Guns, trains and taxes in Mississauga’s east end

At her victory party after winning re-election in 2006 Mississauga councillor Maja Prentice, who has represented thousands of residents living on or near Dundas Street for more then 20 years, told me that the people of her ward were concerned about three big things; crime, transportation and taxes. The “TTC” mix of issues as I like to remember them.

Her comments made their way into my news story for Mississauga.com and sure enough these issues have dominated local headlines since the last municipal election.

Ever since the “summer of the gun” in 2006 Mississauga residents have watched its neighbor to the east warily. Prentice’s own ward borders Etobicoke and isn’t far from the crime hobbled neighborhood of Rexdale.

As far as the local Mississauga crime bean counters are concerned there is something magical about the Toronto-Mississauga border that seems to keep the criminals out. According to the stats analyzed by the Mississauga Crime Prevention Association, the city has the lowest crime rate of any major city in the country.

But you wouldn’t know that from the news that comes from Mississauga. This is the city where a father is being accused of murdering her daughter for what same say were religious reasons.

It took only three weeks for the city’s first murder to occur in 2008 and the June 2006 arrest of alleged terrorists in the city’s northwest corner made it onto CNN and into international news outlets.

Transportation was another issue Prentice says her residents are concerned about and one that over the next 10 years is going to be tackled head-on, at least according to Dalton McGuinty. His “Move Ontario 2020” plan calls for a light rail transit line along Dundas Street in Mississauga.

There are also plans to have it connect to a second light rail line running north-south down Hurontario Street. That line would run as far north as Brampton.

And as for taxes - oh boy taxes - Prentice’s constituents are in for a whopping hike this year, a 3.9 per cent general increase and possibly a one-time 5 per cent surcharge, to pay for infrastructure costs. Mayor Hazel McCallion is so angry about it that she’s challenged federal finance minister Jim Flaherty to a debate about Ottawa’s lack of funding for municipal governments, a challenge that Flaherty quickly declined.

For the time being it appears that the “TTC” series of issues that Prentice identified will be those making the news on the Mississauga end of Dundas Street.