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Days after his decisive victory in the Mississauga municipal election, mayor-elect Alvin Tedjo has named the voices he’ll be leaning on most in his early days.
On Thursday, Tedjo released the names on his transition team, which includes his senior staff and other notable figures from the community. The list includes figures from the housing sector, other levels of government as well as those representing social services.
The members of the transition team will help provide guidance and advice to the incoming mayor as he looks to implement some of his campaign promises, which included a heavy focus on addressing affordability for residents.
“There’s some credibility that you always add when you’re bringing people across the various sectors to the table,” said Kim Wright, the principal and founder of Wright Strategies, a municipal public affairs firm.
“But it’s also more than that. It is showing that you’re serious about the governing side of things, not just the campaigning.”
Food bank CEO feeling ‘weight of responsibility’
In the final days of the campaign, ahead of election day, Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, received a call from then-candidate Tedjo, asking for guidance should he be successful in his mayoral campaign.
“He reached out to say that he wanted someone really representing … the folks who are most vulnerable and struggling in our community.”
Ahead of election day, Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, received a call from then-candidate Tedjo, asking for guidance should he be successful in his mayoral campaign. (Talia Ricci/CBC)
During the campaign, Food Banks Mississauga advocated for numerous policy positions, including how to improve access to support services for low-income households.
“Every dollar that folks can save on transit, on recreation programs, on other costs in their life, they can put towards the basic necessities,” said Nicholls.
Nicholls, who says she hasn’t heard of many of her peers in the province being given such roles, said she was honoured to be asked to join the transition team and is looking forward to representing those living below the poverty line at a table that will also include many voices from the housing sector.
“I want to make sure that we’re utilizing the tax dollars that are available to target supports to the most vulnerable people, which would be a bit of a different approach,” she said.
Tackling housing affordability
The mayor-elect’s team includes several voices from the housing sector, including Peter Gilgan of Mattamy Homes, Anna-Maria and Kristina Kaneff of Kaneff Group and Christina Giannone, the past chair of the Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA).
In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Tedjo’s team said the names selected to join the transition team from the housing sector bring “together a diverse range of perspectives and expertise, including rental housing, seniors’ housing, market housing and other areas of development.”
During his campaign, Tedjo pledged to create a city-owned Mississauga Housing Corporation that would partner with developers and non-profits to build affordable housing on under-used land.
“These are all big ideas that I think could really be executed well if there’s that continuity of relationship and partnership with industry, and it’s that public private partnership,” said Giannone, who is also the senior vice-president of Fram+ Slokker, a community builder based in Mississauga for the last 20 years.
In her role chairing the OHBA for the past year, Giannone frequently travelled the province and met with other stakeholders, giving her insight into what is working in other parts of Ontario. She says taxing policy is a major factor impacting housing affordability.
“We need to find sustainable solutions as to how can the city continue to build with the public services, while not putting necessarily the burden on the new home purchaser,” said Giannone. “Municipalities have different ways of doing that.”
Tedjo will lead the inaugural meeting of this new city council on Nov. 16.