Hamilton council should be…

Hamilton council should be investigated. They are the only Municipality of the 12 under review that are blatantly going against all Provincial and Federal Housing target legislations.

They are outright going against the advice of their Chief Planner, City Consultants who conducted the Lands Needs Assessments and 3rd party consultants. (Attachment from City Website). It is important to note that the City's Lands Need Assessment that was conducted by their own consultants was the exact same mapping and approval that the Province chose in November 2022...

Growth is imperative as we approach a 2:1 Worker to Retiree ratio by 2031 and immigration numbers increase, however, pigeon holing ourselves into a single product (condos) while simultaneously restricting height is the exact opposite of the growth legislation by the Provincial Government and the Federal Government.

The Liberal Party states on their Housing Accelerator webpage that they intend to "tackle NIMBYism" yet their fellow Liberal/NDP Constituents are doing exact that, recommending anti-growth. 10's of thousand of young individuals and families are leaving Hamilton to neighboring cities to seek the type of housing product they would like which is Single Family homes and yet Hamilton council is looking to squash the building of that very product for the next 30 years while only incorporating restricted high-rise which is much more expensive to build, not economically viable and is NOT the product that people are moving to Hamilton to purchase.

I would urge any activist or council member or Provincial Party Member who is stating that these lands are "precious farmland" to drive out to these properties and take a look at them. Some are just overgrown grass, some are dirt not being farmed, some literally just grow and sell sod(grass), others are cash crops and the majority of the precious farmland will be returned to the Greenbelt and still protected with this growth. These are Whitebelt lands identified for NEEDED future growth, not precious farmland. The council stated 16,000 people made comments about not wanting growth, that is less than 2% of Hamilton population and an even smaller percentage of the families looking to come to Hamilton to purchase a new home over the next 30 years, which with these changes if they stand will not exist!

This has everything to do with Politics and nothing to do with economic growth and housing. Paul Calandra should leave the Politics aside and do what his party promised they would do, get Homes Built Faster and stop Hamilton's NIMBY council from voting to have 0 new subdivisions built for the next 30 years. Especially when they are going against their own staffs professional assessments stating we need to expand the boundaries.