Without an increase to the City’s revenue stream, it will be impossible to increase police, fire, and public safety, while also ensuring the quality of our water infrastructure. In addition, the City is left to fill the gaps left by our two senior levels of government on housing and homelessness, as well as public health and social services.

Although the Hamilton Police Service budget process is prescribed in provincial law, it must never preclude the insight, oversight and foresight of the citizens it serves. We need to give serious consideration to adequately funding the things the HPS does well, but also identifying those services that would be better delivered in partnership or exclusively by another party / agency / service.

A crime ring is targeting suburban areas all over Ontario, stealing vehicles, and in many cases, transporting them overseas. Needless to say, this problem has rightly become a matter of urgent priority for me at City Hall. 

Bill 23 effectively shifts billions of dollars in infrastructure funding into the budgets of local communities, as the Ford government is choosing to give massive financial breaks to developers, while forcing new infrastructure costs onto municipalities.