wards

Saturday December 16, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 16, 2017

Exclusively rural Flamborough ward is coming apart

Farmers may feed cities but based on the Ontario Municipal Board’s ward boundary ruling it looks like cities politically devour farmers.

April 26, 2012

The most lamentable change in the board’s redrawing of Hamilton’s electoral map is the elimination of the current Ward 14 in west Flamborough, effectively shutting down the one voice around the city council horseshoe which speaks exclusively for rural residents.

Under the plan, the ward will be wiped out and partitioned between Ancaster and Dundas, reshaping the unique agricultural community into a mixed urban-rural precinct. In its stead a new ward will sprout on the Mountain.

Ward 14 comprises more than one-third of Hamilton’s total land mass and accounts for a big portion of the $1 billion plus economic activity which agriculture annually contributes to Hamilton’s economy.

June 24, 2016

For the past 11 years Coun. Robert Pasuta, a farmer himself, has been the voice of that community, which since amalgamation has become part of the flavour and fabric of the city.

Pasuta’s updates to council on the state of asparagus, corn, and soybean crops are a quirky but restorative reminder of how singularly blessed Hamilton is, how just a short distance from the choking traffic and concrete of the big city the elemental forces of nature still call the tune that people’s lives and livelihoods dance to.

The weather and soil will remain if the board decision stands. An independent political voice for farmers will not.

Word of the board decision knocked the wind out of Pasuta. He’s got his legs back under him now. If legal grounds permit, he firmly supports appealing the ruling. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

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Thursday April 26, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday April 26, 2012 Council on the clock as ward boundaries petition delivered A community group pushing the city to take another look at its ward boundaries has successfully collected the 500 signatures it needs toÊspur councillors into action. A petition bearing 680 names was presented to the city clerkÕs office Monday, in time for consideration at Wednesday nightÕs councilÊmeeting. According to the process laid out in the Municipal Act, councillors have 90 days to address the issue before the petitioners have the optionÊof taking the city to the Ontario Municipal Board. The petition was prompted by councillorsÕ decision to park a ward boundary review until the next council term. ThatÕs after the previousÊcouncil Ñ made up of 13 of the same councillors as the present term Ñ put off reviewing the issue until after the 2010 election. The petition asks councillors to redraw its 15 wards to better represent HamiltonÕs population distribution in time for the 2014 election. ÒWhereas five wards of the city of Hamilton have in excess of 25 per cent more citizens compared to the median as of the 2006 census,Êwe the undersigned petition the council to pass a bylaw dividing or redividing the municipality into wards or dissolving the existingÊwards,Ó it reads. But Councillor Terry Whitehead says citizens will have to carefully argue their case if they wish to successfully challenge the existingÊward boundaries. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2240062-council-on-the-clock-as-ward-boundaries-petition-delivered/ Hamilton, Boundary, redistribution, wards, map, Portand, poverty, pie, concentric, borders

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday April 26, 2012

Council on the clock as ward boundaries petition delivered

A community group pushing the city to take another look at its ward boundaries has successfully collected the 500 signatures it needs to spur councillors into action.

A petition bearing 680 names was presented to the city clerk’s office Monday, in time for consideration at Wednesday night’s council meeting.

June 24, 2016

June 24, 2016

According to the process laid out in the Municipal Act, councillors have 90 days to address the issue before the petitioners have the option of taking the city to the Ontario Municipal Board.

The petition was prompted by councillors’ decision to park a ward boundary review until the next council term. That’s after the previous council — made up of 13 of the same councillors as the present term — put off reviewing the issue until after the 2010 election.

The petition asks councillors to redraw its 15 wards to better represent Hamilton’s population distribution in time for the 2014 election.

“Whereas five wards of the city of Hamilton have in excess of 25 per cent more citizens compared to the median as of the 2006 census, we the undersigned petition the council to pass a bylaw dividing or redividing the municipality into wards or dissolving the existing wards,” it reads.

But Councillor Terry Whitehead says citizens will have to carefully argue their case if they wish to successfully challenge the existing ward boundaries. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

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