Hamilton gets $48m in Ontario infrastructure cash
 

By NICOLE MacINTYRE
The Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton is $48 million richer today.
Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this morning that the province is giving $1.1 billion in infrastructure funding to municipalities thanks to its budget surplus.
Hamilton can use its portion to fund any capital project it wishes. Mayor Fred Eisenberger said he’d like hard services, like roads, water and sewer, to be the first focus of the funds.
“I think it’s a one time opportunity to do some catchup.”
The city’s roads budget alone has a $40 to $50 million annual shortfall.
A provincial spokesperson said Hamilton doesn’t have a deadline to spend the funding, but all municipalities are being encouraged to move quickly.
City staff plan to report back to council this fall with a priority list for spending the funding.
Though the funding is greatly appreciate, Eisenberger said the city still needs to province to establish a permanent funding agreement.
In his speech yesterday, McGuinty cautioned municipalities they shouldn’t expect another surplus next year because of the softening economy.

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http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/424752

Ah......How about money towards B-Line!

I wonder if any of that surplus is going directly to Metrolinx?

If they build a light rail line before taking care of the old sewage and water system, they'll just have to rip it up in a couple years anyway. At least this Mayor is taking care of these essential services... as the article says "picking up slack" (...from the last mayor!)

I'd put some money towards Rymal and Stone Church for the Mountain. Money towards North End and Corktown traffic calming. Streetscaping projects. Bike lane for York and the rest to suburbs.

It's likely 100% of this money will go towards roads, bridges and water not HSR.

The money is for infrastructure projects. Thunder Bay got one million, and is rebuilding a bridge on one of our freeways. :P I think they should have put it to pavement rehabilitation, as they said the bridge was fine... The city has been replacing lots of bridges now that I think of it. They mayor must be looking for some sort of weird legacy.

If you have any lead water pipes, you should probably replace them, and this would be a good way to finance that. Lead free water is nice. :) Or pot hole fixing. Or some big white elephant thing, like a new expressway.

^^ Shhh... don't mention expressways in this city :s
I think the Mayor of Bridges would be a fun legacy... weird, but fun. Better than our last Mayor's 'Legacy': Don DiIanni -- Mayor of Expressways-to-Nowhere

I agree w/ Mayor Fred on this one. The roads are in terrible shape especially after Winter Wallop '08. Adam makes a good point too.

I was wondering if any of the surplus went to Metrolinx b/c if so, this $48million should be spent 100% on road/sewer fixing. Hopefully there's enough left over to Streetscape John??

I mixed it up, this is different than the infrastructure spending a few months ago. Thunder Bay got 10.3 million, as it was a per-capita thing. (Hamilton has 480,000 people, hence 48 million, something like that. $100K/1K people)

Our mayor-before-last in the early 90s had a legacy of being the worst mayor ever. He's now a county administrator in Florida, where he moved to "get away from stress and bad times in Canada". That's how bad he was. They city pretty much died under his watch. :(

But we have replaced almost all of our major bridges in the past decade, and any that weren't replaced were new anyway. We probably have the best bridge infrastructure in the country now. The road surfaces are crap though (our freeze-thaw cycle is possibly worse than Hamilton's, but I would think you guys go above 0 in winter more which might make yours worse? I don't know.), and many roads are overcrowded and need expansions or dedicated turning lanes. Our widest road is only four lanes. I can't really think of anything else we need. We've already overhauled our water and sewage networks, transit's problems stem from a lack of drivers and they seem to have money to renovate city hall and fix up other offices so this is a nice bonus for us. (So much for depressed economy, huh? Take that, Windsor!)

The expressways comment was a joke. I'd rather see this go to mass transit, or replacing ageing water/road infrastructures. Especially lead pipes and bridges in poor condition.

Toronto got around $250 million so there's like another $300 million laying around somewhere from the $1.1 billion, so perhaps Metrolinx/GO Transit got some money.

Hamilton gets $48m infrastructure windfall

August 25, 2008
By NICOLE MacINTYRE
The Hamilton Spectator

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced yesterday the province is giving $1.1 billion in infrastructure funding to municipalities thanks to Ontario’s budget surplus.

“It’s a lot of bread,” said local MPP Ted McMeekin. “It is huge.”

