Hamilton mayoral candidates’ infrastructure promises ahead of election

With the Hamilton municipal election around the corner, CHCH News takes a closer look at the mayoral candidates’ promises on infrastructure.

This is what Barton Street East looked like in the spring, just before it was named CAA’s Worst Road in Ontario for the third time in five years.

The City has committed to fixing it, and some work has already happened.

“Barton Street’s going to be off the list finally,” says Hamilton incumbent Mayor Andrea Horwath.

A portion of a recent historic infrastructure investment from upper levels of government has also been earmarked for a section of Barton Street in Stoney Creek.

Also part of the $572-million investment is reconstruction or road widening on Lewis, Rymal and Garner Roads, among other projects.

The money will help chip away at the City’s estimated $5.2-billion infrastructure deficit over the decade — roads, water main pipes, recreation centres and more that will need fixing within the next few terms of council.

“Well, it doesn’t matter where I go, everybody says ‘fix the damn roads!'” says Keanin Loomis.

After a narrow loss last municipal election, candidate Keanin Loomis is once again pitching to fix Hamilton’s roads.

He says better coordination between the city, utilities and major infrastructure partners will allow work on a road to happen all at once, rather than repaving only to rip up a section again soon thereafter.

“Some of the best work in the city is being done from the auditors office. They are looking at every single way in which we can be doing better, they’re delivering recommendations and we’re ignoring them,” says Loomis.

Incumbent Mayor Andrea Horwath says she’ll leverage connections with the province and the feds to get more infrastructure dollars moving forward, adding that some new City-funded projects may take a back seat in order to lower property tax increases.

“What I’ve heard from Hamiltonians when we did our budget consultations was that they want to see infrastructure improvements. They might be okay with taking the pace down a little bit to provide tax relief, and I listened to that clearly. But what we can’t do is overdo the delays,” says Horwath.

Ward 8 Councillor and mayoral candidate Rob Cooper, on the other hand, says recreation centres are a top priority.

“Infrastructure’s not just about roads, it’s about building a community,” says Cooper.

He’s promising to build rec centres in Binbrook, Waterdown and Winona before the end of his first term.

“I was up there and I met with a group of 200 kids in Binbrook, I said, ‘We’re going to build your recreation centre.’ I had a 15-year-old say to me, ‘What’s a recreation centre?’ It’s been an empty promise for so long that it means nothing, yet when I go to the Mountain police station here, all the pictures I see are young people … in violent crime and different acts of crime. If we don’t have good things for young people to do, they’re gonna do things anyways,” says Cooper.

You can still cast an advance ballot at city hall until Friday.