The 905er Podcast

Doug Ford in a public interview shot back at criticism of his Bill 23 from Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, by saying she should 'quit her whining'. Earlier this month he shot back at Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk's analysis of his government's handling of casino money laundering by telling her to stay in her lane. Why would he use such sharp language to these public figures? Our theory is that it's because they are both women. Which leads us to ask if Doug Ford has a problem with women criticising his actions? And then after the break we look at whether or not the Ontario NDP might have hurt their soon to be new leader Marit Stiles by not giving her a leadership race. How is it that the opposition couldn't find another person to run for the leader of that party and potentially becoming the next premier of Ontario? What does it say that no one else wanted the job? And does Ms. Stiles have a bigger problem now of introducing herself to the province? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board reinstituted a masking policy. A decision which to no surprise drew the attention of both sides of this contentious debate. After a few pauses in the meeting, and a few removals of people by the police, the board was able to become the first board in Ontario to put in place an official masking policy. Why did the board decide to wade into this hotbed issue? We invited on board chair Dawn Renchko Danko to the podcast to find out the answer. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast started as a bit of a passion project at the start of COVID-19. We wanted to be able to talk about the issues and news of the region in a way that legacy media just wasn't able to. A podcast seemed to be the best option to do that. Two years later, this is still a passion project for us but it's grown so much beyond just that for us. We have been wanting to grow and expand to reach more people and take this project to a next level. Recently an opportunity has presented itself to us to do just that. On this podcast we are joined by radio personality as well as podcaster, Dean Blundell as we announce our joining with his network to bring The 905er to a greater audience and help us develop resources to expand our coverage and storytelling for the next 200 episodes. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The latest law to upset Ontarians by the Doug Ford government is the More Homes Built Faster Act. Or Bill 23 as it's more affectionately referred to. This act is going to carve up 7,400 acres of the Greenbelt for developers to use free from oversight from conservation authorities and in violation of Premier Ford's word to Ontarians to leave the greenbelt alone. A major critic of the act is the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, or AMO. AMO is the go between organization for municipalities and Queen's Park to address the various issues and needs that would naturally arise. AMO is critical of the act, as it frees developers from the fees that they incur as part of the development process. Fees which go to pay for the upkeep of municipal services to the new developments and the cities at large. AMO predicts that the total loss revenue would total approximately $5 billion per year. As well as the unknown risk for municipalities in costs associated with flooding and other disasters, due to the stripping of oversight of Conservation Authorities. To better understand AMO's position and concerns, we reached out to them to invite them to the podcast for today's episode. Today we are joined by Amber Crawford, a senior policy advisor with AMO to present their case and to understand what the long term ramifications of this act could have down the road on the 905 and Ontario at large. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It turns out that the city of Hamilton continues to have problems with sewage. This time it appears that for 26 years raw sewage has been emptying out into Hamilton Harbour. The good news in this situation is that it also appears that Hamilton City Council is not covering it up and working to act proactively on the issue. A sign of things to come? We shall see. A few weeks ago we talked with now Councillor Ted McMeekin about the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters or HATS. For sometime they were looking for permanent site for the shelters, and it appears they are one step closer to it. A site on Barton St is where they are currently housed. Will it last? Lastly, Bill 23 has passed at Queen's Park. Critics have been pointing out the costs that will be downloaded onto the municipalities of the 905 on top of the loss of greenbelt land. However, the government is immediately going into spin mode to convince Ontarians that this will save them money. Spoiler: It won't. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A question we constantly come back to on this podcast is what do we want our communities to be like. One of the ways to accomplish this is to ensure that our streets are pedestrian focused and safe for all who are on them. This year a grassroots organization mobilized to bring this issue to the forefront of Halton politicians. Safe Streets Halton is a community organization focused on the elimination of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries in Halton region while promoting sustainable and healthy forms of transportation. It is a resource for the community and local government in reaching these goals and making Halton a safer and healthier region for all. We invited on Nick Morrison their founder to discuss with us Safe Streets Halton's vision for the 905. https://safestreetshalton.ca This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a disturbing trend emerging in Ontario politics from the Doug Ford government. As Doug Ford pursues his vision of paving over the greenbelt to help out his developer friends, resistance is popping up in unexpected places. Most recently the Association of Municipalities of Ontario has made public their concerns regarding Bill 23. Namely that they project a cost of approximately $1 Billion a year to municipalities due to loss of development fees. As well as the untold projected costs of environmental damages due to the consequences of potentially building on flood plains or watersheds in the Greenbelt. What is Doug Ford's response? It turns out that AMO has been excluded from committee meetings. This isn't a unique trend. The Ford government is moving ahead with plans to curtail the democratic authority of municipalities by allowing votes to pass with only 30% of councillors support. With the recent use of the Notwithstanding Clause as a negotiation tactic, its clear to us that this government hates the idea of democracy. The idea that consultation and compromise is important to ensure the democratic process is vibrant and we all have a say in how our government is run. Instead this government continues to show that it is their way or the highway, consequences be damned. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act is the latest controversy from the Doug Ford Ontario PC Government. It is an abrupt violation of a promise Premier Ford made to voters last election to NOT touch the Greenbelt under any circumstances. Well apparently his word doesn't count for very much. The More Homes Built Faster Act would open up 7,300 acres of Greenbelt land to development. Letting sprawl spread once again over Ontario's fragile farmland. Despite the government's own Housing Task Force report last year citing numerous opportunities to build homes within in municipal boundaries already. The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is a network of environmental groups in Ontario working to preserve the vital part of land called the Greenbelt. They are working hard to try and stop sprawl from taking over this delicate stretch of farm and green land. Franz Hartmann of the Alliance joins us today to talk about the group the issue of Doug Ford's breaking his word to let developers destroy the Greenbelt. