State of the City 09/18/07
State of the City Address - The NEXT Hamilton
Hamilton Chamber of Commerce
September 18, 2007
***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***
It's been a great year for Hamilton. For the first time in a while, our great City has been getting a lot of positive attention on a number of fronts.
From the Bulldogs winning the Calder Cup to Brian Melo being voted the newest Canadian Idol ... and from financial investments in public transportation and downtown renewal to cleaning up our waterfront...
Even our city streets are looking more beautiful than ever, thanks to the return of plants and flowers along our boulevards!
I am here enthusiastically to provide you with a glimpse into the state of the city: "Building positive relationships" and "setting the foundation."
Hamilton already has a strong foundation upon which to build our city's future - a future I like to call the Next Hamilton.
That foundation is not made of one single piece of lumber, concrete or steel.
It's a collection of platforms - each strong on its own, but limited in its influence.
Next Hamilton is the city we're becoming - a combination of our own leadership, and the external winds of change.
To move forward as a City, we must focus on collaboration, consensus and cooperation, so we can work together as a community.
We can work with our partners across the province and across the country to maximize our opportunities, and take advantage of our strengths.
We're improving relationships between Council and City staff, and the work of building Team Hamilton continues.
We've engaged in education and training sessions as a group, learning how to work together productively, to achieve the goals we know are within the reach of our great city.
Our practices now emphasize productivity, strategy, teamwork, and deliverables.
This is the collaborative and inclusive decision-making process I promised during my campaign.
By bringing people into the process, we enhance the transparency, accountability and ultimately, the integrity of everything we do.
The Community Council model will be one of the key vehicles for public involvement in government, especially in a complex and diverse City like ours.
These councils are comprised of citizens from our intra-urban communities in places like Dundas, Ancaster, Flamborough, Stoney Creek, and Glanbrook.
The goal is to give Community councils a strong voice in defined local issues.
They'll provide support to City Council by identifying priorities and engaging in an open, transparent, and continuous exchange of ideas.
In March, we created the Community Councils Task Force, to establish a harmonized mandate and structure for our separate-but- coordinated councils.
Once complete, the recommendations from the task-force - headed by former Councillor Art Samson - will come before City Council with positive recommendations about roles and responsibilities of community councils.
Team Hamilton is committed to being inclusive and accountable.
We've established an Accountability and Integrity Sub-Committee that will use public input to help build the parameters for creating and filling the position of Integrity Commissioner for the City of Hamilton.
I've also opened the doors of the Mayor's Office - quite literally - by inviting Hamilton's young people to participate in our "Mayor-for-a-Day" program, which encourages leadership ambitions in our youth.
All of these innovations are efforts to turn everyone in our City into partners in leadership; partners in our future; and partners in building the Next Hamilton.
Our relationship-building efforts also extend to our federal and provincial governments ...
Each has made a number of recent commitments to our community as a result ... but we can do better.
We need to get better at building bridges to our friends at Queen's Park and on Parliament Hill.
Establishing closer ties with other levels of government will help us balance our 2008 Budget expectations with efficiencies.
Providing municipalities with revenues that grow with the economy would create a long-term solution, and it's only fair that the province and the feds contribute to stabilizing the municipal budget situations they helped create.
With that in mind, we've initiated a Fairness to Hamilton Committee to carry issues of budgetary fairness to our senior levels of government in a non-partisan way.
A number of recent successes have shown us that efforts to engage Queen's Park and Parliament Hill in the life of Hamilton can produce positive results.
In fact, the Province and the Government of Canada are listening to Hamilton.
As much as I'd like to take credit for persuading them with fancy PowerPoint presentations, they actually support Hamilton because they see what's here - an emerging Next Hamilton.
We are a growing and changing community - a city that will thrive through the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
And as our city grows, we must grow according to a vision - relying on our ingenuity and innovation to drive our success.
I have a vision - one that brings together the new Hamilton economy, an urban renaissance, and modernization of our infrastructure.
A critical element of that infrastructure is transportation.
We need to get people and goods to and from and through Hamilton more efficiently, effectively, and with a smaller impact on the environment.
Recently, we completed the largest transit fleet purchase in the history of the Hamilton Street Railway.
We've added a dozen diesel-electric hybrid buses, including the first articulated hybrid bus in North America.
We've enhanced Beeline Express service and leapt forward with Hamilton's Transportation Master Plan. But this ride has just begun!
We're pushing the modernization of our transit system forward aggressively, with our new Rapid Transit Office.
And through the GTTA Board, we have a seat at the table to make sure we get Hamilton's fair share of the provincial government's 17.5-billion dollar transit allocation.
City Council has already approved it, and we're targeting funding for two rapid-transit corridors.
Imagine! - As we move into the future - the possibility of getting from one end of the city to the other by light rail - quickly, safely, and without harming the environment.
Hamilton's industrial sector has been the backbone of our city's prosperity for decades, and will continue for decades to come.
