Cameron Kroetsch
It’s been a snowy February in our city and I’m hopeful, as I know many North Enders are, to see some warmer weather ahead in March so we can all enjoy the longer days coming our way. Big snow events, of which there have been a few this season, can keep us from connecting with one another and can make some of our neighbours feel isolated.
That being said, I saw many photos and posts online from North Enders showing the work done to help a neighbour with shovelling or a day spent going around the neighbourhood clearing off sidewalks and driveways. Thanks to everyone who was able to do that. Our downtown continues to be a great place because of our community spirit and desire to help one another.
Over the last couple of months, I received a number of complaints from residents about areas they told me were neglected during recent snowfalls and thought it might be helpful to share more information about how the City deploys for a snowfall.
In short, roads are given different priorities and are cleared to the assigned standard in priority order. If you’re curious to know what priority your road is for future snowfalls, visit ward2hamilton.ca/road-priority. This will take you to a map where you can enter your street name and click to find out what the priority is by road class. There’s a legend on this page that tells you what each road class means and what level of service you can expect as a result.
The same goes for sidewalks in Hamilton. In most cases, the City requires property owners to clear the adjacent sidewalks, but the City does provide enhanced levels of sidewalk snow clearing in some areas. To find out more, including visiting a page to track sidewalk snow plows, visit ward2hamilton.ca/sidewalk-snow. If the City is not meeting the expected level of service, with snow clearing or other things, please contact my office directly at Ward2@hamilton.ca and we’ll follow up with City staff.
As you may also have seen, the deliberations over the City’s budget concluded at the City Council meeting on February 12. For my part, I brought forward six motions to help to make our City budget better by suggesting increases and decreases through amendments.
I moved motions to freeze police spending for 2025, improve cleaning to underpasses and tunnels across the city, advance work on community benefits, support the YMCA’s recovery from last year’s devastating fire, and find money to help the library build back its systems after the cybersecurity attack. I also moved a motion to give about $100k back to City coffers to help combat Hamilton’s infrastructure deficit. Council approved the majority of these amendments to the budget.
Unfortunately, my motion asking for no increase to the police budget was not supported by my colleagues. They also didn’t support hiring outside staff to help us advance our work on community benefits. On the latter, there’s a plan to do this work in another way and I’m looking forward to advancing that plan later this year.
As for the police budget, I’m not surprised. Despite the fact that police asked for another $17m this year, for a total cost of policing at $232m, City Council didn’t trim a single cent. It’s puzzling, from the perspective of fiscal responsibility, but it’s become a pattern.
Police are on track to spend nearly $1b in this term of Council and their budget has almost tripled since 2001. I find this concerning because I continue to hear from residents, regularly, that police are not responding to their requests for service and as a result are not making our community safer.
To be fair, I also hear, though less often, police aren’t getting the support they need. I find this confusing. Police have received more support from Council than any other City department or division. There has never been a single cent cut from the proposed police budget since amalgamation, despite there being many reductions to other City departments and divisions.
I will continue to ask that our City’s finances are transparent and each and every department receives the same scrutiny. As the total costs of policing make up more than 25% of the entire tax increase in 2025, even small percentage-based cuts to the police budget have a huge impact on the overall tax levy.
As you know, as soon as one budget ends, another begins. I will hold another budget town hall for the 2026 cycle and encourage you to come out to let me know your priorities and will continue to do my part to improve services and look out for savings.
In the meantime, if you’d like to connect with my office please reach out at Ward2@hamilton.ca or through our office phone number at (905) 546-2197. The Ward 2 Team is in the office Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:00am to 4:00pm; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00am to 8:00pm; and Saturdays from 10:00am to 2:00pm.
