Mayoral pledges: small businesses, daycare and 311 service inspire campaign promises from leading contenders

Mayoral candidate Andrea Horwath says the city must do more to support Hamilton's small businesses

That includes making special efforts to support those owned by Black entrepreneurs and other equity-seeking groups.

Small businesses have complained about delays in receiving permits and licences, Horwath said at a Concession Street juice bar Thursday.

The online process must be made easier and more swift."

If elected Oct. 24, Horwath said she'd commit to creating four buy-local-themed" events a year to drive more customers to Hamilton businesses.

We have to acknowledge that the Black-owned businesses particularly face barriers that other types of businesses don't face," she said.

To help them succeed, she'd establish an advisory committee to learn of ways the city can help support equity-seeking entrepreneurs, said the former Ontario NDP leader and Hamilton Centre MPP.

Such an advisory committee is long overdue," said Mouhamadou Taffa, who opened the Juice Kitchen with his wife, Afiya Myrie, five years ago.

When we first opened, we didn't know anything, so it took us a long time," Taffa said.

It can be difficult for budding Black business operators to navigate the city's approvals system, he said.

And that's a loss for the city. It's a loss for the community."

Families in the lurch'

Hamilton families are waiting too long for too few daycare spots.

That's what mayoral candidate Bob Bratina says he's learned that from doorstep conversations on the campaign trail.

So my goal as mayor will be to have the city operate at least one child-care centre in each of the 15 wards."

Not enough child-care operators have signed up for the federal government's $10-a-day program, leaving too many of our families in the lurch," Bratina told reporters Wednesday.

The Red Hill Family Centre near the parkway in Ward 5 is an example of what the city should replicate across Hamilton, he said outside the Mount Albion Road building.

Bratina proposes to repurpose underutilized community centres" and other municipal buildings to create 14 additional city-operated child centres in Hamilton over the next four-year council term.

The former Liberal MP and one-time mayor said he didn't have an estimate on how much it might cost to operate the additional daycare centres.

No, I haven't ball-parked any costs."

The gross annual operating cost of the Red Hill Family Centre is $2.68 million, Jessica Chase, the city's director of children's and community services, said in an email.

Factoring in provincial funding and parental-fee revenue, the net tax levy cost to operate the city's only directly-operated child-care centre is $328,000 a year.

Bratina said he's found the money in the past for things," pointing to an unused brownfield grant that led to the Beasley Community Centre.

The city has wasted millions of dollars, including on the estimated $26-million judicial inquiry into a buried Red Hill Valley Parkway friction report, he added.

Dial 311?

Want to report a pothole? How about an unplowed street?

Mayoral candidate Keanin Loomis says he has a solution for that.

If elected, he'll pursue a 311 service for Hamilton residents, Loomis announced this week at Sam Lawrence Park on the Mountain Brow this week.

As it stands, the city offers a phone line - 905-546-CITY - for residents to alert staff to issues.

But Loomis said 311 - which other large cities already have - will modernize the process" and expedite responses.

Our vision for 311 isn't just a phone number," the former Hamilton Chamber of Commerce leader said in a news release. It's also an app and website, where residents can log their issue, receive a ticket number and trace that issue through its completion."

The service is something that most people are clamouring for" given the taxes they pay in Hamilton, Loomis said during a mayoral debate hosted by the Durand Neighbourhood Association on Thursday night.

It is 2022. That is not a new idea," he said.

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com