The Ford government’s plan to jack up home heating bills goes before a legislative committee next week as momentum builds against Bill 165. Hamilton city council’s resolution has been echoed by several other municipalities along with three Hamilton area MPPs and citizen groups both locally and provincially.
Nearly half of this year’s property tax increase was imposed to compensate for provincially-forced discounts in development charges (DC). City council is now considering providing developers with additional DC discounts that would also have to be recouped through tax increases.
The successful stop sprawl movement in Hamilton has more work to do. The major threats to farms, wetlands, streams and natural areas in Hamilton now centre around the airport.
Changing or eliminating municipal requirements to provide parking is critical to creating more affordable housing, encouraging sustainable transportation, reducing storm runoff and reducing heat island effects, a US expert told a Toronto conference last month. “In many places in the United States cities are now eliminating their parking requirements,” Dr Dave King told a transportation gathering.
The most prominent climate scientist in North America says the planet has kissed goodbye to the target of keeping global warming below 1.5C. James Hansen says the drastic temperature spurt over the last half year makes this clear.
