Ward 2 has a Brand New Team, Website, and Newsletter
If you haven’t heard about the Ward 2 Team yet, I encourage you to head over to our website and read everyone’s bios on the About page. Back in November, I went through an open hiring process that resulted in Liesl Thomas and Hasnain Khan joining me as Constituency Coordinators in the Ward 2 office. They both work full time and are the ones you’ll likely reach when you email Ward2@hamilton.ca or call (905) 546-2197.
I wouldn’t be able to do my job without them and, together, we’ve responded to thousands of your emails, calls, and social media messages over my first 90 days in office.
In that time, the Ward 2 Team has also been working on a new website and newsletter for Ward 2. The website is part of my plan to continue to be transparent and accountable. It will not only contain information about the committees that I sit on, but will feature a public calendar so you can see some of the meetings and events I’m attending, a list of all of the motions I’ve put forward as either mover or seconder (with links to meeting documents), public statements I’ve made, and an accounting of the funds that I have access to on an annual basis.
I think the Resources section of the website will likely be of interest to the Ward 2 community. It contains information residents may not be used to seeing including -
City Notices like road closures, development applications, and watermain shut offs
A list of all the Committees that I sit on
Updates on Community Councils including their minutes and agendas
A link to Development in Ward 2 from the Downtown Sparrow’s development map (which the Ward 2 Team will eventually take over updating)
Fund Tracking that will show what funds are available to be spent in Ward 2 including “area rating” funds
A list of all of the Motions and Procedural Motions that I have either moved or seconded, including the results of those motions
Public Statements that I, local organizations, or residents have made
If you’re interested in knowing why we chose the specific colours and imagery for our website, Ward logo, and newsletter, visit the About page and scroll down to learn more.
We’ve also been working on creating this newsletter that we hope you’ll find engaging and informative. As you can imagine, there have been a number of significant things that have happened in the first few months of this new term. We won’t be able to cover them all here, so suggest you also stay tuned on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram if you want to look at what’s been happening since I was sworn in to office on November 16, 2022.
We also received some feedback from residents about wanting to hear from members of the community in the newsletter. So, we’re going to feature an article, coming out the day after the newsletter is released, from a member of the Ward 2 community about something that’s important to them.
The first article is from Ward 2 HWDSB Trustee Sabreina Dahab and will be published on February 28, 2023.
First Ward 2 Neighbourhood Town Hall in Beasley
The Ward 2 Team will be holding its first Ward 2 Neighbourhood Town Hall in Beasley on Wednesday, March 8, 2023 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the Beasley Community Centre at 145 Wilson Street (near the intersection of Wilson Street and Ferguson Avenue South in the same building as the Dr. J.A. Davey Elementary School).
We know it’s important not only to be able to reach out to the Ward 2 Team by phone, by email, and through social media, but also to have an opportunity to come together and hear from your neighbours and your Councillor directly. Ward 2 is the core of the city and there’s a lot going on here. That’s why we’re holding Neighbourhood Town Halls every single quarter throughout the 4 year term of Council, starting with this one. For those keeping count, that means we’ll be hosting more than a dozen meetings, which will give us a chance to hold a Neighbourhood Town Hall in each of the 6 neighbourhoods at least twice.
We’ll post a more detailed agenda on social media in advance of the Neighbourhood Town Hall but, generally, I’ll be talking about what's been happening at City Hall, what the Ward 2 Team has been hearing from residents and how we’ve responded, what some of our short and long term plans are, and then we’ll open it up for questions from residents.
The Beasley Community Centre is only open until 9:00pm, so we’ll end the meeting a few minutes beforehand so that staff have time to clean up and close down.
Removal of Trees by CN Railway along Strachan Street East
As many North Enders know, a significant group of trees along the rail line parallel to Strachan Street East was removed in February. This was not only a surprise to residents but a devastating blow for those who regularly rely on the natural shade and cooling effects of the trees, the sound mitigation impacts from train traffic, and the beauty that they added to the local area around the Mary Street pedestrian bridge.
This is difficult news for the North End. As Hamiltonians learned in a 2022 study conducted by CBC News researchers Naël Shiab and Isabelle Bouchard, the North End is the hottest metropolitan neighbourhood in Hamilton in terms of temperature. This is in large part due to the continue degradation of the urban tree canopy. Without trees, our urban neighbourhoods continue to heat up because the disproportionate number of hard surfaces like asphalt and concrete absorb rather than reflect the heat.
