Mississauga desperately needs a new $500-million facility to house its growing public transit bus fleet, say city officials who are asking Ottawa to help pay for it.<\/p>\n
MiWay, the City of Mississauga\u2019s transit provider, currently keeps and repairs its 500 or so buses at two large facilities \u2014 one on Central Parkway West, in the Erindale area, and the other in Malton.<\/p>\n
However, those locations \u201care at full capacity, and we cannot add to our fleet without a new facility to maintain and operate (the new buses),\u201d Mayor Carolyn Parrish said in a letter last week to the federal government in which she asked, on the city\u2019s behalf, for help in making a new MiWay transit operations, maintenance and storage facility a reality.<\/p>\n
In the letter, Parrish continued, \u201cbased on preliminary designs and capacity projections, we need a site for 170 to 280 buses, with an estimated capital cost of more than $500 million. Without this new facility, our ability to advance zero-emission fleet adoption is significantly constrained. We are asking for federal funding to make this project a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor further noted that such an investment from Ottawa in MiWay, Ontario\u2019s third-largest municipal transit system, would \u201cdirectly advance housing development through transit-oriented communities, reduce emissions and support good jobs in the skilled trades \u2014 priorities the federal government has rightly identified as central to Canada\u2019s economic future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parrish also pointed out in her letter that \u201ctransit-oriented development requires that our transit system can keep up with demand resulting from increased housing supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
MiWay buses serve some 150,000 daily passengers, according to the city, and although ridership was down in 2025 from the previous year, it still surpasses \u201cpre-pandemic levels by more than 10 per cent and continues to show strong performance as we approach LRT (light-rail transit) operations on the Hazel McCallion Line.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the new transit facility, Parrish\u2019s letter also identified seven other top priorities for which Mississauga is seeking federal funding and other support.<\/p>\n
The list of asks had to be sent to Ottawa by the end of April as the federal government embarked on its 2026 pre-budget submission process through which it considers numerous funding\/support requests from municipalities across Canada.<\/p>\n
Mississauga\u2019s list identified the following initiatives in need of support:<\/p>\n
Development charge reduction \u201csupport and clarity\u201d as the city seeks to get more affordable housing built.
\nInvestment in a new MiWay transit operations, maintenance and storage facility.
\nAdvancement of all-day, two-way GO train service on the Milton Line.
\nInvestment in flood-resilient infrastructure.
\nTaking actions to get affordable housing built quickly.
\nNew marina in Port Credit.<\/a>
\nSupport of a new Municipal Growth Framework.
\nTackle food insecurity on a national scale.<\/p>\n