If the measure of success for Mayor Andrea Horwath’s first Community Safety Summit was bringing together a broad cross-section of the community, there is a lot of work to be done.
The overwhelming majority of the nearly 200 people in attendance in the King George Ballroom for Monday’s (Nov. 10) summit workwork either directly or indirectly for government. There were plenty of City of Hamilton managers, non-profit executive directors and managers, a table of Hamilton police supervisors and commanders, another table of the mayor’s staff, and a few non-affiliated members of the public scattered around the room. However, the views of those members of the public were already known; they are at nearly every civic event.
Who was not in the room spoke more loudly than anyone present.
Where were the school parent council chairs, the volunteer leaders of youth-serving sports leagues, the residents of East Hamilton’s Riverdale community, or the suburban communities, or the faith groups that provide community outreach and the spaces that house youth activities? The list of missing community voices goes on.
I spotted one person who is a member of the City’s Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities. This term’s City Council eliminated nearly all of the other citizen advisory committees, ending the practice of direct input at City Hall from a broad range of communities. There were no teenagers at today’s summit.
Also missing: public sector workers who are on the front lines. The City did not include any of its youth-serving workers, no public health nurses and other front-line responders, none of the public works staff who conduct the daily cleanups of discarded drug use supplies, or transit operators who work alone late at night. The list goes on.
One notable exception was Jen Bonner, Executive Director of The Hub, who provided valuable insights as a front-line worker. Bonner spoke honestly about the complexities of houselessness. The absence of this type of independent, frontline knowledge was evident in the final ‘talk back’ announcements at the end of the day.
There was a notable absence of representatives from Hamilton’s four publicly funded school boards. Probably for the better; the superintendents of education would better spend their time addressing the pressing needs of schools, not just conceptually talking about them. In fact, the school principals and teachers who best understand the challenges facing our youth could not attend.
The resulting topics of discussion naturally reflected those attending the summit. The solutions, well-meaning for sure, called for more resources for services and more communication to inform the public of positive stories.
A summit with broader representation would identify a wider range of issues, and provide better ideas for solutions.
The summit did not even create the condition for success regarding cross-pollination of ideas between different public sector entities. City divisions sat together at various tables, each division and group to itself. Economic development and business improvement area staff sat at a table together, child welfare agencies sat together, police sat together, political types — also together.
It is our natural human tendency to sit among our friends, but today’s summit wasn’t supposed to be that.
Did anything new come out of today’s summit? Probably not. Even if something new was thought of, because the summit lacked the frontline “doers” who implement solutions, it is unlikely anything would become of it.
This was Mayor Horwath’s first Community Safety Summit. It was announced with only ten days’ notice to register — hardly sufficient time for an event held during banker’s hours.
Presumably the Mayor and senior staff are taking notes for future events.
The people with the most knowledge of what needs to be made safe, and the strongest ideas of how to implement safety, are those with the least ability to attend a summit that requires them to take time off work and lose pay in the process.
There needs to be a series of ‘community summits’ in the community, across the community, when the community can attend. This means evenings and weekends, it means providing more public notice.
Renting the King George Ballroom is within the comfort zone (and walking distance) of Hamilton City Hall.
It is time for Hamilton City Hall to get out of its comfort zone and into the community.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: November 10, 2025
Last updated: November 10, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version