Council was told security hired to prevent encampments wouldn’t make arrests. One councillor is questioning why city documents say otherwise.
The council’s decision to take down the tarps says it’s not about the tents. It’s about the community. It’s about health, it’s about safety, it’s about the economy.
The city is the second largest in Canada with about 15,000 residents. The biggest city by population is Montreal with over 600,000 people.
The city of Hamilton has 5,000. The city of London is less than 2,000 including the waterfront. The city was about 100,000 in 2000.
The City of Hamilton and the people that it serves voted to take down the tarps and stop the tents on the waterfront last night, following a year-long battle with a group called Hamilton City Tarps.
The city is now accepting applications from groups that want to take down their tarps.
City staff told council they will continue to enforce the law against illegal dumping on city property and have asked the contractor hired to prevent the camps to come back once the police report is filed.
But the city is now concerned with the health implications of the tarps and the city’s relationship with the people who live on the waterfront.
The group that opposes tarps says they’re not about the health of the people. They say if the tarps were removed they would have no place to sleep and that’s just not the point.
It starts with public safety, there is no doubt that public safety is a legitimate concern for the city – but the City of Hamilton’s response to public safety issues has been mixed.
With that in mind, Councillor Dave Morissette says he was informed several times in the past by various council members that the city had hired the contractor to remove the tents.
Councillor Dave Morissette says the city was informed that the tarps aren’t about public safety. He says the city of Hamilton has repeatedly ignored the real concerns about the tarps as he told the Hamilton Spectator this morning.
“Our concern is that it’s not about public safety; it’s about public health, public safety and economic and community development,” said