Wednesday, July 8, 2026

But the issue is the sheer size of the storm itself. Damage was done to more than 32 municipalities and some were hit harder than others. Halton Hills was hit particularly hard. Their mayor Rick Bonnette said that he is happy to hear about the funds but is worried about how it will be divided up. He says that Halton had to pay for extra work crews who came in to help and work over the holidays. They have extensive damage to their power lines and in some cases people were without power for 8 days. So there is concern if the provinces money will cover what they need.

Not long ago in Hamilton, Mayor Bratina says that this is just the first step, one that began with that large meeting of municipal leaders last January that got the ball rolling. “That was quite the meeting. Haven’t seen anything like that certainly in my term of office. Hazel McCallion leading the way with all the other mayors affected by the ice storm. The province listened. The province is going through with a process that will end up in some dispensation of monies. So, it’s all good. The only problem may be when the final determination is made. There may be some left out but I wouldn’t say that because we’re all still in and we requested that we be treated as a group and not as individual municipalities.”

The mayor said the city is in good shape once the money comes in. Mayors Rick Goldring of Burlington and Rob Burton of Oakville each said that they are pleased with the announcement as it will, in some way help.

And in late news from Hamilton city hall, there is word that the city has agreed with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats for a 20 year lease of Tim Horton’s Field as the home field for their games. The vote was 9 to 7 in favour of the deal.