Building a better city demands a sharper focus
As our new city council gets ready to meet to articulate their top priorities for the next four years, the IELECT Hamilton team wants to remind councillors and the public of our analysis of the responses we received to our candidate questionnaire prior to the Oct. 24 election.
Our analysis shows a remarkable degree of alignment on citywide issues as articulated by the majority of the new council.
The IELECT questionnaire asked candidates to provide their top three concerns in each of the six IELECT priority areas: infrastructure, economy, leadership, environment, community and transportation. The answers from the winning candidates were compared to create a combined list of top three concerns in each priority area.
Responses to the questionnaire were received from the following members of the new council: Ward 1 — Maureen Wilson Ward 2 — Cameron Kroetsch Ward 3 — Nrinder Nann Ward 4 — Tammy Hwang Ward 10 — Jeff Beattie
Ward 11 — Mark Tadeson Ward 12 — Craig Cassar Ward 13 — Alex Wilson Ward 15 — Ted McMeekin The winning candidates who didn’t submit a questionnaire are: Ward 5 — Matt Francis Ward 6 — Tom Jackson Ward 7 — Esther Pauls Ward 8 — John Paul Danko Ward 9 — Brad Clark
Ward 14 — Mike Spadafora Mayor — Andrea Horwath Here’s what we found by category:
Infrastructure
■ Develop a funded, multi-year infrastructure plan
■ Better stormwater and wastewater treatment plan
■ Safer streets for all
Economy
■ Fully integrated economic development plan including inclusionary zoning, green economy, rural economy, protecting employment lands, etc.
■ Affordable and deeply affordable housing
■ Living wage to support skilled labour workforce
Leadership
■ Lack of transparency and accountability
■ Long-term, city-wide, strategic thinking and decision-making
■ True community engagement to shape decisions
Environment
■ Take measurable actions on city’s declared climate emergency
■ Limit sprawl with improved land use and zoning
■ Protect water/waterways
Community
■ Robust, meaningful community engagement and consultation
■ Actively embracing our diversity through understanding and knowledge by and for all
■ Improve housing options (underhoused and unhoused)
Transportation
■ Underinvestment in public transit — invest, improve, expand, reliable public transit
■ Unsafe streets — improve safety for all
■ Disconnected cycle infrastructure
In preparation for their prioritysetting workshop, the results of which will be shared with the public by the end of March, we encourage all councillors and the mayor to review their own platforms and responses to the candidate questionnaire again, as well as the platforms and responses of their colleagues.
Remind yourselves what you said that got you elected. This is meant to help focus discussions, not to limit them.
We believe we can achieve so much more for all Hamiltonians if we blend building better wards with building a better city.
The completed candidate questionnaires are still posted on the IELECT website at IELECTHamtilon.ca.