[miketoronto]

This is the most stupid idea ever. But leave it to Mississauga to come up with the idea, since they can't understand they are a suburb.

If Mississauga wants to be taken out of the CMA stats, then I say Pearson Airport lands become part of the City of Toronto. Connections between Mississauga Transit and TTC stop, and the GO TRAINS run non-stop through Mississauga with no stops. If they are not part of Toronto then they really do not need any of these services then.

----------------------------

THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
Please count us in the stats


The Mississauga News
Feb 8, 2006

Did you know that you live in Toronto?
Don't believe it?

Just ask Statistics Canada.

Even though Mississauga is Canada's sixth largest city, in the eyes of Statistics Canada, we are just another piece of the GTA puzzle.

Officially, the information collected about our ages, race, sex, employment and so on is all filtered into a big file slapped with the label Toronto Census Metropolitan Area.

Calling Mississaugans "Toron-tonians" is somewhere along the lines of calling Canadians "Americans".

Sure, we may share the same fashion sense and television shows, but we are very different animals and we'd like to be taken on our own merits, thank you very much.

So, as Statistics Canada (the people who are supposed to help us take an ACCURATE reading of who we are as a nation) gears up once again to do the cross-country head count, Mayor McCallion is calling upon the organization to recognize Mississauga as distinct district.

We say it's about time: Other municipalities with nowhere near our numbers or complexity are already enjoying this numerical independence, so McCallion is right to ask for the same treatment.

She wants them to collect our numbers separately, independent from the rest of the GTA, so that the City can use them properly and officially to crow to the rest of the world -- specifically international businesses -- about Mississauga being the place to be.

The numbers are also used by the City to determine the need for transit and housing, as well as fire and other services, so accurate numbers will make these allocations much more efficient.

It's too late to make the changes for this year's count, which starts in May, but McCallion is hoping to get the plan in place in time for the 2011 census.

Better late than never.

 

[FutureMayor]

Mississauga isn't asking to pull out the GTA politically Michael, it's simply asking Statistics Canada to count us seperately purely for planning purposes.

Hazel is a huge supporter of a strong Greater Toronto Area. She is actually in India right now promoting not just Mississauga but the all of the GTA.

Louroz

 

[miketoronto]

Mississauga already gets seperate stats. Every suburb of Toronto and even areas of Toronto proper each get their own stats.

This is just a ploy by Mississauga to try to look like they are a seperate place, when they are not.

It might be time to annex Missisauga into Toronto so we can stop these stupid ideas from coming out of Hazel's mouth.

 

[adma]

Well, if Mississauga "secedes"--what makes it any different from Oshawa, which is already its own CMA? (And what *would* a Mississauga CMA consist of? Would it include Brampton? Oakville?)

Perhaps the best solution is an US-census-bureau solution: that is, allow for these separate CMAs, but also a consolidated CMA that would gather Toronto, Oshawa, Mississauga etc under one macro-apron. So, the best of both worlds.

And CMA or no CMA, the GTA still exists as fact--including "not-part-of-Toronto-CMA" Whitby + Oshawa + Clarington.

If Mississauga wants to be taken out of the CMA stats, then I say Pearson Airport lands become part of the City of Toronto. Connections between Mississauga Transit and TTC stop, and the GO TRAINS run non-stop through Mississauga with no stops. If they are not part of Toronto then they really do not need any of these services then.

GO = Government of Ontario. It's beholden to the province, not the city.

And I guess by your logic, it shouldn't be serving Oshawa, or Hamilton, or...

 

[spmarshall]

Bwah-hah-hah!

First they want out of Peel, then they want to be out of the CMA? What's next? Le Parti Mississauga? Every other CA and CMA at least was a separate economic/commuter region like Oshawa and Hamilton (and I would still argue that Hamilton still merits its own CMA) Though there should be metroplex-type definitions that would encompass the Toronto, Oshawa and Hamilton CMAs and the Barrie CA (the other Metroplex at this time would be the Vancouver and Abbotsford CMAs).

The purpose in defining CMAs is to define a commutershed. As FM likes to point out, a lot of people commute from Toronto to Mississauga, just as a lot of people commute into Toronto from Mississauga. Splitting up CMAs to placate suburban egos would defeat the purpose.

Sorry, this is just stupid.

 

[allabootmatt]

Question: Would Missisauga exist as anything near its current self if not for the presence of Toronto?

Answer: No. They should stay a suburb.

 

[dan e 1980]

they should change the name to sauga.

 

[crackpott]

Does Mississauga realize CMA designations aren't arbitrary?

If 50% of people living within Mississauga commute to the rest of the Toronto CMA (Anything that's been sucked up into it, not just Toronto), they're a part of it too. Similarly, if 25% of people from the rest of the CMA commute to Mississauga, it makes Mississauga part of it.

There's no debating this. They ARE a part of the CMA. Oshawa/Whitby are not because they don't fall under this designation.

 

[ganjavih]

Wow, it's almost like they think they're a real city!

What a strange place this Mississauga is...

 

[ganjavih]

Calling Mississaugans "Toron-tonians" is somewhere along the lines of calling Canadians "Americans".

 

[mpolo2]

for this to have been dreamt up by anyone only means we have too many politicians.

 

[EnviroTO]

Good grief! So Oakville would be part of the GMA? :rolleyes Orange County has a population of about 3 million and it is still Greater Los Angeles.

 

[jeicow]

I think Burlington and the entire Oshawa CMA should be combined with the Toronto CMA. The Old Hag and this columnist need to realize the difference between a city and a Census Metropolitan Area and that there ARE separate stats for Mississauga.

Once a CMA is established it can never be combined, even if it fails to meet the criteria. CA's can be become part of an expanding CMA if the CA doesn't meet CMA criteria fast enough. Hence, Oshawa, (most of) Burlington and Hamilton will never become part of the TO CMA. I belive part of eastern Burlington is included in the TO CMA, but I may be mistaken. The rules for designating one CMA to two CMAs don't exist from what I know, but most other nations do it, and since most of StatsCan is a UK-US hybrid system, it probably would be acceptable.

Actually, for Seperate Stats, they aren't complete. There are the "Community Profile" stats but any city could easily get those figures by doing a local census. There are lots of reports issues that have nothing to do with this and aren't accessible to a city. (ie. foreign investment, money transfered within a city, etc.)

The census isn't the CORE issue at this proposal but the other information. For instance, all of the StatsCan report regarding trade to foreign nations, and pretty much everything for business, is only organize by CMA. The City of Mississauga (as with most Canadians cities) want to know which foreign countries are recieving a majority of the products and services that originate in Mississauga. As well, all foreign investment stats issued for StatsCan will always list everything by CMA, never as indepdent cities. That's why whenever a TO mayor says how much the investment in Toronto is increasing, it's always questionable as to whether it's a 905 city, or the 647 that is really benefiting and appealing to these foregin nations.

 

[bizorky]

I say Pearson Airport lands become part of the City of Toronto.

Right! Send in the Toronto army to do this.

So they don't want to be part of the Toronto CMA, so what? Did you ever imagine that it actually might do Toronto good by reducing the overwheming middle class skewing of the suburbs in census statistics?

 

[doady]

I think Burlington and the entire Oshawa CMA should be combined with the Toronto CMA. The Old Hag and this columnist need to realize the difference between a city and a Census Metropolitan Area and that there ARE separate stats for Mississauga.