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who was surprised by the size of Hamilton’s share, said he wants to target the backlog of work required in road, sewer and water infrastructure.

“It’s a one-time opportunity to do some catch-up,” he said. “It’s a good stop gap measure.”

In roads alone, the city has a $40 to $50 million annual shortfall in its capital budget. It’s behind another $30 million in renovations to city facilities.

The city can use the funding for any capital project. A government spokesperson said there’s no deadline, but the province is urging that the funding be spent quickly.

Gerry Davis, director of capital planning and implementation, expects Hamilton could expend the funding envelope within two years.

“It’s definitely a great gift. It will help tremendously...right across the city we can accomplish things.”

This fall, Davis said he’ll report to council on the best way to use the funding. He expects to move up projects planned down the road in the city’s capital plan.

“It’s not like we’ll have to scramble for projects,” he said. “We have a significant backlog.”

Davis said he could see projects like repairs to Wilson Street in Ancaster or renovations to the Norman Pinkie Lewis Recreation Centre moved up two to four years.

McGuinty cautioned that the province may not be able to offer the same funding next year because of Ontario’s softening economy. He also warned his government won’t have a permanent funding deal for cities as soon as hoped.

While yesterday’s cash is appreciated, Hamilton needs the stability of a new deal, said Eisenberger.

“We’re looking for a long-term solution.”

Ya, Hence!!

Hamilton actually has 505,000. London is closer to the 480,000 mark.

That's awesome news for T-Bay! $10.3, and again, doesn't have to be used right away. They can save that in their Infrastructure coffers until another bridge needs repairing hehe jks or better yet to implement some type of attractive/fun/easy Public Transit innitiative!

I would assume TBay's roads get it worse than Hamilton's on a regualr basis, but this past winter was extreme down here.

$300 million, eh Steeltown? Has Harper announced any federal partnership (or funding, at least) with Metrolinx yet? If there's an election around the corner, they might want to jump on that super-popular bandwagon. Although I don't think they really have a chance in non-suburban Hamilton.

- Toronto: $238,182,872.
- Peel Region: $67,043,893.
- York Region: $52,748,348.
- Halton Region: $22,077,181.
- Durham Region: $28,399,241.
- Mississauga: $24,951,690.
- Brampton: $16,190,575.
- Barrie: $12,219,893.
- Ottawa: $77,272,674.
- Windsor: $20,597,033.
- Chatham-Kent: $10,292,855.
- Hamilton: $48,007,919.
- London: $33,529,777.
- Waterloo Region: $22,596,062.
- Niagara Region: $20,156,951.
- Thunder Bay: $10,384,483.

When you add it all up it's $704,651,447.00, $395,348,553.00 is still unaccounted for.

You're missing most of Northern Ontario, that's at least 75,000,000 there, -10.3M for Thunder Bay. There's more to Simcoe than Barrie, more to Middlesex than London, etc.

Nipigon got $166,000, and you missed them. Have fun adding them all up. :)

Yea I missed some places but still there's no city bigger than Toronto in Ontario so there's money unaccounted for, around $300 million.

Maybe the rest went towards debt repayment?

There is no city bigger than Toronto, but when you add up all the cities smaller than Thunder Bay, you'd get one.

Northern Ontario can't chew up $395 million, probably $75 million the most. So there's still around $300 million.

I'm thinking $300 million went towards debt reduction.

Yeah, and there are thousands of towns in Southern Ontario with about 100 to 5000 people. If a town the size of Nipigon (1,500 people, if that) got money, than most of those little places did too.

^^ unfortunately for Metrolinx (and the GTHA), Vid is totally right!

Arran-Elderslie - $ 435,861
Barrie - $ 12,219,893
Brockton - $ 622,815
Blue Mountains - $ 492,798
Bruce County - $ 1,955,044
Chatsworth - $ 461,533
Clearview - $ 1,043,808
Collingwood - $ 1,281,051
Georgian Bluffs - $ 758,584
Grey County - $ 2,120,225
Grey Highlands - $ 684,502
Hanover - $ 516,048
Huron-Kinloss - $ 420,874
Kincardine - $ 721,784
Meaford - $ 790,499
Midland - $ 1,207,700
Northern Bruce Peninsula - $ 248,713
Orillia - $ 2,879,092
Owen Sound - $ 1,570,672
Penetanguishene - $ 693,057
Saugeen Shores - $ 757,120
Simcoe County - $ 5,517,752
South Bruce - $ 383,664
South Bruce Peninsula - $ 543,615
Springwater - $ 1,293,350
Wasaga Beach - $ 1,113,529
Wellington County - $ 3,360,585
West Grey - $ 880,394

