Thousands of trees are being cut down across rural Hamilton to make way for the controversial expansion of the Enbridge Line 10 oil export pipeline opposed by local climate activists.

Planning staff say updated provincial anti-sprawl rules have ignored city concerns and will restrict urbanization of more farmland such as the Elfrida expansion.

They gathered last week celebrating last month’s United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons, mourning Canada’s refusal to support it, solemnly remembering the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and affirming in unison their commitment to real security.

The shape of next year’s council election is now in the hands of two members of the Ontario Municipal Board.

In addition to the planned 3100 acre expansion onto rural lands around Elfrida, the city is spending nearly five million dollars to determine what other possible boundary extensions to accommodate predicted population growth.

This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of June 2017.

Both Hamilton and Toronto are formally committed to reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80 percent by mid-century, but the latter city has decided major immediate steps are required and approved a detailed plan on how to achieve this goal that may provide a blueprint for Hamilton.

This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of May 2017.

The Red Hill Parkway was born in controversy and continues that history, most recently focused on the large numbers of crashes on the valley expressway and the even greater numbers of trucks. All of this appears to be connected and may shed some light on current US events.

The city is pushing ahead with a huge urban boundary expansion onto farmland in upper Stoney Creek.

Enbridge versus Indigenous Rights, Water champions, Boundary expansion, Environmental Commissioner 

Promised transit improvements this year that would have added 34,000 hours of HSR service have been left on council’s budget cutting floor until at least 2018.

Council’s refusal to pay a living wage to all its employees was largely overruled last week by the Wynne government’s announced provincial labour reforms.

The delays currently facing two major city projects because of endangered species could be the tip of the iceberg given the massive declines in mammal, bird and other vertebrates displaced by human activity and especially global climate change.

This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of April 2017.

Despite making serious written accusations about the National Energy Board, the city has abandoned its legal challenge of the NEB’s approval of a 35 km expansion of Enbridge’s Line 10 oil pipeline across rural Hamilton.

Taxes on apartment buildings are going down this year and that should automatically mean lower rents, but the city is not required to notify tenants, so landlords may get to keep the windfall.

Ontario cities are tapping into tens of millions of dollars in additional transit and waste management funding from growth fees as a result of modified provincial regulations put in place sixteen months ago by the Wynne government.

This is a regular CATCH summary of votes at committee and council meetings. This report covers the month of March 2017.

In peak months, up to 50 HSR buses per day pass by stops without picking up waiting passengers because the bus is already full.