Andrea Horwath reveals ‘action plan for Hamilton’ as ex-Ontario NDP leader runs for mayor
Published September 12, 2022 at 2:10 pm
Andrea Horwath says that Hamilton is always No. 1 for her, although her mayoral campaign faces a counter-narrative that her run implies that the office is some second-place prize.
The former Ontario Opposition leader has been elected to represent Hamilton for a quarter-century, as either the ward 2 city councillor, or as an Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) member of provincial parliament. Horwath joined the mayoral race in late July after resigning first as ONDP leader on June 2 — the night that the Ontario PC Party government and Premier Doug Ford were easily re-elected — and then as Hamilton Centre’s MPP.
The two other higher-profile mayoral hopefuls, Bob Bratina and Keanin Loomis, were not in senior levels of government at the start of 2022, and had months-long head starts on Horwarth. Loomis, former chamber-of-commerce president and CEO, 27 weeks before Horwath came into the race. Bratina, former mayor and member of Parliament, announced his bid 17 weeks ahead of Horwath.
Monday, six weeks out from the Oct. 24 vote, and with mail-in balloting also opening, Horwath revealed a platform that seemed notionally structured on a saying of hers: “plan the work, and work the plan.” Entitled “Action Plan For A Thriving Hamilton,” it lays out objectives for the the city to reach in the next four years. She also appears to be casting her run for mayor as a continuance of her life’s work in her hometown.
“My action plan informed by a lot of comments and discussions I have had with a lot of people over the last few weeks,” Horwath said in a live-streamed media conference. “Inside that plan are things we need to work on — things like our swer and water issues, infrastructure, things like making sure our roads are in good shape and are safe for people… I believe we have a plan in here that will help achieve that.
“For me, it’s matter of bringing the experience that I have, the track record that I have in public life, the insights that I have gained in order to work and my deep roots in Hamilton,” Horwath added during scripted remarks. “Everything I’ve done has been building toward this, helping us realize the vibrant future that we all have … The people here have always been my bedrock.”
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Loomis laid out a detailed platform last week that he self-described as having “aggressive targets” for long-term City of Hamilton goals. Bratina’s approach to platform has included adding new actions regularly at his VoteBratina.com campaign site; he was up to 10 as of Monday.
Horwath is also vying to be the first woman mayor in the office’s 175-year history. Hamilton is the second-largest city in Canada that has never had a female mayor, surpassed only by Vancouver.
Says changes to area rating must be ‘justified’; ‘housing is a right’
The Horwath-helmed ONDP did not win enough seats in either 2018 or ’22 to be part of Ontario’s governance. She is 9-0 lifetime in running for local council or for a seat provincially, along with having won an ONDP leadership contest. While off-script while taking questions on Monday, she did take some hard lines about campaign pledges.
Here is a summary of Horwath’s responses to questions from select Hamilton media portals on Monday.
Area rating and transit
On Hamilton being the only major Ontario cite where suburban and more rural wards receive fewer city services (specifically transit) in exchange for reduced property taxes: “When it comes to area rating, we need to provide the transit that justifies the changes … Any change to area rating happen in tandem with improved services.
“What I hear when I, for instance, speak to the Flamborough chamber of commerce (in Ward 15), is: ‘I need a bus,’ ” Horwath added. “They need transit to be accessible to their small business districts so those shop owners can hire people who maybe cannot afford a car. There are a lot of working people who are not earning enough money to afford a car, and that’s the reality.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local 107, which represents most Hamilton Street Railway transit employees, said Monday that it is endorsing Bratina. Bratina, who was mayor from 2010 till ’14 and an MP from ’15-21, has had a complicated relationship status with transit infrastructure. He is billing himself as the “transit mayor,” but was long opposed to light-rail transit plans. As an MP, though, he was known to use GO Transit and VIA Rail for Hamilton-Ottawa travel, instead of driving.
The local ATU leadership also expressed concern last year that having the LRT could be used to justify further reductions in HSR bus service. The LRT is slated to run from Stoney Creek to McMaster University, through the downtown.
Infrastructure
On Hamilton’s estimated $2.3-billion infrastructure deficit, and approach to road safety: “It’s important to build into our capital budget process the necessity of fixing our roads in a way so people can see the results…. I had an experience the other day, just talking with some women, asking about what was on their minds, as a mum, as a woman. And a woman at this conversation told me about this park that was just built, opened, this past summer, in her ward. And the park is completely inaccessible. There’s a concrete area, and a drop of about six inches, so her child, who uses a wheelchair, cannot access it.