Industrial companies with us now have - like steel - been tempered by the pressure of adverse economic conditions.
Those companies have made it to the other side stronger, more focused, and secure.
They will thrive as the overall landscape of Hamilton's economy continues the shift already underway ... A shift that's creating hundreds of jobs in the health sciences sector.
This is producing an ever-growing list of local business success stories in sectors new and traditional.
Let me describe for you a few examples.
Control of Stelco has moved south of the border, but the acquisition by U-S Steel will help the future of one of this City's largest employers.
At the end of this month, Hamilton Specialty Bar will be back up to 200 employees; and Tiercon Automotive Parts in Stoney Creek - which employs 300 people - recently announced a 63-million dollar investment.
Minacs announced it'll open a new facility in downtown Hamilton creating 200 more jobs.
Hamilton will be home to the new contact center that will provide dedicated customer service support for Nissan.
We should be proud of the Coppley Apparel Group which is increasing its workforce by thirty percent at a time when most clothing producers are exporting jobs.
LIUNA is partnering with Canada's First Nations to provide free training in the trades to aboriginal youth across the country, including Hamilton.
Be proud of Bob Young and his decision to move the head office of our beloved Tiger-Cats ... MRX Associates ... and the Canadian head office of lulu-dot-com to downtown Hamilton. That move is just one of many in our city.
As our new Brownfield Office comes on-line, we can begin transforming our urban footprint into opportunities for development.
Energy, momentum, and most importantly, money and people are returning to Hamilton's re-defined downtown core.
Our downtown is - quite literally - turning around, stretching North to the waterfront and South to the escarpment.
It's reaching the International Village and Hess Village, and more people are choosing to live downtown.
Our City's loan program has sparked the conversion of un-used commercial space into nearly 15-hundred condominiums and apartments --- and we're just getting started!
The revival of the Lister Block is another symbol of the Next Hamilton.
The recent commitment from the Provincial government of 7-million dollars for this high profile re-development project will help make the Lister Block a magnet once again for people, investment, and prosperity.
It's also important to remember how we've come to this point - through consultation, consensus, and compromise.
The revitalization of the Lister Block is not just about what we're doing, it's about how we've done it.
We can look back through our history and see the economic benefits spawned from a number of critical and visionary investments. None more visionary than the commitment McMaster University has brought to Hamilton.
For nearly eight decades, our City has benefited from the collective contributions of McMaster staff, faculty, and students.
Now, we're on the cusp of a whole new economic relationship between McMaster and the greater Hamilton community.
McMaster's new Innovation Park is a perfect example of our ability as a community to re-invent our brownfields as economic engines. As the park develops, it'll be home for spin-off enterprises that turn our university's intellectual capital into commercial ventures, enhancing our city's economic transformation.
The first anchor tenant of the Innovation Park will be the 60-million dollar CANMET Materials Technology Lab, which will re-locate bringing 125 jobs from Ottawa to Hamilton. This is another shining example of how we should do things.
Originally announced in 2004, there was no money allocated for the relocation. Working together with Dr. Peter George, MP David Sweet, and local business people, we sealed the deal, getting the money to move CANMET to the City of Hamilton.
McMaster Innovation Park will be the home of 1-million square feet of lab, office, teaching, training, conference, and retail space spread over 37 acres, employing 15-hundred people.
The Innovation Park will transform the intersection of Longwood Road and Aberdeen Avenue from a place to pass through; to a destination that sparks investment and prosperity.
If we need to model future plans on past successes, look no further than our own Waterfront. Not long ago, the shore of Hamilton Harbour was a place to avoid.
Now, our cleaner, healthier, and more accessible waterfront has invigorated our local artistic and cultural community.
It's helped provide some of the key, quality-of-life elements that are important to local families, and to employers looking to attract and keep the best people.
There are so many new attractions! The Canada Marine Discovery Centre; the HMCS Haida; and the hugely popular Waterfront Trolley.
The people of Hamilton are happily embracing our harbour with a passion we had only hoped for, when we began remediation efforts in earnest a decade and a half ago.
Our remediation efforts took a significant step forward last month, when the province announced its commitment to providing one-third of the funding required to clean-up Randle Reef.
An environmental issue near and dear to my own heart for many years, addressing Randle Reef is one of the most significant hurdles standing between our community and de-listing Hamilton Harbour as an "Area of Concern" on the Great Lakes.
It will also allow for the establishment of two new wharfs for the Port Authority.
And with the prospect of nearly 1-billion dollars in benefits awaiting the completion of the remedial action plan, cleaning up our watershed is not just an altruistic, environmental project ...
It's a practical priority for all of us - one that will have very real and measurable impacts.
We'll accomplish these ecological goals while holding true to our vision of maintaining a multi-use, working harbour.
Hamilton has always benefited from its location which acts as a cornerstone of transportation in Ontario, Canada, and even North America.
Hamilton International Airport continues to enhance services and expand capacity on both cargo and passenger fronts. One great example is the success of Flyglobespan - the newest airline in Hamilton.
