There is a very simple question Brampton taxpayers should be asking City Hall:
Why are we moving City employees out of the West Tower when we are still paying for the West Tower?
Among other changes, Information Technology staff are being moved from the West Tower downtown to 175 Sandalwood Parkway, leaving several floors of the West Tower vacant.
I am told the plan is then to lease some of that vacant space out.
If you’re saying, “WTF?” right now, you are not alone.
This game of municipal musical chairs exposes a problem even bigger than the controversial purchase of Sandalwood itself.
It suggests Brampton does not have a coherent plan for managing the buildings taxpayers already own and pay for.
As I am clearly fond of saying: A failure to plan is a plan to fail.
The West Tower was built for exactly this purpose.
Brampton undertook the Southwest Quadrant Renewal project in part to provide City administrative space. The completed project includes the nine-storey West Tower, containing City administrative offices and meeting space.
The City’s financial commitment was enormous: approximately $205 million in minimum payments over the 25-year arrangement.
That was supposed to address our administrative-space needs.
So now we’re moving employees out of it and sending them to Heart Lake, into another building we just bought?
Make it make sense.
In 2023, Brampton bought 175 Sandalwood Parkway West for $77.9 million.
The City’s own public statement now says approximately 120 Information Technology employees are to be accommodated at Sandalwood between 2026 and 2027. The City describes approximately 40% of the Sandalwood building as office space.
And we’re spending more money preparing the building for all of these new uses.
Taxpayers deserve a clear explanation:
- We committed roughly $205 million to secure major new downtown administrative space.
- Then we spent another $77.9 million buying Sandalwood.
- Now we are spending more money preparing Sandalwood for office employees who already worked in the West Tower.
- And the result, I am told, will be several floors of the West Tower sitting vacant, with plans to lease some of that space to somebody else.
How is that good asset management?
What is wrong with the office space taxpayers are already paying for downtown?
If the West Tower cannot properly accommodate these employees, tell us why.
If it needs renovations, tell us what they would cost.
If consolidating staff at Sandalwood will actually save taxpayers money, show us the business case.
If leasing the West Tower space will generate more money than this move will cost, show us those numbers too.
Maybe there is a good explanation.
Then publish it.
Because without one, this looks like gross mismanagement.
I have some experience with this.
As a lawyer and business owner, I have managed leased office space in multiple locations and multiple cities.
Then COVID fundamentally changed how my firms operated.
So I adapted.
We moved offices. We consolidated. Some employees began working remotely. We closed locations that no longer made financial sense. We looked at how much space we actually needed, what it cost us, and whether we were getting value for our money.
Those decisions were not always convenient.
They were necessary.
That’s what happens in the real world when you’re spending your own money.
You don’t buy another building because you can. You don’t maintain unnecessary office capacity indefinitely. You don’t renovate one building while leaving perfectly usable space somewhere else empty without first doing the math.
You adjust.
Then again, I never had the benefit of the seemingly bottomless purse this Council appears to think exists.
And responsibility here does not end with senior staff.
Council approved the purchase of Sandalwood. Council approves the budgets. Council is responsible for overseeing how hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are spent.
Senior management should have a coherent corporate real-estate strategy.
Council should demand one.
Before Brampton buys another office building, leases another floor or spends another dollar renovating administrative space, I want a complete public inventory of City-owned and City-leased property.
For every administrative building, tell us:
How much space do we have?
How much of it is actually occupied?
How many employees work there?
How much are we paying to operate it?
How much vacant space are we carrying?
What leases are coming due?
What renovations are planned?
And, most importantly:
How much office space does the City of Brampton actually need?
As Mayor, I will require that review and put the results in front of taxpayers. If resistance comes from Council or the administration, I will use every lawful authority available to the Mayor to get the answers.
Because taxpayers should not have to play detective to find out whether City Hall is wasting their money.
This isn’t an accusation of corruption.
It is an accusation of gross mismanagement.
Brampton taxpayers have already paid for enough buildings.
It’s time City Hall learned how to manage them.
This October, elect Wesley Jackson for Mayor of Brampton.