Trees have a cooling effect not only because they provide a shade canopy to reduce the impacts of direct sunlight but also through an important natural process called transpiration.
The Ward 2 Team is aware that the tree canopy in the North End has been severely degraded over the last couple of decades and we will be doing a few things over this term of Council to address this including -
Work with CN Railway on their From the Ground Up program with Tree Canada to increase the tree canopy in the area where trees were lost along the rail corridor - CN Railway has committed to helping Hamilton replace these trees and the Ward 2 Team will be in communication with Metrolinx in the near future to see what contributions they might be willing to make
Ensure Hamilton has Green Development Standards (GDS) so things like urban tree canopies are part of incentivized and mandatory guidelines for all developers - the short term goal is robust tree replacement guide and the long term goal is sustainable tree integration (for greenfield developments where remediation does not require tree removal)
Consult with the Jamesville developers and CityHousing Hamilton on their plans to prioritize tree replacement programs that not only do more than encourage a 1:1 (one-to-one) replacement but also look for ways to use more mature trees when they’re forced to remove trees to perform site remediation
Responding to Safety Concerns in our Neighbourhoods
During the week of February 6, 2023 the MacNab Street tunnel was temporarily closed by City staff in consultation with the City Manager. For those not familiar with the area, the tunnel is a pedestrian access that goes under the rail line along Hunter Street West right across from the YWCA.
We followed up with staff to ask more about why it was closed and when it would reopen and were told that it was closed due to “safety concerns” in the area and that there would be more information provided to us once there was a plan in place to reopen the tunnel.
We immediately understood what was meant by the term “safety concerns” as we’ve received complaints about the tunnel being used by our houseless neighbours and this was cited as one of the reasons that the City should consider closing it.
Hamilton simply doesn’t have an adequate supply of shelter or housing in Hamilton. As TVO recently reported, the City is not able to provide enough shelter or housing to meet the growing demand and housing costs in Hamilton continue to rise.
We know this is not the only area of Ward 2 where there are people living outdoors. We’ve received complaints from residents about active encampments in each one of the 6 downtown neighbourhoods.
We know there have been some challenging moments.
To be clear about our ongoing response, the Ward 2 Team approaches all issues related to inadequate housing from a human rights perspective and using the principles of harm reduction. Let’s break that down a bit, so there’s no confusion about how we’re using those terms.
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Human Rights
Recently, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) made it quite clear that removing encampments or otherwise displacing people living outdoors during the winter “puts people's health and their lives at stake” and “is a serious violation of human rights.” We agree and we stand by the statements made by the CHRC.
Harm Reduction
The principles of harm reduction are not just there to help us to understand how we can ensure the rights of people who use drugs, but they are a set of values that help guide us around working with compassion and care. Part of practicing those values means moving with and around people in a way that does not cause harm. It often looks like taking time to consult and ensuring there’s consent - moving more slowly than some would like.
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There have been requests for the Ward 2 Team to “tell police and bylaw” to remove an encampment from an area. We will not make requests to police or staff to remove an encampment, and we hope the reasons for that are clear.
I have been consistent and clear about my position on encampments both before and after I was elected. That position has not changed.
I know not everyone will agree and I understand the frustration. It’s not possible for there to be alignment on every issue with every resident. We’re going to see things differently, at times, and I hope we can continue to disagree respectfully. In case I haven’t said it before, the Ward 2 Team does not tolerate abusive language, threats, insults, or other harmful behaviours. If conversations escalate in harmful way, the Ward 2 Team will stop responding.
Hamilton, like many other cities in North America, will continue to go through a difficult transition when it comes to housing affordability. As many of you know, this housing crisis is the direct result of all levels of government abandoning social housing over a 30-year period and collectively shrugging their shoulders when issues were brought to their attention.
It’s going to take a long time to get back on track and for residents to start seeing significant impacts. That means a lengthy transitional period as the City starts to reprioritize housing and the services and supports that go along with it, during this term of Council. That transition will impact our houseless neighbours, more than many others, and it will remain our collective responsibility to look out for those who are in most need of our help in the meantime.
There is some hope on the horizon in the short term. In fact, we’re likely to have some more clarity about how to move forward at the end of April.
At a recent meeting of the General Issues Committee, I put forward a motion that was seconded by Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann to direct City staff to work with housing providers and advocates to come up with a new encampment protocol before the end of April.
We’re hopeful a new protocol will allow us to identify the needs of everyone in our community and find solutions so that all of our neighbours can live with dignity until everyone has access to safe and affordable housing.