We are affirming our 'AAA' long-term issuer credit rating on the City of Brampton. The affirmation reflects our view of the city's very strong and diversified economy, exceptional liquidity, strong financial management and budgetary flexibility on the revenue side, and very low debt and contingent liabilities. Although budgetary performance is currently what we view as very strong, operating surpluses in the past five years have been significantly below that of similarly rated Canadian peers; in addition, we believe that constrained expenditure flexibility and a significant development charge reserve deficit somewhat mitigate the credit strengths. The negative outlook reflects our view that we could lower the rating if the city's operating surpluses fall below 5% of operating revenues and high capital
