Mississauga Matters

Table of Contents

Abstract

This case study is about some of the problems that the City of Mississauga, Ontario has faced and the potential solutions that the Mayor proposed. The City of Mississauga created the #MississaugaMatters initiative to highlight the City’s primary concerns and motivate citizens to vote. As the sixth largest city in Canada continues to evolve, the campaign’s purpose was to ask the provincial government for assistance in allocating investments to sustain and prolong this growth. 

These were done through a collaboration between Mayor Crombie and Verve Videos; we helped the Mayor highlight said pain points and solutions through a series of 3 animated explainer videos that explained the campaign’s objectives while also serving as a tool to encourage locals to vote, which proved to be quite engaging and effective.

Direct and Effective​

Discovering Mississauga

City of Mississauga

Living in the suburbs while still having access to metropolitan amenities is a rare luxury, but this is exactly what Mississauga provides . Mississauga is Canada’s 6th largest city, with a population of over 800,000 people.

Furthermore, Mississauga is developing faster than ever before, determined to be the leading city of the 21st century. 

Even while investment is flowing in to establish more condos, residential and commercial compounds while boosting transport services to expedite easy connection to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the allure of living in Mississauga remains strong.

The maintenance of parks, public spaces, and woodlands is required through creative government and community collaborations, and that is only the beginning.

Several videos are produced to showcase the beauty of Mississauga, but not many animated explainer videos can be found to highlight the issues that the City faces and the ways these problems can be solved.

#MississaugaMatters

Here are a few interesting things to know about the City of Mississauga:

Mississauga is home to Toronto Pearson International Airport, Canada's largest and busiest airport.

Each day, over 32 million people fly to and from this airport on more than 70 airlines to 180 locations, rendering it one of the busiest airports in the world.

#MississaugaMatters

The Airport
Mississauga has been regarded as the safest city in Canada for 8 consecutive years.

#MississaugaMatters
Mississauga is home to a plethora of major libraries, museums, parks, and entertainment centers.

In this city that is both family-friendly and adrenaline-pumping, there is never a dull day or night.

#MississaugaMatters

The Heart and Soul of Ontario

#MississaugaMatters

mississauga

However, Mississauga’s plentiful advantages and positive traits, from the large influx of residents from different regions in the world to the ever-evolving needs that people have, have a couple disadvantages that the current Mayor, Bonnie Crombie, constantly addresses and works to solve.

Through a collaboration with Verve Videos, the Mayor of Mississauga was able to present a couple issues that the City faces, and these videos had a substantial impact on recent developments since the video series acted as a gateway to change.

Problems that the City of Mississauga Faces

Facing challenges is a normal part of life. If problems seem to not exist, then governmental transparency is a myth they fed citizens for the sole purpose of getting re-elected.

However, when a mayor, for instance, highlights the problems that the city is facing, addresses them clearly, and gives each issue substantial importance, especially through engaging explainer videos, then this mayor truly has the city’s and residents’ best interests at heart.

Challenges with housing, infrastructure, and transportation are such a common part of daily life that people don’t always think about the anxiety they can cause or how difficult they are to solve.

This avoidance is a serious problem for residents and visitors as well because it hinders the process of progression that all cities strive to keep in motion.

This is why Mayor Crombie resorted to Verve Videos’ expertise – highlighting the issues through videos is an engaging and attention-grabbing, surefire way to raise awareness of said issues.

1

Housing Affordability

The City of Mississauga is experiencing an unparalleled housing crisis. Costs are rising, and far too many individuals are being driven out of the game.

As a result, housing affordability has emerged as a major concern for the City of Mississauga’s community, as highlighted in the Mayor’s first animated video.

Mississauga’s economy and citizens’ quality of life are built on safe, affordable housing, but accommodation and rent costs continue to rise:

1

In 2021, the average selling price of a single suburban house was $1.805 million

2

In 2021, the average price of a condo unit was $657,000

3

Those fees are out of range for over 80% of residents

4

The average rent is $1,569 a month, which is off-budget for several households

Solutions Suggested by Mayor Crombie

Like everything else in the business world, solving large-scale housing problems requires large-scale funding. This is one of the main points that the Mayor highlighted in her quest to raise awareness of the problem, and she did so skillfully.  

In the video script we wrote in collaboration with the Mayor of Mississauga, she urged the assistance of “committed and engaged provincial partners to make affordable housing a reality” in the City of Mississauga.

One of those ways is making changes to provincial legislation that would make it easier for the City’s developers to build houses that are more affordable, i.e. reaching a maximum of 30% of a household’s income.

Another point she made is that funding from the current provincial government would pave the way for future provincial governments to follow suit, thus consistently working on the issue of affordable housing.

How We Helped Mayor Crombie Get Her Message Across

VerveVideos.com used fun illustrations to portray these critical concerns in a motion graphic approach in an easy-to-understand manner, giving the video an overall optimistic feel.

