High-tech companies like Medtronic and Canon are included in those numbers, but the vast majority of health sector jobs in this city are made up of doctor’s offices, dentists, optometrists, medical labs and pharmacies, including national chains such as Shoppers Drug Mart. These common health care businesses, which can be found almost anywhere people live, can hardly be described as the types of innovative, cutting edge enterprises that will make Brampton part of Silicon Valley north.

Referencing figures for innovative growth that include existing routine health-sector jobs — labour not connected to emerging technologies or treatments — and even low-paying employment, creates an inaccurate account of Brampton’s existing health sector. This distorts the city's current level of innovative employment in the sectors Jeffrey wants to grow. The mayor did not respond when asked about the numbers she used and for clarification about the types of companies included in her 800 figure. She was also asked by The Guardian to describe what types of jobs she was referring to when she mentioned 12,000 employees working for the 800 health-sector companies she cited in her speech and in a press release. The mayor did not address the questions.

Jeffrey instead provided the following response.

“Over the past two years, Brampton has seen significant growth in the health and life science sector. In the public sector we have seen the opening of the state-of-the-art Peel Memorial centre, the imminent opening of ErinoakKids, and a recent project to redevelop the Peel Manor.”

Jeffrey also pointed to several large, private firms like Canon, Taro Pharmaceuticals and Atlas Health Care that have set up in Brampton in recent years.

Sanderson says he is still undecided about running for mayor again next year. He says the economic successes being touted by Jeffrey were actually achieved under the previous council.

Regional Coun. John Sprovieri, who has been among Jeffrey’s most vocal critics this term, also says the mayor is trying to use decisions made in previous terms, like the $60 million taxpayers committed toward the new Peel Memorial health campus and 10 acres of park land the city allocated to the ErinoakKids project.

“The mayor is good at coming up with buzz words and taking credit for work she didn’t do. But nothing really extraordinary has happened during her term as mayor,” Sprovieri says. “Most of the tough decisions on projects the mayor is now taking credit for were made by the previous council.”

The Guardian asked Jeffrey to provide specific details of any deals she has marshaled since 2014 that have resulted in a major corporation setting up operations locally, to which the mayor responded:

“Other negotiations with private-sector companies are underway, but remain confidential at this time.”

Much of Jeffrey’s mayoralty has been bogged down by dysfunction on council and an inability to reach consensus on key initiatives.

Jeffrey’s grand vision for an economic revival in Brampton focused on innovation has come under fire for lacking direction and any real planning substance. High order transit expansion, which would be a game-changer in Jeffrey's plan to attract innovative employers, has been a complete failure under her watch. In 2015 she alienated many councillors with heavy-handed tactics while failing to line up votes for the fully provincially funded $1.6-billion regional LRT, which as of now will only run through Mississauga and a tiny stretch of Brampton, stopping at Steeles Avenue.

And earlier this year, while Jeffrey was outlining her vision for a 'Toronto-Brampton-Waterloo Innovation Super Corridor' reliant on expanded rail service connecting Brampton to Canada’s largest urban centres, city staff said they were caught off guard by the province's announcement of a high speed rail line along the planned innovation corridor between Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. It will include a stop in Mississauga, but not in Brampton, despite all of Jeffrey’s recent talk about making Brampton a major innovation player on that very corridor.

The failure to be directly included in high-order transit projects denied the city's stagnating downtown, where Jeffrey's innovation plan is supposed to take root, direct transportation lines that could have linked to a larger regional transit network.

Critics have pointed to several initiatives fronted by the mayor that expose her ineffectiveness and lack of planning on big files. Among the sharpest criticism pointed at the mayor was the decision to form a blue-ribbon panel to finally land the city's first university — Brampton is the largest city in Canada without a university presence.

While bringing together prominent leaders in the community, including former premier Bill Davis, the panel was mocked widely for lacking direction and producing very little work that council could actually use in its bid to land a university after the province signalled that either Milton or Brampton would get one.

With Milton way ahead on its plans and with Brampton still looking for a university partner, the province bailed the city out, announcing that both municipalities would get a university. While Brampton eventually found a partner, Toronto's Ryerson University, the site has not been selected and there has been no clear funding strategy put forward by the city, almost three years after Jeffrey formed her blue ribbon panel.

Based on that experience, city hall watchers question Jeffrey’s latest move, to establish “an innovation roundtable” consisting of 25 community leaders, many of whom she is aligned with politically.

Jeffrey was asked by The Guardian about the group’s mandate, what role each person is expected to fulfil, and whether city staff will support its efforts in any way. She did not answer.

In a June press release, Jeffrey described the roundtable as “a group of innovators, business leaders and senior decision makers” tasked with advising her “on how best to position Brampton’s emerging innovation hub.”

“It is time for Brampton to disrupt the status quo and move towards becoming a destination for the best and brightest. With the assistance of leading institutional and private-sector leaders, I am being proactive in putting Brampton on the forefront of the global innovation movement.”