For too long, Peel has underfunded its police force, failing to keep pace with
rapid population growth and the increasing complexity of public safety
challenges. Today, Peel Regional Police has the worst officer-to-population
ratio of any police force serving over a million residents in Canada. At just 144
officers per 100,000 residents, we are 600 officers behind Toronto on a per capita basis — a gap that organized crime has been quick to exploit.
This underfunding is not a theoretical issue — it has real, tragic
consequences. Peel’s Regional Council recently declared a gender-based
violence epidemic, yet police officers are often unable to respond to priority
calls involving violent domestic incidents. In a region where police laid 617
intimate partner violence strangulation charges last year, is not just
unacceptable — it is unconscionable.
Home invasions in Peel have spiked by 306 per cent in just one year. Shootings
are up 80 per cent, and carjackings have surged 51 per cent. These are not
abstract statistics; they represent families torn apart, lives disrupted, and a
growing sense of insecurity for residents. Organized crime networks exploit
Peel’s vulnerabilities, knowing that underfunding leaves us as a weak link in
the Greater Toronto Area’s public safety chain.
Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish argues that the proposed increases in the
police budget are unsustainable. But what is truly unsustainable is the cost of
inaction. Every 911 call that goes unanswered because we lack the officers to
respond is a direct failure of our duty to protect residents. It is not hyperbole
to say that lives are at stake.
The 2025 police budget is not an extravagance; it is a necessary correction to
years of neglect. It is the only way to catch up to the level of service residents
in other regions already take for granted. By 2026-27, with the planned
addition of 300 officers, we can finally begin to address the backlog of calls
and improve response times. But cutting corners on this investment will only
deepen the crisis.
Peel is home to Canada’s busiest airport, a logistics hub that brings with it
transnational organized crime, human trafficking, and the daily influx of illegal
firearms from the United States.
Critics point to Peel’s budget increases compared to neighbouring
jurisdictions. But this is not about inefficiency — it’s about playing catch-up.
From 2008 to 2018, Peel approved housing developments without increasing
police funding to cover population growth, creating an unsustainable gap.
Since I became mayor in 2018, we have been working to correct these issues.
Last year, our budget increase fixed a broken 911 system that had left many
residents waiting for emergency responses.
We cannot afford to delay. Every year that Peel remains underfunded is
another year that residents are left vulnerable to rising crime and
unaddressed emergencies. Mayor Parrish asks what services she should
sacrifice to fund policing. My answer is this: nothing is more foundational to a
thriving community than safety. Without it, everything else — economic
growth, quality of life, and community trust — begins to crumble.
The Peel Regional Police chief, Nishan Duraiappah, is a nationally respected
leader, chosen by his fellow chiefs from across Ontario to be their leader. His
plan for addressing these challenges is thoughtful, progressive, and urgently
needed. But he cannot succeed without the resources to do the job.
I support finding efficiencies where we can, and I am open to exploring
savings in other areas of the regional budget. But when it comes to tackling
violent crime, gender-based violence, auto thefts, extortions, human
trafficking, and organized crime, I will not cut corners. Public safety is not an
area where we can afford to compromise.
To the residents of Peel: you deserve better. You deserve a police force that
can respond to every 911 call, protect your families, and deter crime before it
happens. Over the next few years, I believe we can build the best police force
in the county and the safe community we all desire.