http://www.radioowensound.com/news.php?id=13987

And that's just mid-southern Ontario!
And it seems the counties get seperate, addtional amounts.
example: Owen Sound gets 1.5 million, yet Grey county (where OS is located) gets an additional $2.1million. That of course would include small hamlets like Bognor and the like.

That's $44,974,562 still nearly a quarter of a billion leftover.

Well we excluded Southwestern Ontario, so you have to look there. And Southeastern Ontario. I would imagine that the money obtained by Peel, Mississauga and Brampton are all separate funds if counties and municipalities get their own amounts, so some communities would get the funding on two levels.

Here is a list of Ontario's municipalities:

http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page1591.aspx

Every single one got money.

The Spec poll so far....

The provincial government is giving Hamilton $48 million to be used for capital projects in the city. (It can't be used for operating expenses.) How should the money be spent?

Infrastructure, roads etc. (50.00 %)
Public transit. (9.27 %)
Downtown core. (23.39 %)
Waterfront. (4.84 %)

Ah, now it looks more like the usual spec poll.

Gotta fix all those suburban roads that have been destroyed by people driving vehicles that are way too large.

No. The roads across the city are terrible in many spots.

Even the Linc is slowly starting to fall apart.

They better damn well take $3 million to cover the limestone for City Hall.

The roads across the city are in great shape and very driveable at the posted speed limit. Roads in Toronto are way worse and that city is thriving.

Infrastructure like sewage and water systems need to be fixed in the downtown before LRT track gets laid down.

First thing on the 'to-do' list should be to correct the sewage problems in the city's east end. Continuous neglect has left these homeowners with annual basement flooding and cancelled insurance policies. Monies beyond that should go to other deferred capital infrastructure like road repair. Wilson and Barton East both come to mind. Sewage repair and roadwork are intertwined and should be conducted accordingly.

As of around 8:30pm on Tuesday

Infrastructure, roads etc. (43.95 %)
Public transit. (10.26 %)
Downtown core. (32.37 %)
Waterfront. (5.26 %)

Agreed, if you do 50kmh on King, Main, or any other street in the lower city the roads are not bad.

Try Kingston Road in Toronto if you want a bad strip of asphalt.

Remember there's a bunch of road resurfacing for downtown Hamilton, thanks to a seperate money, around $10 million, from Premier McGuinty.

When I hear Hamiltonians complain about traffic congestion and poor road conditions I shudder to think how they will respond to any significant downtown revitalization. Can you imagine the outcries when 5 minutes or 10 minutes is added onto downtown travel time? I spent 1 HOUR getting from around Maple Leaf Gardens to the Gardiner cutoff at Lakeshore West earlier this week. Sure its an inconvenience, but its the price to be paid for traveling through an urban centre. Going 60km/h (or oftentimes 80km/h) through downtown is a uniquely Hamiltonian experience (hopefully not for long). And forget about Toronto, take our neighbour Burlington, you can't go more than 40km/h through their downtown..

The $48-million question
How councillors would like it spent

August 27, 2008
Nicole Macintyre
The Hamilton Spectator

There's $48 million burning a hole in Hamilton's pocket.

The province handed over the cash this week. It can be used for any capital project.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger has already stated he'd like to use the funds to catch up on hard services, such as roads, sewer and water. The Spectator asked councillors to list their spending priorities.

Here's the edited responses from councillors who replied.

Brian McHattie

I'd like to see the funding go to bike lanes and pedestrian improvements, including the Locke Street pedestrian bridge. Also parks and recreation facilities, such as completion of the Victoria Park Master Plan, new soccer facilities at Churchill Park, upgrades to Ryerson and Dalewood recreation facilities and fix the tennis courts at Westdale High School. Plus more affordable housing and fix local streets.

Bob Bratina

A number of my residents are facing a crisis because of flooding, which is directly related to infrastructure problems, either inadequate sewer capacity or disrepair.

