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Saturday October 15, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 15, 2022

New Hamilton council must grow political will to tackle complex and polarizing issues

Of the myriad issues and challenges facing Hamilton’s new city council, few are as complex and polarizing as homelessness and the drug epidemic that continues to take a horrific toll.

Glorious architecture gallery

Mental health, poverty, addictions, safe and secure housing — all are at play in one big tangled Gordian knot. But if the new council just begins with a sense of urgency and addresses some of the pieces, it will already have achieved what the current council has not.

To begin, we need a broad and official acknowledgment that what is happening now isn’t working. While no one wants to see tent encampments in the lower city or elsewhere, the solution cannot simply be to tear them down and displace the residents. All that does is move the problem from one place to another, making it more difficult to serve this challenged population.

We have empathy for residents who feel less safe and inconvenienced by the presence of encampments, but there is no sweeping this under the rug.

What we need is more stable and secure housing options. The current council hasn’t done nearly enough. A part of the solution could be the HATS initiative which would see homeless people accommodated in purpose-built small shelters, clustered together for optimal service delivery. Tiny shelter communities are working in many other places in Canada and the U.S., including as close as Kitchener.

Some Hamilton councillors have expressed support for HATS, but that support is typically accompanied by a list of locations where they don’t want the settlement to be. Everyone can agree the idea should help, but no one wants to see in their ward. That’s not real support. In other cases local government has actually become actively involved in the project, but here council has been hands off. The private group driving the pilot project is seeking a site, and if they find one on private property, HATS could come to life. But it will be in spite of city council, not because of it.

Similarly, consider the opioid epidemic. Three years ago, city hall recognized the need for more supervised consumption and treatment services sites (CTS) that are proven to save lives by having resources on hand to help overdose victims. The limited services running now are literally saving lives, but the supply of CTS sites is far from adequate.

October 1, 2022

We know the city needs more. Community groups are actively working on plans for more, but they are facing opposition from residents, in particular in the lower city. Their argument goes something like: Inner city wards already house an above average number of services and shelters, so the needed CTS capacity should be in some other part of the city. The problem with that is that the population that needs the service isn’t someplace else, and it doesn’t make much sense to open a CTS site where drug users won’t use it.

It is worth noting here that city staff are not the issue. They are already working with others on the ground with community partners. What’s missing is political will. It is our fervent hope that a new council and mayor will change that. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

 

Wednesday August 3, 2022

‘People are suffering’: ICU nurse says staffing shortages at hospitals are getting worse

September 15, 2021

Nearly two-and-a-half years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one front-line nurse says emergency rooms are stretched thin amid constant staffing shortages.

“Things are worse now. And I don’t think the general public understands how difficult it is to be a patient or a nurse right now,” Birgit Umaigba, an intensive care unit nurse based in Toronto, told CTV News Channel on Monday.

Several hospitals across Ontario announced this weekend they’d be closing temporarily closing or reducing services in their emergency rooms and ICUs due to the ongoing staffing crunch.

Thursday January 27, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 27, 2022

Despite record high inflation, Bank of Canada holds interest rate steady — for now

May 2, 2020

The Bank of Canada has decided not to raise its benchmark interest rate just yet.

Like many other central banks around the world, the bank slashed its core lending rate — known as the target for the overnight rate — at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, to ensure that consumers and businesses had access to cheap lending in order to keep the economy afloat.

But two years of rock-bottom lending rates have been a major contributor to inflation, which rose to almost five per cent in Canada last month — its highest level in more than 30 years.

Saturday November 23, 2019

November 23, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 23, 2019

Hamilton sewage scandal: What happened, and why was it kept secret?

Last week, The Spectator revealed Hamilton city council knew in January about a massive sewage spill into Chedoke Creek but kept the details secret.

Here’s a surface-scraping primer on the scandal so far.

February 26, 2008

An overflow tank gate was left partly open for four-and-a-half years, releasing an estimated 24 billion litres of raw sewage into Chedoke Creek, which flows into Cootes Paradise, between January 2014 and July 2018.

Confidential city reports leaked to The Spectator note staff don’t know why the gate was left open or who did it. A separate gate mishap between January and July 2018 caused 30 per cent of the mess.

The full magnitude of the big leak was discovered after citizen complaints of stench in the area in July 2018.

What’s a combined sewer overflow tank?

Hamilton has nine large tanks that hold wastewater until it can be deposited into the Woodward Avenue treatment plant.

The tank in question, called the Main/King tank, was built in the 1990s and holds 75,000 cubic metres. It’s located at Cathedral Park at 707 King St. W.

“The automated monitoring systems at the CSO tank did not detect the discharge, nor was the discharge visible to staff during monthly facility inspections,” the city’s confidential documents note.

What about the watershed?

June 24, 2015

The July 2018 spill was a “huge setback,” said Tys Theijsmeijer, the Royal Botanical Gardens’ head of natural areas.

“Basically, all the oxygen was sucked out of the water, the algae growth was rampant … and so many plants, like water lilies, were just wiped out.”

The city didn’t tell the RBG, which is the steward of Cootes Paradise, the full volume and duration of the problem, however.

More than 240,000 litres of “floatable material” was removed from the surface of Chedoke Creek and taken to the Woodward Avenue plant.

The city faces a Feb. 14, 2020 deadline to submit an ecological risk assessment and, possibly, a remediation plan for Chedoke Creek. The confidential city reports suggest dredging the creek could cost $2 million.

What did the city tell (and not tell) the public?

July 16, 2014

The city told the public about the spill in July 2018 and posted warning signs around the popular paddling spot, but the full magnitude of the disaster was kept under wraps.

Staff and outside legal counsel advised council against publicizing the estimated 24-billion-litre volume and more-than-four-year span, as well as releasing consulting reports.

The rationale was that doing so could expose the city to financial risk amid a Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks investigation with potential fines of as high as $6 million.

What’s the political fallout?

Councillors say they opted for secrecy to protect taxpayers from financial liability, citing the legal advice they received.

All members of council voted in favour of confidentiality, but three councillors — Nrinder Nann, Maureen Wilson and John-Paul Danko — also cast dissenting votes at various times.

Nann and Wilson have since called for a public apology and the release of all documentation.

But councillors have also directed staff to investigate who gave The Spectator the confidential reports, sources say.

The sewage scandal has also made waves at Queen’s Park with NDP MPP Sandy Shaw (Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas) scolding the ministry for not telling residents about the full extent of the leak. (Hamilton Spectator)