I’m going to try something new, a blog-like scrapbook of items that I would normally tweet and forget. The primary purpose of Joey’s Notebook is to ensure easy future reference of information, something which is not possible with tweets. This differs from Coleman’s Notes, which are full posts of analysis, opinion, blog, or insights. (take your pick of what term you prefer).
Good morning, another busy day ahead at City Hall.
Two City Hall meetings today: Council General Issues Committee starting at 9:30am, and the volunteer Hamilton Cycling Committee at 5:30pm this afternoon.
General Issues Committee
- Rob MacIsaac, President and CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences will speak to Council GIC this morning, HHS is looking to build a new Children’s Hospital on the Hamilton General Hospital site, and other expansions.
- Ted Scott of Synapse Life Sciences Consortium will delegate to Council seeking ongoing funding for the Hamilton Life Sciences Cluster. The amount sought is $25,000 per year.
- Donation policy for art and monuments – the City gets offered a lot of interesting gifts, which if accepted require the City to maintain, and in cases where they are placed on public property such as statues, can cause debate. Council will debate a policy to decide what to accept, and what not to accept.
- Hamilton’s fire fighters have a tentative new contract, Council will go into closed session to decide if Council will ratify the agreement.
- Council will also hear from staff on a new internal human resources survey.
Cycling Committee
Agenda is not yet public.
The NotePad
- A TVO story about The Heather, a restaurant on Barton Street, and gentrification. There’s nothing you haven’t read already on gentrification, it is interesting to learn more about owner Matt Cowan.
- Bill 66 the “Ontario’s Competitiveness Act” passed the Ontario Legislative Assembly yesterday. For the Corporation of the City of Hamilton, this means an end to the carpenters’ union monopoly on City of Hamilton procurement contracts. Background on the monopoly from TheSpec.
- Environment Hamilton press release: “Environment Hamilton shocked & dismayed over AMD appeal of Ministry Order“. EH is seeking status in the appeal by Dofasco.
- Students running for the Vice President positions at the McMaster Students Union have posted their campaign documents. The MSU VP Education is the primary contact between the MSU and City; with the VP chosen yearly in a vote of the student union’s council, the Student Representative Assembly.
- The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is expecting to lose another $4-million in funding as a result of provincial cuts. Richard Leitner of Hamilton Community News is covering this story.
- A few days late on this, a very good story by CBC’s Dan Taekema on how goldfish are threatening Hamilton Harbour, native species, and progress that has been made in restoring Cootes Paradise.
- (DISCLOSURE: I’m friends with the son of the subject of this story). Dr. Rick Tytus checks-in and discusses the health of his patients using video-conferencing. It saves time, money, and lets him do “house calls” more often. Steve Buist of TheSpec looks at Dr. Tytus’ practice, and what it means for health outcomes in some of Hamilton’s socio-economically poorest neighbourhoods.
- The Lister Chophouse fiasco has now ended the civil litigation phrase, as the Ontario Superior Court orders Chris DesRoches to pay the City of Hamilton $112,842.84 for breaching his contract with the City. Story by Teviah Moro of TheSpec.
- From yesterday, Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer says the Premier Doug Ford government’s “LIFT credit” for people with low-income “will provide fewer benefits to Ontarians than cancelled minimum wage increase”. Full Report here.
- The Canadian Civil Liberties Association writes a letter to all public and Catholic school board chairs outlining the rights of secondary school students to protest. Students at many Hamilton high schools are planning to walk out tomorrow afternoon in protest of education cuts implemented by the Provincial government.
Production Details v. 1.4 Last edited: April 3, 2019 Author: Joey Coleman Edit Record Note: for Scrapbook posts, versioning only changes if there are changes to existing content such as a correction, clarification, or typographical error.