September marks the second straight year of steep fare hikes on the HSR most of whose riders are among the lowest income residents of Hamilton.
This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of July 2016.
It was impoverished Africans and Asians who were supposed to be the early victims of climate change, not the well-off residents of North America now getting clobbered by floods, fires, drought and melting ice.
Decisions on many key issues that have divided urban and suburban councillors could change significantly if new wards based on the principle of representation by population are approved this fall.
Ontario’s new law banning corporate and union donations in municipal elections could have significant impacts in Hamilton, especially if ward boundaries are also changed to give voters more equal representation.
The catastrophic oil spill in Saskatchewan has raised new concerns about inadequate environmental reviews of pipelines as the National Energy Board (NEB) grapples with Enbridge’s proposal to construct 35 kilometres of its Line 10 across rural Hamilton.
Hamilton’s hot weather is mirrored by escalating global average temperatures that are already closing in on the maximum increase agreed to in Paris last December by 190 countries.
It hasn’t attracted much interest from the public, but the city’s ward boundary review weighs heavily on city councillors as they contemplate their chances of re-election.
Former mayor Bob Bratina began the city’s first consultations on a federal climate change plan by arguing many of the challenges facing Hamilton “result from poor city planning” that have constructed “a city that is designed for driving cars”.
This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of May 2016.
Trying to improve their battered reputation, the National Energy Board held one of its first “community meetings” this week in Hamilton with mixed results.
This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of June 2016.
Hamilton’s recycling numbers remain near the worst for large Ontario cities but councillor opposition to change seems to have persuaded city staff to drop proposals plans for improvements.
A closely divided council is being pushed again to reform funding for flood prevention and other stormwater management costs in line with several other Ontario municipalities.
Rapid transit and Hamilton; Greenbelt meeting; Environmental awards
Hamilton and other municipal governments will be encouraged or forced to contribute to the climate actions announced last week by the province.
As city council dithers about the LRT, Hamilton’s priorities appear increasingly out of step with both provincial and federal governments.
Virtually all of Donna Skelly’s by-election win was financed from outside ward seven.
This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of April 2016.
In a victory for Environment Hamilton and other advocates of foodland preservation, virtually all of the city’s recommendations to remove land from the protected Greenbelt or otherwise weaken its rules were rejected or ignored by the provincial government.