By Cameron Kroetsch
As fall begins so too does the budget process at City Hall. For the next few months I’ll be performing my regular duties on top of participating in budget processes for a number of organizations, including the City’s budget. As you may know, I’m the Chair of the Hamilton Farmers’ Market and on the Hamilton Public Library and Hamilton Police Service Boards. Each one of these organizations goes through budget processes and I fully participate in each of them.
The police board is going through a new process that I recommended in 2023 – we’re meeting four times as a Budget Committee, twice in September, once in October, and finally in November, all before the board sends its budget on to Council. This will allow the Budget Committee to provide comprehensive feedback, ask questions, and gather insight and understanding when it comes to this year’s budget ask from police. The Chief is currently projecting a 9.48% budget increase and an overall police budget of $245 million. In past years, amendments have not been approved and the budget has remained fixed at the amount presented to the board. We’ll see what happens this year, but I don’t expect there to be a significant change.
The City’s main budget process is also underway, with many meetings planned to review the proposals put forward by each of the City’s departments. I’ve already started asking questions and have reached out to City staff for clarity on the documents that have been released to date. The City is currently projecting an 8.9% budget increase, but this is expected to be reduced significantly after the Mayor issues her directive on the budget and Councillors introduce amendments.
I think it’s more important than ever to be transparent and accountable to the public about our budget processes. Too many members of Council spend this time repeating what they said last year and trying to score political points by professing their fiscal responsibility.
As a Councillor who has put forward many tax cuts in this term of Council, I can say with confidence that not everyone is doing their fair share of the work. I hope to see many more motions from Councillors this year to change the budget outlook, and improve services for residents, not just make noise and chase headlines.
I know residents are concerned about the budget, and how it impacts their property taxes, so I’ll be holding a budget town hall meeting again this year, scheduled for November 27 to present an overview of the budget and get feedback from residents about their priorities. I’ll post more information about the timing and location of the budget town hall in the next issue of the Breezes.
The demolition of Jamesville is now underway thanks to the hard work of CityHousing Hamilton staff who have been stewarding this process on behalf of the developer and the City. It was hard to see all the mature trees cut down, and I share in that concern and loss. The North End is the hottest part of Ward 2, in part, because of the loss of the local tree canopy. While we can’t go back and undo the decisions made by the previous Council that got us to this point, I can assure you CHH has already changed some of its policies so a situation like this doesn’t happen again. It’s stressful, unfair, and puts everyone at odds with one another. Hamilton, and the North End, deserve better and I’m committed to ensuring that future projects better meet the needs of the community, from start to finish. It’s not enough for some to benefit from the affordable housing that will eventually be built. We must ensure projects of this scale and impact lift everyone up and aren’t delayed unnecessarily, which does nothing but drag the community down. I’ve done my part, despite past decisions, to help move things forward and I’ll continue to do so every chance I get.
If you want to reach out, the Ward 2 Team and I are available if you have feedback to share, a concern to raise, or a question to ask. Please send an email to the Ward 2 Team at Ward2@hamilton.ca or call us at (905) 546-2197. You can reach me directly at Cameron.Kroetsch@hamilton.ca.