“I don’t know why we would be using parks that would be inaccessible. How does that happen?”
“It’s a matter of the quality of the infrastructure … this particular story is not something Hamiltonians should not have to put up with.”
Hamilton has had 16 traffic deaths in 2022, and more than half of the deceased were on foot when they were struck by a driver. A suite of changes have been made.
In terms of fixing roads, a city auditor’s report in July implored Hamilton to step up its game on that file as well.
Cootes and RHVP cover-ups
On the Cootes Paradise sewage spill and the Red Hill Valley Parkway buried safety report: “Having a shredder working overtime to try to try to prevent information from being available to the public” — this was said in apparent reference to the ongoing RHVP Inquiry — “only serves to increase the distrust. It only serves to create more friction and concern.”That trust has to be built collectively,” Horwath added. “How is it that Cootes Paradise was poisoned with sewage, and it took a significant amount of time that the council knew about this, but didn’t let people know? While people were canoeing, kayaking, fishing in Cootes Paradise.
“With the Red Hill, People lost their lives, there were serious accidents. We need to be really upfront with folks when it comes to their health and safety… I get it, we have lawwyers saying ‘there might be risks here, there might be risks there,’ but what about the risks to people? That will always be number one for me.”
In the “A City Hall That Works For Hamiltonians” section of on andrea4hamilton.ca, the buried RHVP report from TradeWind Scientific is described as a finding of “possible major safety concerns.” The report established that friction on the road would have failed a safety test in the United Kingdom, and the inquiry’s costs are expected to surpass $25 million by early next year. (Canada and the U.S. have no similar safety standard.)
Affording living, and livability
On housing affordability, the urban boundary and the climate catastrophe: “The urban boundary needs to be firm,” Horwath said. “There is already a robust plan in terms of the missing middle.”
Last fall, city council voted 13-3 not to open up about 1,340 hectares of farmland to residential development. Analysis from urban planner Cheryll Case showed Hamilton had plenty of underutilized space within the existing boundary.
The outgoing council has since voted for a “gentle density” plan in order to meet an estimated need for over 52,000 new homes, but their plan will have to be approved by the province.
Horwath said she will create a “multi-disciplinary” taskforce, drawn from the not-for-profit, building industry and labour union sectors, in order to streamline building approvals in Hamilton. “It’s so frustrating that years go by and there’s no action.”
At the very least, the three major candidates have been offering ideas to free up space to build. Bratina, for one, wants the province to declare any unused propety it has as “surplus,” allowing it to be sold at discount rates and developed for not-for-profit housing.
Loomis has also said tiny homes and shelters should be considered.
The right to housing
On Hamilton’s unhoused crisis (which culminated last fall in police violence at an encampment teardown at J.C. Beemer Park): “I don’t believe we should be uprooting people without giving them a place to go. I don’t think that uprooting people and moving them to another space is solving anything whatsoever… we should be moving people to a place where they have some security and a roof over the head.
In response to an initial question, Horwath had stated, “I think it is very, very clear that the homelessness crisis that we have, and the situation where people are left to live rough — whether that is in a park, on a trail, or in the doorway of a business that is not being used — is really a symptom of a bigger problem.
“I think that it is our obligation and our requirement as a city to work very very hard to make sure that people have what they need in order to live. I believe housing is a right. I have always believed that, and what we need to do is find the pathway sforwards to give people the opportunity to have safe shelter that is adequate for them and provides the supports necessary to keep them sheltered… and we don’t have that right now.”
A community garden, incidentally, has recently been built in Beemer Park.
Distrust of the city
On declining civic engagement and distrust of the City of Hamilton: Horwath noted that one of her pledges for her first 90 days in office would be creating a “diverse taskforce” that would “come up with ways to make city hall more transparent.”
Both Bratina and Loomis have also said that residents need a more direct line to the mayor’s office.
“I’m hearing stories about departments that are severely understaffed, people who are being poached by other cities,” Horwath said. “Those things are not good for Hamilton. We will have a recruitment and retention strategy.”
Election day is six weeks away, on Oct. 24.
In all, nine candidates are on the ballot, including Ejaz Butt. Jim Davis, Paul Fromm, Solomon Ikhuiwu, Hermiz Ishaya and Michael Pattison. In 2018, Davis, Pattison and Fromm received a combined 3,825 votes for mayor, which was just more than 5 per cent of Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s winning tally.
Butt ran in 2014 and received 1,579 votes, or 1.29 per cent of the total.
Eisenberger announced in June that he would not seek re-election.
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