Many of our infrastructure issues can be worked out over time but, in these particular cases, something has to be done immediately.

Bernie Morelli

We clearly need to address our immediate infrastructure needs, such as water and sewer. In addition to investing in our strategic areas, I would like to see redevelopment and cleanup of our east harbour. It serves as a major gateway to the city, which is exposed to millions of people annually and is one of our most valuable pieces of land.

Sam Merulla

In limiting our continual exposure to liability coupled with the horrendous number of times residents have been subjected to flooding, most, if not all, these moneys must be allocated to eliminate Hamilton's flooding crisis.

Chad Collins

The funds need to be allocated toward those areas where we have identified infrastructure deficiencies, such as roads, sidewalks, sewers and water pipes and parkland acquisition. These investments could prospectively "free up" funding for other projects such as waterfront and downtown development.

Tom Jackson

We need to focus on hard infrastructure such as roads, sidewalks and sewers. Plus, I want to use this money to target the list of local neighbourhood streets that are in dire straits.

Scott Duvall

I would certainly support this money going towards many of our sewers, side streets and sidewalks.

Terry Whitehead

I would like to fund any infrastructure deficits found in the South Mountain storm water management study. Also we have roads that are in bad, bad shape. I would like to see a strategic plan to fix local roads in neighbourhoods.

Brad Clark

I would encourage moving up the rebuild on Centennial Parkway as well as Lake Avenue and installing the Stoney Creek Gateway on Centennial and King, since the 200th commemoration of the Battle of Stoney Creek is only a few years away.

Lloyd Ferguson

Resurface roads in the Spring Valley community in Ancaster. Twin the Morgan Firestone Arena -- the population of Ancaster has almost doubled since the first ice pad was opened. Build a water feature with ice pad at the renovated City Hall. Fix the various flooding problems in the city.

Russ Powers

Make necessary upgrades to our social housing and recreational facilities. Optimize the city's tree-planting program. Identify and alleviate flooding problem areas. Randle Reef cleanup. Appropriate development of the forecourt in the City Hall retrofit. Repair King Street in Dundas.

Robert Pasuta

Hamilton needs this money to fix its deteriorating roads and sewers. I would like to see the rural areas get a fair share to go towards our infrastructure problems. The biggest complaint I hear is about the roads in my ward. Putting some money toward their rehabilitation would go a long way toward lessening the ill feelings of my residents.

For one, they don't have to cheap out on city hall now.

But they will, not one councillor suggested spending some of the money on City Hall.

Given that Councillor McCarthy's response to every policy question is, "We can't afford that," I'm not surprised she didn't reply to this one.

Contact them and recommend it. They do respond to constructive suggestions.

Find their email addresses here:

http://raisethehammer.org/article/450/

I'm sure councillors will agree to use the $48 million fund to cover the over budget of City Hall renovation. It's overbudget by like $8 million or so? So there's still plenty of money to spread around.

A big chunk of it should go to fixing the pipes in the East End so neighbours can once again get flood insurance. I rather do that than come out each year providing grants for flood relieve.

$5 million or so I wouldn't mind going towards speeding up the construction of the downtown transit terminal, early spring 2009.

Also it appears the road resurfacing will begin very soon. Aberdeen has signs saying watch out for construction from Aug until Nov. ECK! lol

I am disappointed by McHattie's wishlist. It focuses mainly on items specific to his ward. I would expect him to adopt more of a city-wide perspective, and he didn't even mention the city's most obvious infrastructure need - improvements to the water and sewage infrastructure. As a senior member of council who often calls upon council to take more of a big-picture approach to city needs, the narrow focus is disheartening.

I tend to agree Mark, and I'm a big McHattie fan. However, Dalewood rec centre is in very bad shape, and city improvements to the facility will help take Dalewood School off the PTR (prohibitive to repair) list that is threatening its closure. Ryerson isn't PTR, but any improvements to the rec centre will help revitalize that school as well. Keeping walkable, lower city schools open is something that will benefit the entire city.

In a weird way, Ferguson of all people did, asking for money for the water feature and ice rink in front of city hall. This new money does seem to be a good way to pay for a better surface for the hall.

