Issues that matter in western Mississauga
Progress on the 2007-2011 agenda

In 2003, I asked for a mandate from our western Mississauga community to do four things that have made a difference in how we get to work, how we receive health care and in how our newcomer communities integrate into the Ontario work force. See what difference I made in western Mississauga by keeping my 2003 commitments.

In the 2007 to 2011 term, we need to continue our progress, both Ontario-wide and locally. Here is how that translates into local commitments for me.

An Ambulatory Surgery Centre in western Mississauga

While western Mississauga has made bold strides with the beginning of Phase II at the Credit Valley Hospital; with the Family Medicine Teaching Unit; with dozens of new full-time nursing positions; with the new Medical School to come to the University of Toronto at Mississauga; with published wait times, more funded procedures such as MRIs, cataract surgery, hip and knee replacements and so on, surgery wait times need an Ambulatory Surgery Centre. This separate complex, affiliated with Credit Valley Hospital, would allow the four-fifths of all surgical procedures that are walk-in, walk-out in nature to urgery Centre would free up the operating theatres at Credit Valley Hospital for procedures that need extensive pre- or post-operative care, or the Intensive Care Unit. Our surgeons simply need more access to operating room time, and this complex would provide that access to the surgeons and their patients. I can get it done.

A new children's treatment centre complex

The biggest of all of Ontario's children's treatment centrs is Erinoak, based in Erin Mills. It was recently re-named Erinoak Kids. Erinoak's services mean a life with purpose and dignity to developmentally-challenged children and youth. Erinoak's issues are the exploding demand for the many wonderful things it does. Erinoak is currently spread out in six different, and crowded, locations. It can't use its resources as efficiently as it might. Erinoak's new foundation will work on raising the local share of its project, and in the next four years, we need to see that project take shape and get started. I will work with the Erinoak Board to have that new project take shape and get it started by 2011.

Improved funding formula for our school boards

Ontario's education funding formula is much-improved over the mess that existed in 2003, when our government was elected. Nonetheless, it is a challenge for a superbly-managed school Board like the Peel District School Board when per-pupil funding is so imbalanced compared to other regions in Ontario.
On August 14, Premier McGuinty and Education Minister Kathleen Wyne joined me and other MPPs here in Peel Region to restore balance to our education funding with a major increase in funding for such areas as assistant principals, transportation and other areas in which the Peel Board had come up short. As well, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne pledged a review of the effectiveness of the funding formula, which has undergone numerous changes during the government's four-year term.
The funding formula has come a long way in restoring peace and stability in the public school system, and in building good places to learn for our kids. It needs to adapt to the very few high-growth school boards such as Peel (fewer than ten of 72 boards across Ontario have growing enrollment) where exploding school enrollment is a challenge.