This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of April 2013. The first line of each entry identifies the issue, followed by a brief description. This is followed by the location of the vote in the third line. Multiple votes on the same issue are reported together. Absentees are only listed where reported in the minutes and where the missing councillors are members of that committee or decision-making body. Links are provided to source documents.  Note that the vast majority of council decisions are unanimous and the votes are not officially recorded.

Thirteen years after amalgamation, residents of the former city of Hamilton are still taxed three to four times higher than suburbanites for the HSR. If the higher-income suburbs made the same contribution as inner city dwellers, it would provide the first new property tax funding in over twenty years for a transit system that has the worst growth rate in the province.

Toronto is cutting both corporate and per capita greenhouse gas emissions far faster than Hamilton. Municipal policies have contributed to reductions in both cities, but major assistance has also been provided by provincial government actions, especially the phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation in favour of wind and solar.

Last week’s rejection of a levy on mall parking lots misses an opportunity to help downtown areas, but continues a long tradition of subsidies that have kept Hamilton parking rates far lower than other large cities.

The National Energy Board has received nearly 200 applications to participate in the hearings on the expansion and flow reversal of the Enbridge Line 9 pipeline that could also be used to export diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands. While most are individuals, like Burlington’s Sarah Harmer, many of the applicants are representing citizen groups, private corporations, industry groups, municipalities, or the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.