The severity of the situations was maintained by discussing the present status of each in the voiceover, highlighting the necessity for assistance from a provincial partner. The video was narrated by Bonnie Crombie, Mayor of Mississauga, who believed that her message would resonate with citizens.

The video begins with a view of the Mississauga skyline, showcasing a cluster of the city’s landmarks and describing the increasing demand for housing in this world-class metropolis. The video depicts a middle-income couple considering purchasing a home, with emphasis on their struggle with being priced out of the housing market.

The animated video then reveals the perks of families living close to each other, as well as the compromises people are making to be able to afford a house, all while showcasing Mississauga’s rich diversity. We utilized simple motion graphics to represent affordable housing. Because this is a fundamental issue, we made certain that it was communicated in a clear and memorable manner.

With the Mayor’s voice and the background music, we created an optimistic tone for the rest of the explainer video while presenting the Making Room For The Middle initiative. The video introduces the housing market’s promise, then appeals for a provincial partner to help make affordable housing a reality.

We wrapped up the video by instilling in locals a feeling of communal duty with the phrase “we’re all in this together,” motivating them to vote for candidates who would keep Mississauga’s citizens’ best interests at the core of their campaigns and plans. The video closes on the hashtag promoting the campaign, #MississaugaMatters.

Latest Developments

On the 6th of April, 2022, Mayor Bonnie Crombie alongside Members of Council and City staff held a live, online seminar on housing affordability in Mississauga.

Here are examples of the initiatives undertaken by the City to render housing more affordable:

1

Approving additional housing units than is needed to fulfill yearly demand in a timely manner

2

Taking a variety of steps to overcome impediments to new home supply, ensuring that it is not the root of construction delays

3

Mississauga developed the Housing Strategy in 2017, with an emphasis on middle-income households, and the City has accomplished several of the 40 action plans in the program over the past 5 years

For more information on the recent #MississaugaMatters initiative developments,

check out these 2 pages from Mississauga’s official website:

Housing Affordability

Improving Housing Affordability

2

Traffic Congestions

Mississauga is a city that is steadily growing. Following the population boom, whether locals or influx of immigrants, people have been moving away from Toronto to more laidback and friendly places like Mississauga.

This has exacerbated the problem of urban sprawl. The GTA’s current transportation infrastructure was not designed to handle the volume of traffic that exists today, which has resulted in longer travel times, pollution, and congestion, which the Mayor highlighted in this second explainer video.

Over the years, traffic congestion in the GTA has become a more pressing issue. The rise of suburban lifestyles has contributed to the expansion of traffic congestion. Cars are no longer considered a luxury item for the typical person, as they once were.

As a result of the rise in their affordability, more vehicles are on the roads and main highways en route to the center of Toronto, causing congestion problems. Furthermore, the expansion in housing units throughout and inside the GTA, which has resulted in narrow roadways, has become a key cause in said congestion.

#MississaugaMatters

Traveling to and from Toronto is the most difficult transportation difficulty in Mississauga, since the City  is very dependent on Toronto. The majority of Mississauga is residential; most citizens must commute east to Toronto for work. In reality, 48% of Mississauga residents do not work in the city. 

Solutions Suggested by Mayor Crombie

The major point that the Mayor of Mississauga made in the video we helped her create is, alongside the pressing issue of increased traffic congestion, that this problem can be countered by the development of stronger public transportation networks.

These will reduce commuting times because, with appropriate and contemporary modes of transportation, people would be encouraged to use public transportation instead of their own cars, and what does fewer cars mean? Less traffic and cleaner air.

To counter the problem of congestions costing Mississauga’s economy “an estimated 11 billion dollars a year,” the Mayor proposes multiple solutions, among which are:

1

“Implementing all-day, two-way services on all Go Transit corridors”

2

“Constructing a downtown Mississauga transitway connection” linking all the regions on the City”

How We Helped Mayor Crombie Get Her Message Across

We began the animated explainer video with the classic Mississauga skyline, then added a rising urban metropolis setting to illustrate the city’s expansion in population and companies. We instantly demonstrate the need for enhanced public transportation by depicting a picture that is familiar to all commuters: traffic congestion caused by an increasing population utilizing private cars.

The economic ramifications are severe, which is why we devoted a scene of the video with a concentrated depiction at a cost of 11 billion dollars every year. With bespoke animated illustrations of routes expanding into a network overlying our Mississauga map, we highlight the City’s goal to build transportation networks.

Because the city is working on many transit projects, we produced a sequence of scenarios in the video to animate each one.

After communicating the top transportation objectives to citizens, we merge the Mayor’s voiceover with the animated ballot box outro scenario to bring the video to a close.

Latest Developments

In 2019, the City of Mississauga unveiled the city’s first Transportation Master Plan. The legislative framework and tactical action plan are critical components of Mayor Crombie’s and Council’s efforts to keep Mississauga moving as they strive to construct a world-class, transit-oriented community

Their vision targets and extends beyond the orderly flow of traffic to include all of the ways the City of Mississauga’s transportation system could provide inhabitants with the freedom to travel in living, walkable, healthy, and accessible neighborhoods.

