A Bridge Too Far? Build the Orchard Heights Park Bridge!
Hello Build the Bridge Petition Supporter!
You signed this petition because you understood that the Orchard Heights Park Foot-Bike Bridge should be built.
For years, Lakeview residents were promised a safe, connected, convenient, and comfortable active transportation link across Etobicoke Creek — a bridge that would connect our community to the Etobicoke Creek Trail, Marie Curtis Park, the Waterfront Trail, Lakeview Village, Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area, Long Branch GO, TTC transit, Brown’s Line shops and businesses, Sherway-area destinations, playgrounds, splash pads, baseball fields, beach volleyball courts, and health-care access at Trillium Health Partners’ Queensway site.
This bridge is not a luxury. It is a key public infrastructure link for people of all ages and walks of life — children, seniors, families, runners, walkers, cyclists, mobility-device users, commuters, transit users, local shoppers, patients, caregivers, and residents who want a safer, healthier, greener way to move through their own community.
The project was approved by Mississauga Council, funded, designed, engineered with public partners, and ready to serve the public. Yet it was quietly placed on hold. To date, Lakeview-Mississauga residents have not received a clear public explanation, a transparent Council vote, or an official notice explaining why this promised but long-delayed public bridge has not been completed.
Through Freedom of Information records, I’ve obtained City-Dasko correspondence that raises serious questions about how and why the project was stopped. Those records refer to survey results showing majority support for the bridge since 2010. That majority support is echoed by the almost 500 residents and trail users like you who signed the Build the Bridge Petition.
Nevertheless, since 2021, the City appears to have given in to opposition by the Orchard Heights Homeowners Association based on a flawed, private in-house Survey Report that many residents were never meaningfully informed about and that did not fairly represent the broader public interest.
After 5+ years of stonewalling by Councillor Dasko and the City of Mississauga, I’ve filed an Application for Judicial Review in Ontario Divisional Court against the City of Mississauga and Councillor Stephen Dasko, in his official capacity, seeking transparency, accountability, and completion of the Orchard Heights Park Foot-Bike Bridge.
The case asks a basic public-law question:
Can a Council-approved, publicly funded, designed, engineered, publicly supported and in progress active transportation project be quietly stopped through opaque political and administrative action — without public notice, public reasons, or a transparent Council vote?
This is about more than one bridge. It’s about:
1. whether residents can rely on public promises;
2. whether active transportation plans mean anything;
3. whether private opposition can outweigh broader public benefit;
4. whether our waterfront vision will truly “bring people to the water”; and
5. whether City Hall must be accountable when a public capital project disappears into silence.
The application seeks remedies including:
1. a declaration that the project was unlawfully or unreasonably placed on hold;
2. disclosure of the legal and factual basis for the hold;
3. a requirement that the City restore the project to active implementation;
4. in the alternative, a public Council reconsideration with notice, evidence, deputations, and a recorded vote;
5. recognition of the bridge as public active transportation infrastructure serving health, accessibility, transit, recreation, waterfront access, local business access, and quality of life;
6. Charter-informed recognition of democratic participation, expression, equality, accessibility, and inclusion.
As one of 500+ signatories to the petition, you’ve already demonstrated that this bridge matters to you and the Lakeview-Mississauga community.
If you can. please consider donating to my GoFundMe campaign to bring this matter before the Court and obtain a lawful, public, accountable resolution.
Please share this campaign with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, trail users, cyclists, runners, walkers, seniors, parents, accessibility advocates, environmental supporters, Lakeview-Mississauga residents, and everyone who believes that tax-payer funded public infrastructure should not be quietly cancelled behind closed doors.
The Orchard Heights Park Bridge link remains missing in the local active transportation network and Lakeview-Mississauga residents of all ages and walks of life, including walkers, runners, cyclists, rollers, seniors, children, families, commuters, mobility-device users, residents without cars, visitors and workers, etc. remain deprived of their rightful access to tax-payer funded public amenities.
THANK YOU!
Wolf Ruck