I'm disappointed that McHattie askedfor more affordable housing. I think that's something Hamilton doesn't need more of, especially downloading being the way it is currently.

Thanks, but I'll pass on this one. I'm a believer that one has to choose their battles, and I spoke with my councillors office on Monday (not on this topic).

I'm fighting my battle to have my Property Standards complaint submitted on July 23rd, and put on a priority list on August 11th, addressed. That's where I'm going to do battle for now.

Not ducking the suggestion, just know I've can only get so much mileage at one time.

Skip Morelli if you don't want to wear out your welcome with him, but there's no reason you can't contact the Mayor and the rest of council.

Oh yeah, sorry I missed Ferguson's comment. Still if I had to choose, I'd pick limestone over water/ice rink at City Hall.

I never even thought about using the money towards City Hall. That's a fantastic idea! I mean, obviously lots needs to be spent on sewers and roads, but use a good chunk of this $48M on (what is starting to become) Lister Block Jr!

I'll be emailing ALL council (and Fred) suggesting they use a good portion of this money towards City Hall.

they don't even need to use a big chunk...just enough to do the limestone/marble and the ice rink/water thing out front.

I walked all around the site the other day and really see a TON of potential for a great urban park/square/gathering spot.
First of all, get rid of all the different levels....the entire surroundings of city hall have all these steps up and down. Just make it one level (at least most of it).
Second, use a nice interlocking brick, perhaps like the kind at Sam Lawrence Park on the Mountain, that are smooth and not too bumpy/rough like old style cobblestone.
Have all the brick on the forecourt, walkways and nice grassy areas with tons of trees/benches on the west side of city hall.
Put the parking underground so the west side park space can be continued right up to and along Hunter. Perhaps there can be an interactive play fountain in the area that currently has an entrance off of Bay St.
At the bottom of the slope leading up to Hunter St, make an ampitheatre type of design with a small stage below that can house summer concerts, theatre etc.....
Have a meandering walkway that runs around the entire site linking the various attractions with a beautiful 'garden walk' on either side of the path.

The site is beautiful and could really become a great gathering spot in the heart of the city...of course, Main St needs to be addressed, but we all know that.

I totally agree. That whole property has a lot of potential. I think the front area all the way up to Whitehern should be redone. The ice rink would make it a year round destination to boot. I guess it depends whether they are serious about downtown rejuvenation or not.

Repair backlog threatens city rec centres

September 03, 2008
By Nicole MacIntyre
The Hamilton Spectator

A consultant says the city needs to dramatically invest in its recreation centre if it doesn’t want more than half of the facilities to close by 2018.

A report heading to councillors this afternoon says 44 of the city’s 78 recreation facilities, including pools, arenas and community centres, will need to close in five to 10 years because of disrepair.

It recommends the city increase its annual funding for capital repairs from $5 million a year to $26.5 million by 2010. There is a current repair backlog of $20 million for recreation facilities.

The report, which assessed the state of the city’s facilities, recommended several centres be closed because of their conditions. Brewster Pool in lower Stoney Creek, Spring Valley Arena in Ancaster and the Greensville Community Hall are among the facilities suggested for closure.

At the same time, the report recommends the city build new recreation centres in underserviced areas.

The consultant believes Hamilton needs new facilities in lower Stoney Creek, Glanbrook, Hamilton Mountain and a replacement for the Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre. It also recommends new seniors’ centres in lower Hamilton and Waterdown to support the city’s aging population.

The report comes just a week after the province announced it is giving Hamilton $48 million to help tackle a backlog in infrastructure repairs. The city can use the money for any capital project.

IMO, we need a hell of a lot more then 48M to get this city up to snuff. But try and get that kind of money out of the government.

Yeah, like actually enforcing bylaws. 40+ days since my last complaint with 1/2 dozen follow-ups with the city and my councillor, and still no action. I wish those that take my tax dollars cared 1/10 as much as I did about property standards, then perhaps the city could seriously look towards an upswing.

At 60 days, I'm going to the mayor's office.......

Glad to see some road work is being done... Ottawa St near Barton-Burlington was doing really shitty, Kenilworth access now looks great, can't wait for King/Main/John and others that are scheduled.

They are doing Aberdeen right now. Looks like they'll do the sidewalk as well, even better! The current sidewalk is rough and with loads of cracks.