Through this strategy, the City hopes to collaborate with people, companies, partners, and stakeholders to keep Mississauga thriving for future generations.

To know more about this Plan, click here.

3

Infrastructure Maintenance

Infrastructure is what runs an economy, creates job opportunities, and makes a city the hub for businesses and talent to grow in, which Mayor Crombie emphasized in the third explainer video we helped her create.

When it comes to the City of Mississauga, $9.9 billion worth of infrastructure is at the City’s disposal. These include roads, bridges, transit, parks, trails and community centers. The upkeep of Mississauga’s infrastructure is costly, necessitating large expenditures and investments. This, however, is seldom easy to acquire.

Overlooked infrastructure causes asset deterioration, which has a negative impact on the economy and leads to higher rebuilding expenditures over time. The purpose of maintenance is to conserve an asset rather than to enhance it.

Periodic repairs (routine maintenance) and enhancements (capital maintenance) are incorporated to eliminate the source of flaws and minimize unnecessary recurrence of routine maintenance operations.

Solutions Suggested by Mayor Crombie

Though the action plans to counter the issues with infrastructure maintenance are not fulfilled overnight, it is important to keep said plans at the forefront of a city’s efforts and plan for years ahead.

For this reason, the Mayor of Mississauga pointed out in the video some of the most valuable action plan points that should be followed, and they are:

1

Renewing infrastructure and repairs over 10 years

2

Partnering up with provincial counterparts to maintain roads, parks, buses, bridges, and community centers

3

Forecasting and planning the Council’s priorities 

How We Helped Mayor Crombie Get Her Message Across

We discovered while working on the video’s narrative and designing a storyboard for this animation that we haven’t seen Infrastructure articulated in this fashion, much less animated. 

We began the video with a custom-made depiction of the Mississauga skyline.  We opted to illustrate how infrastructure is intertwined into citizens’ daily life, utilizing bicycle routes and trails, highways, community centers, libraries, museums, theaters, and sports stadiums, to explain infrastructure.

We were able to translate this structural notion into a topic important to inhabitants’ day-to-day standard of living by doing so.

In the next section of the explainer video, we demonstrated a significant disparity between what the City can finance and what the City needs to develop and maintain in order to keep property taxes low.

We were able to convey what Infrastructure entails and its ramifications for citizens and local businesses by showing the numerous ways in which a provincial partner might assist to construct and sustain the City. 

Following the same concept of the video’s outro utilized in all the previously-mentioned videos, we concluded by asking locals to vote in the provincial elections for candidates who keep the development of the City of Mississauga at the forefront of their campaigns.

Latest Developments

Roads consume a huge percentage of Mississauga’s infrastructure investment because the city was constructed towards the car. According to Mississauga staff, the $78.3 million will be split between bridge and structural renewal projects, significant road construction, and roadway repair initiatives in 2022.

According to the calculations in the 2022 budget, even if the City spends millions on existing properties, it would still fall short of the required investment by $40 to $45 million each year over the following decade. This implies that if Mississauga cannot find the funds to close the deficit by 2031, it will total $400 to $450 million in infrastructure improvements that have been put on hold.

The City’s present financing sources do not permit complete support of the City’s SGR (state of good repair) demands, according to the 2022 budget. Even with the increased investment from the City’s infrastructure charge – an additional tax introduced by the City to collect revenue for infrastructure needs – and Mississauga’s federal Gas Tax payments, this is still a net loss.

To bridge that gap, the City is depending on its asset management plan – a plan that will aid in prioritizing critical investments – and support from higher levels of government.

Conclusion

If a project or plan doesn’t face challenges it needs to overcome, then is it really being done right? In truth, it isn’t really about the difficulty itself, rather about what is done to overcome it.

When she contacted the Verve Videos team, Mayor Crombie had an idea. This idea blossomed into an awareness campaign of sorts that shed the light on issues that the City of Mississauga is facing, being unaffordable housing, massive traffic congestions, and inability to maintain infrastructure. 

#MississaugaMatters

The animated explainer videos we helped the Mayor create were the gateway to advances that took place further down along the line, and though our videos in and of themselves cannot be credited in full to the developments that took place seeing as tons of effort was put into motion, they surely helped.

This is the beauty of animated explainer videos that are taking the world by storm. When done right, they are powerful tools to deliver a message and a call-to-action that can be followed through.

We at Verve Videos have gathered bounties of experience, have worked with multiple clients, and are working with several more. 

Animated Explainer Videos

If you’re interested in voicing your message for the world to hear, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation to discuss your project and get a free quote!

From training videos to infographic videos and whiteboard animations, we at Verve Videos are more than happy to be with you every step of the way to see your success bloom into results, no matter what your desired outcome is.