[TY]

The article mentions that they hired programmers from Ukraine and helped them to relocate to Canada with their families. I happen to know one of those programmers and he's been with the firm for 10 years and seems to be quite happy.

Mississauga is no better or worse than any other suburb. The fact that you have to drive to get food, forces you to plan better and actually bring food into the office instead of eating take out all the time. In a way, that's a plus :-)

This perception probably depends on what life stage you are in: if you are single or married no children then "no after work fun" and "suburb hell" are minuses. Once you are "married with children" ;-) then those things stop being important as you have other priorities to rush to.