The three daily flights to the UK were to be reduced to just one-per-day over the winter months, but thanks to a load-factor of more than 90 per cent, there will be no reduction in flights.
With our local highway enhancements and the imminent opening of the Red Hill Valley Parkway, our road transportation avenues have never been more efficient.
The City of Hamilton only stands to reap the economic benefits of this investment.
Of all these advantages, I feel particularly proud of the role of our Port in supporting our prosperity.
The Port of Hamilton is the largest in Ontario, and busier than the ports of Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago. The Hamilton Port Authority is doing a great job of enhancing and marketing its services. As the cargo flows through our city, it creates a rising tide that lifts the economy.
In listing all of this good economic news, I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.
At times, we've limited our own success through our own unwillingness or inability to invest wisely as a municipality.
We need to market our City, our successes, and our advantages aggressively and more effectively.
We need to build long-term relationships with partners in commerce and industry to bring back large returns, even if it means lengthy time-lines.
We need to invest immediately in Economic Development.
For this current round of budget-planning, we need to commit to that strategic priority - even in the face of extraordinary pressure to cut expenditures.
We need to invest at least an additional 1.5-million dollars to move forward with a plan that is aggressive and sustainable.
We already know where to take that plan - the challenge has been trying to execute the plan on a shoe-string budget. With the opportunities of the Next Hamilton at stake, no shoe-string can meet our needs.
We need resources to help local businesses grow; to help develop our brownfields; to attract new investment; to spur growth in sport and tourism; and to renew our downtown.
This is not optional programming - this is key to our future. It's a down payment on our prosperity - which means quality jobs - and that down-payment has to happen right now.
Our future depends not only on a healthy economy - we also need a healthy environment.
Our community is growing, and has a strong industrial and transportation-based economy.
We can manage negative impacts on our environment through initiatives like hybrid buses; pesticide control; and the anti-idling by-law passed unanimously by Council on May 16th. Similar by-laws had been defeated here as recently as 2006. This approval is a sign that Team Hamilton is taking these issues seriously.
We want to use the tools at our disposal to manage the City's affairs in a green manner and help individual citizens reduce their ecological footprints.
In addition, we've taken a similar approach to addressing our social issues.
Our Poverty Roundtable - a community collaboration now in its fourth year - is addressing one of our City's most pressing and challenging issues.
We're moving forward with the Mayor's Immigration Strategy Roundtable for the City of Hamilton, to ensure that our immigrant communities are full-and-equal partners in the on-going development of our City.
By working with successful local organizations like SISO and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, we're investing time, money, and energy in providing front-line assistance to help new Canadians adapt to life in Hamilton, and integrate into our city's life and workforce.
On May 5th, H-C-C-I held its first graduation ceremony for the Community Mobilization Team. Graduates of this program completed five months of training in subjects like civic engagement, strengthening and building communities, and community leadership.
These newly-minted civic leaders will help encourage their fellow Hamiltonians to get involved in their community - to get involved in making the Next Hamilton.
Hamilton is also where the country meets the City. Our rural-and-agricultural community is an important part of who we are. The long-term viability of our agricultural sector is important to a sustainable region. That's why we're developing an Agricultural Action Plan through our Agriculture and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee.
I look forward to this comprehensive plan coming to Council in the near future, so that we can begin to turn the plan into reality.
We're also re-developing the Hamilton Farmer's Market to make sure it remains a vital place for people to buy locally-grown food.
We're working to boost the number of family doctors. As you know, there's a serious shortage of family doctors across Ontario, particularly in Hamilton. We're working hard to change that.
The City, together with many other groups including:
- St. Joseph's Healthcare,
- Hamilton Health Sciences
- McMaster University
- St. Peter's Health System
- the Juravinski Cancer Centre ...
- the Chamber of Commerce
- and the Academy of Medicine ...
...All of these groups worked to form and fund the Physician Retention and Recruitment program.
As a direct result of this initiative and the hard work of Jane Walker - our Retention and Recruitment Officer - we've attracted 39 new family doctors and 11 new specialists to our community. But our work has only begun.
Members of our local community - from those who contact their MPPs at Queen's Park - to history-making philanthropists like David Braley who is helping to make possible a new centre for family medicine... We all have a part to play in conquering this challenge.
I know that our strengths, assets, and collective abilities are far greater than anything that stands between this Hamilton and the Next Hamilton.
To do it, we need to be open, transparent, inclusive, and accountable in how we do business. We need to accelerate our economic renaissance through strategic planning and investment. We need to nurture our community and create an exciting, dynamic, and healthy place to live. That's the Next Hamilton I have in mind.
If we look at the past year, we can see scores of steps forward - each one, a source of pride and inspiration to our entire community.
I'd like to leave you with a few words of inspiration and encouragement ...
"Risk more than others think safe. Care more than others think wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think possible."
Whatever you dream you can do, begin it ... because action has magic and power.
And that ... is the state of the City.
Thank you.
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