"We are strengthening the foundation to build Mississauga for the future generations," Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said during her 2019 State of the City Address delivered at the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) on 18th March 2019.

“Mississauga will inspire the world as a dynamic, global city bursting with creativity and innovation. A vibrant, safe and inclusive city where we celebrate our rich diversity and cultures. A City that is open for business and that attracts top talent and investment from around the world. Mississauga will continue to be a place where people choose to live, work and raise a family and where businesses thrive for generations to come,” Mayor Crombie said.

She said that, “we are a place where people choose to live and work and where businesses want to invest and innovate.”

“Mississauga is working as a magnetic city, attracting investment globally,” Crombie said.

Highlights of Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s City Address at the ICCC:

• Mississauga is preparing for the jobs of tomorrow, not the jobs of today
• City is the second largest cluster of employment next to Toronto and outpacing other cities in the GTA.
• Mississauga is home to Canada’s largest Airport
• It holds ‘AAA’ credit rating from Standard & Poors (S&P) 15 years in a row, it helps the businesses to build more confidence in the city.
• City have over 1400 multi-national firms and 91,000 businesses out of which 95% are small businesses
• Diversity is key to the success of businesses in the city with over 145 languages spoken
• City is home to 75 Fortune 500 companies and 66 Fortune Global 500 Companies
• Over 70% of the workforce population have post-secondary education
• City is well connected by 7 major highways
• Projected nearly $55 million in savings of tax dollars over the past decade
• As a City, we will also need to handle the explosive growth we will experience in the next twenty years, when we will have nearly 900,000 people living in our City as compare to 800, 000 at present.
• Mississauga downtown will be having 25 new buildings, twelve million potential square feet of new office space and Hurontario Light Rail Transit (LRT) from north to south spine of transit system. Over 3800 businesses and 78000 jobs rely on this line today.

“This year, we reached a major milestone by not only meeting but exceeding our goals, bringing the total amount raised since I first started the food drive four years ago to 1 million dollars and 1 million pounds of food”, said Mayor Crombie

Mayor Crombie concluded “I will continue to make attracting business to Mississauga, my business.”

In her remarks, ICCC Vice President Devika Penekelapati informed the Mayor of Mississauga that the ICCC is planning a major event in the next couple of months – the SME Expo that will showcase the businesses of Canadian small businesses and simultaneously focus on pertinent issues pertaining to small businesses through panel discussions involving specialists and experts.

ICCC President Mr. Pramod Goyal welcomed Mayor along with other present and past board members Mr. Abu Becker, Ms. Sunita Vyas, Mr. Rakesh Joshi, Mr. Chirag Shah, Mr. D P Jain, Ms. Asha Luthra, Mr. Harjit Kalsi, Mr. Jagdish Bajaj and Mr. Pappur Shankar. The event was well attended by the ICCC members and stakeholders.