Home  Features Mississauga, Toronto's 'bedroom' city
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Mississauga, Toronto's 'bedroom' city |
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By Ethan Caleb » If you are
looking for evidence of how immigration is changing the face of Canada,
few places provide a better snapshot than the Ontario city of
Mississauga.
Located just west of Toronto, it is one of Canada's fastest growing cities, having doubled its population in each of the last two decades. Mississauga plays the role of popular suburb to the big city of Toronto, its nearly 700,000-population making it North America's largest suburban municipality and Canada's sixth largest city.
Ethnically, it ranks among the country's most diverse cities. More than 30% of Mississauga's population speaks more than one language, and only 60% of the people cite English as their mother tongue.
According to Statistics Canada, those who call Mississauga home include significant numbers of Chinese, Poles, Italians, Indians, Filipinos and Arabs as well as French and Spanish speakers.
The advantages Miississauga has are quickly obvious. With five major highways passing through the city, it offers fast and convenient access to major destinations in Canada and the United States. In addition, most of Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada's busiest, is located in the city.
Despite its size, Mississauga is effectively a suburb of Toronto and the two cities' urban sprawls are indistinguishably linked. As Toronto has continued to grow economically, Mississauga has followed suit, building predominantly low-density tract housing and high rise condominiums to attract individuals tired of city life.
At the same time, businesses saw the benefits of locating to Mississauga - low tax rates, proximity to a number of transportation routes (air, rail, road), proximity to Toronto, and an abundance of land (at least, until recently) - and it soon became desirable to locate there.
While being in the top ten Canadian cities by population, Mississauga is bereft of cultural institutions for a community its size due to the proximity to Toronto. It is the largest city in Canada by far with no daily newspaper, major television stations, or commercial radio stations. A bedroom city to Toronto in the truest sense, Mississauga is virtually unknown outside of Ontario.
Despite the number of major highways running through it, the transit system in Mississauga is limited at best. Bus service is infrequent in many areas, and non-existent in some others. Train service is limited to a single line to downtown Toronto, operating for a few hours during morning and evening rush hours.
Not surprisingly, car ownership is more of a necessity than a luxury in the city. Newcomers are best advised to look at accommodation in and around the Square One area, where apartment buildings are plentiful (though rents are fairly high) and the buses are more frequent. Square One, incidentally, is Canada's second largest shopping mall.
With most of its land already built upon or pledged to builders, property prices in Mississauga have been rising well above the national average in recent years.
Single detached homes typically start from around $300,000. Condos (ownership apartments) and townhouses would set you back anywhere from $200,000.
New immigrants planning to rent in Mississauga should look at homes or apartments either in the Square One area, or along Hurontario Street (also known as Highway 10). While rents are slightly higher here, they also offer convenience in terms of proximity to the GO train station and more frequent bus service than is available elsewhere.
Other areas with apartment buildings and adequate bus service include those along Mavis Road and Erin Mills Road.
Of course, once you have access to a car, you can move to pretty much anywhere you want without being overly inconvenienced.
Mississauga shares its border with Oakville in the west, Brampton in the north, Toronto in the east and Halton Hills in the north-west. The waters of Lake Ontario lap on its southern shores.
While Mississauga cannot compete with economic powerhouse Toronto in terms of employment opportunities, it is no slouch either. It is home to more than 18,000 companies ranging from corporate head offices and industrial branch operations to corner store retail businesses.
A large percentage of the thousands of small and medium-sized businesses employ fewer than 50 employees. An employment survey conducted in 1994 indicated that the greatest number of firms and of employees were active in the manufacturing/warehouse sectors followed by retail and wholesale sectors.
Among the major employers located in Mississauga are AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited), Air Canada, Avis Car & Truck Rental, Bell Mobility, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Canada Post, Credit Valley Hospital, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, Federal Express, GlaxoSmithKline, Hershey's, Hewlett-Packard (Canada), Honeywell, Loblaws, Microsoft Corp, Petro-Canada, Pepsico, Purolator Courier, RBC Financial, Siemens AG, TD Bank Financial Group, Trillium Health Group, Wal-Mart and Xerox Corporation.
The Mississauga News is the city's primary English language newspaper. It offers very limited news coverage, but is distributed free to most homes and some apartment buildings. News junkies in the city usually prefer subscribing to one of the four major Toronto newspapers, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post or the Toronto Sun.
Some background information courtesy Wikipedia
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