Hamilton’s city council took advantage of loopholes in municipal accountability laws to conduct a “written meeting” of the CityHousing Hamilton board following the failure to obtain quorum for a November 5 special meeting.
Councillors Cameron Kroetsch, Tom Jackson, and Alex Wilson were absent from the special meeting. Councillors Nrinder Nann and Tammy Hwang were present.
Meetings of the CityHousing Hamilton board are not subject to the oversight of Ontario’s ombudsman, and therefore there is no accountability for councillors to ensure the meetings are conducted in accordance with open meeting laws.
Following the failure to obtain quorum, the councillors determined they would instead adopt an “alternative format” to meet without having to reach quorum by videoconference.
“We will move to an alternative format to have board approval of our AGM reports in order to have everything that we need approved in time prior to the shareholders meeting,” Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann stated on November 5.
They obtained a legal opinion from lawyer Paul Paradis of Ross & McBride LLP who determined that because CityHousing Hamilton is incorporated under the Ontario Business Corporations Act, the council members could pass written resolutions pursuant to Section 129(1) of that act.
The information is included in a copy of a November 6 email included in an upcoming meeting agenda.
Hamilton city council does not reveal its legal spending. The costs for the legal opinion are being charged to the CityHousing Hamilton budget.
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Published: November 22, 2025
Last updated: November 22, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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It seems to be a real problem for our coucillors to attend these meetings. I therefore suggest to our citizens that when it’s election time, remember who they are and vote accordingly.