Mayor Brown brings auto crime and LRT tunnel concerns to Prime Minister Trudeau at Ottawa meeting
Published April 30, 2024 at 4:18 pm
Mayor Patrick Brown has renewed calls for better safeguards against car thieves and a push for more federal transit funding during a sit-down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week.
A delegation from Brampton including the mayor and members of city council was in Ottawa on Monday to discuss issues impacting Brampton residents with members of the Liberal government.
Two of the mayor’s primary concerns were combating surging auto thefts in the GTA and advancing the construction of Light Rail Transit (LRT) into downtown Brampton, with the city pushing the feds to fund part of a $2.8 billion tunnel.
“As Canada’s fastest growing big city, the ongoing support of the federal government is crucial,” Brown said in a statement. “We are determined to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding community, which is essential not just for the prosperity of Brampton but for the entire nation.”
The city has been weighing two options to extend LRT service from Steeles Avenue to the Brampton GO station – an above-ground option, or a hybrid surface and tunnel route. And while the cost of the tunnel ballooned to least $2.8 billion last year, Brown says the more expensive option will help “enable over 30,000 new housing units.”
The mayor has previously stated the tunnel expansion would allow for the construction of some 42,700 units to be built by 2031, with most of the housing growth within 800 metres or a 10-minute walk from Major Transit Station Areas and urban growth centres.
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Brown says he brought the tunnel option to Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser and said the project is “the perfect example of transit orientated housing” that will allow for “significant housing density around the transit extension and new stations.”
The mayor also voiced concerns about car thieves shipping stolen vehicles from Brampton, Mississauga and across Ontario overseas, with many leaving the country at the Port of Montreal. Earlier this month police said nearly 600 stolen vehicles had been recovered from the port with 125 of the autos reported stolen in Peel Region.
Brown has repeatedly called for the feds to beef up security at the port and install cargo scanning devices – a call he took to Ottawa again this week.
“I urged the federal government to install four container scanners at the Port of Montreal and an additional scanner at the Intermodal Hubs in Brampton and Vaughan,” Brown said of the trip to Ottawa. “I also advocated strongly for empowering our local police with jurisdiction at these critical locations, enhancing our capacity to dismantle auto theft rings that have been causing significant distress in the GTA.”
The federal government has pledged $28 million to beef up security and add additional scanning technology to check more shipping containers at the port. But with just 1 per cent of the 1.5 million shipping containers leaving the port being scanned every year, Brown says Canada can’t afford to wait years for new scanners.
More than $1 billion in auto theft insurance claims were made in Ontario last year as the number of auto thefts has hit record highs.
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