Hamilton mayor talks vaccine clinics, Hamilton Farmer’s Market, HSR

Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger joined us with an update on city issues.

Vaccine Clinics Open for Walk-ins

A number of vaccine clinics in Hamilton are now open for walk-ins. Eisenberger says there is lots of availability at these clinics and he encourages people to go to one. 

“People are encouraged to continue to get the vaccine because that is the path forward not only to push back this virus, but to protect our healthcare system,” said Eisenberger. 

He says he has received reports that there are critical issues happening at healthcare facilities in the city, including full ICU’s and staffing shortages. 

Hamilton Farmer’s Market Drop in Customers 

The Hamilton Farmer’s Market is currently dealing with a drop in people coming because most of the offices the market serves are empty due to the pandemic forcing people to work from home. 

“[The Hamilton Farmer’s Market] has also lost a huge sponsorship in Meridian which has been a terrific sponsor of the market for a number of years,” said Eisenberger. 

He says the market is experiencing a fiscal shortfall of about $250,000. Eisenberger says he supports a re-envisioning exercise to determine what the market needs to do to continue into the future. 

“There’s an opportunity to not only look at the governance of the market, but what kind of vision it will take for it to be sustainable,” said Eisenberger. 

HSR Route Changes

Eisenberger says the HSR is experiencing the same staffing shortages the healthcare system is. He says HSR will not be removing any lines, but they are reducing the frequency of buses. 

“We did discuss this week our 10 year transit strategy and you may know we received about half a billion dollars of funding for the traditional transit system shared between the federal, provincial and municipal governments,” said Eisenberger. “You’re going to see significant investments in our traditional transit system, as well as the LRT that is on-going in future years.”

Eisenberger says the economics of public transit is becoming more desirable given the cost of everything going up. 

“The demographics of the people using the system, we can easily predict transit usage is going to go up,” said Eisenberger.