-based projects that protect the natural environment and build local capacity. Clarkson and 403-corridor community groups are eligible to apply directly.
Federal: Science Horizons Youth Internship Program , Environment and Climate Change Canada. Funds paid internships for environmental science and engineering graduates. This stream directly covers Youth Corps member salaries for the monitoring program.
Provincial: Ontario Community Environment Fund (OCEF) , Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. Over $2.9 million available annually. Explicitly funds projects that investigate the long-term effects and cumulative impacts of pollutant discharges including noise on the environment and public health. Funds flow to regions where environmental penalties were collected.
Federal Research: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Partnership grants available to universities conducting applied community research. A UTM-led noise and health study in a defined urban corridor is a strong fit for NSERC partnership funding, with the city as the community partner.

The city’s role is to convene the partnership, provide a formal letter of support, contribute monitoring data and municipal access, and act publicly on findings.

Funding flows to the university, college, and community organizations.

The evidence and the trained workforce come back to the city as a lasting public asset.

A Matulewicz administration will take the following steps within 90 days of taking office on November 15, 2026:

Direct the Commissioner of Planning and Building to begin drafting an Official Plan amendment that formally embeds noise monitoring and noise impact assessment as standing city planning obligations.
Direct city staff to identify priority locations for the first phase of the neighbourhood noise monitoring network , beginning with residential streets, schools, and parks along the Highway 403 corridor from Glen Erin Drive to Winston Churchill Boulevard.
Open formal engagement with the Ministry of Transportation Ontario regarding the scope of the planned 2026 to 2027 Highway 403 noise barrier project presenting city monitoring data and demanding comprehensive residential coverage.
Meet with UTM Faculty of Science and Sheridan applied health and environmental technology leads to commission the Mississauga Highway Noise and Community Health Impact Study.
Direct a full review of Mississauga’s 1979 Noise Control By-law with a mandate to incorporate WHO noise threshold standards and defined quiet zones around schools, hospitals, and parks.
Establish the Noise and Community Health stream within the Environment and Community Health Advisory Committee under the Mississauga Civic Intelligence Model.
File formal letters of support for joint grant applications under the Canada Environmental Science Opportunity, the Environmental Damages Fund, and the Science Horizons Youth Internship Program.
Launch the first Youth Corps Noise and Environment Monitoring Stream intake targeting 15 positions in year one, scaling to 50 by year three.
Add noise level data to the Mississauga Environmental Monitoring Dashboard within six months of taking office so every resident can see what their neighbourhood sounds like, at every hour of the day and night.

Notes and Sources

All research citations, policy references, and program descriptions in this document are drawn from peer-reviewed journals and publicly available federal, provincial, and municipal sources as of June 2026.World Health Organization. Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region, 2018. WHO Regional Office for Europe. Documents seven categories of health harm caused by noise pollution.Circulation Research (American Heart Association Journal). Transportation Noise Pollution and Cardiovascular Health, 2024. Peer-reviewed review of epidemiological evidence linking traffic noise to heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.123.323584.Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (Nature). Noise and Mental Health: Evidence, Mechanisms, and Consequences, 2024. Links traffic noise exposure to depression, anxiety, and behavioural disorders. PMC11876073.PLOS Medicine. Exposure to Road Traffic Noise and Cognitive Development in Schoolchildren in Barcelona, Spain: A Population-Based Cohort Study, 2022. Study of 2,680 children linking road noise to impaired working memory and attention. PMC9162347.ScienceDirect. Sustaining Tranquility in Small Urban Green Parks: A Modeling Approach to Identify Noise Pollution Contributors, 2024. Documents traffic noise impact on park use and restorative value.International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Influence of Urban Green Spaces on Road Traffic Noise Levels: A Review, 2022. Identifies 50-metre green belt depth as effective noise reduction standard.Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Southern Highways Program, Summer 2024. Documents Highway 403 Glen Erin Drive to Winston Churchill Boulevard noise barrier project planned for 2026 to 2027.Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Environmental Guide for Noise, updated 2023. Governs MTO noise assessment and mitigation standards for provincial highway projects.Mississauga Official Plan 2051, Chapter 4: Sustaining the Natural Environment. Adopted by Council April 16, 2025; approved by Province of Ontario March 24, 2026.Mississauga Noise Control By-law 0360-1979, as amended by By-law 0218-2023. City of Mississauga.Canada Environmental Science Opportunity (CESO): Environment and Climate Change Canada, May 2026.Environmental Damages Fund — Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF): Environment and Climate Change Canada. Application deadline July 7, 2026.Ontario Community Environment Fund (OCEF): Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, 2025.Science Horizons Youth Internship Program: Environment and Climate Change Canada.Mitrex / Durisol / Silentium Group. Solar-Integrated Photovoltaic Noise Barrier technology, MTO approval process underway, 2025 to 2026.

All the information in this web site is the opinion of Michael Matulewicz. Please Fact check and form your own opinion.

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