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is a lot to get to on this episode of the 905 Round-Up! We start off with a brief summary of the Halton District School Board's inability to come up with a dress code for it's teachers in light of the enormous controversy it found itself in last month. Then we dive into the ongoing issue of the collapse of our health care system in Ontario. As hospital after hospital reports their emergency rooms and ICU's closing due to staffing shortages where is the priority in fixing this crisis? After our break, we examine the continuing shifting of rules around development in the province. Under the guise of building homes, the rules are being stacked more and more in favour of developers in spite of democracy or the environment. Lastly, the St. Catharines Standard's front page story was how a living wage in the Niagara region was roughly $20 an hour. Yet the last big increase in minimum wage was only to $15. In this age of inflation how are people supposed to make ends meet if they can't be paid properly? As Ontario collapses we stay on top of it all... This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2012, the supreme court handed down a landmark ruling which struck down many of the laws surrounding prostitution and sex work in Canada, citing that the laws violated sex workers charter rights as they imposed a greater risk of harm on sex workers. The court gave at that time the Stephen Harper government time to re write the laws. The result was the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. A law which at the time was viewed as just rearranging the deck chairs of the issue and did not actively address the issues of safety surrounding sex work in Canada. In 2015 Justin Trudeau promised in his campaign to rescind the law. That never happened. To this date the law is still on the books and in effect. Although that may not be for much longer. In a repeat of 2012, last month sex worker advocates took action and filed a lawsuit in Ontario Courts to challenge the constitutionality of the Protection of Communities and Exploited persons Act. Should they succeed in their challenge laws surrounding sex work could be struck down once again in Canada, forcing Canada to once again update it’s laws. One of the groups involved with the court case is a Hamilton advocacy group, Sex Workers Action Program Hamilton. We reached out to their Executive Director Jelena Vermillion to chat with her about the court case and what they hope to accomplish. As well as the issue of sex work and sex workers rights in general in Canada. We would like to give our listeners a word of caution before beginning the episode as we do talk about sensitive and mature topics and our language can get rather frank in this one. Discretion is advised. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WOW!!! What a week! Doug Ford blinked before the entire province this week by capitulating to CUPE and revoking Bill 28. Meaning the imposed contract on CUPE workers is nullified as well as the use of the Notwithstanding Clause to trample worker's rights. All of this happened as a result of the mobilization and solidarity of the labour movement in Ontario. The likes of which haven't really been seen in a few generations. While that might sound like a reason to celebrate (it is), Doug Ford and his team haven't wasted any time to back track on previous promises that they've made to voters. Namely to keep the Greenbelt in tact. The Ford government has made announcements that they are intending to reallocate 7,400 acres of land to development. This is direct violation of the promise he made to voters when he was first elected in 2018. Will the people be able to stop this broken promise the way CUPE did? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m writing this introduction at 1am, about 6 hours before this episode goes live. I’m doing so despite the fact I could have written and recorded this introduction more conveniently at almost any time in the last five days. Instead, I left it to the very last minute, and literally the most inconvenient and unpleasant time to write and record. The reason why I’d do such a counterintuitive and counterproductive thing is, I learned about three years ago, because I have ADHD, like some three to five percent of adults, and have done my whole life. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder - which, among many other things, means it’s something physically built into my brain that makes me bad at doing the things I’d ideally like to do at the times I’d ideally like to do them. But I'm an expert at delving into unexpected by-ways, rabbit-holes and tangents. For me, it’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s both what has caused me to do the things I’m most proud of in my life, and the thing which has lain behind the greatest unhappiness. For others, it can be anything from a daily irritation to a debilitating lifelong condition. ADHD is the subject of today’s episode. Heidi Bernhardt, is a psychiatric nurse by training, mother of three grown sons with ADHD and the founder of the Centre for ADHD Awareness Canada (CADDAC), a Canadian charity dedicated to awareness, education, and advocacy for ADHD. Heidi was the Executive Director of the Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance (CADDRA), a national not-for-profit organization of the leading clinicians and researchers in ADHD in Canada, from 2006 to 2012. During these years she built CADDAC in her volunteer life, nationally incorporating CADDAC as a not-for-profit in 2006 and becoming the Executive Director and President from 2012 to 2019. Heidi currently focuses on the development of ADHD education and advocacy material and systemic advocacy while holding the role of Director of Education and Advocacy for CADDAC. She also continues to teach and present on ADHD for CADDAC. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Ontario there is only one thing anyone is talking about right now. As negotiations with CUPE hit an impasse, Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce are forcing a contract on CUPE members and invoking the Notwithstanding Clause in the process. The Clause essentially ignores the fact unions have a Charter right to negotiate in good faith with their employers. The precedent that this move would set is a dangerous one for all Ontarians going forward. When the clause was introduced into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it wasn't intended to be used as a negotiation tactic in union contracts. This egregious overreach on the part of Doug Ford and his government is the entire topic of today's episode. What are the repercussions for CUPE and other unions in the province, what would a protest actually look like, and what are the options going forward to ensure that Charter rights are exactly that...rights for all of us. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We welcome back multi-award-winning journalist Lorraine Sommerfeld to the podcast. For readers in the Hamilton and Halton area, Lorraine may be most loved for her long-running Motherlode column in the Hamilton Spectator, but she is best known across Canada as an auto journalist who has worked for all of Canada’s three big national newspapers over he past two decades, and now writes for the National Post. But Lorraine is no stooge for the auto industry, nor is she someone who thinks all our problems will be solved by electric vehicles. She recently won an award for an article the new dangers being brought to our roads by electric vehicles. Another article took on one of the universally believed truisms of modern life - that the gas companies are gouging us more at the pump every day. Which leads us to the most profound question of all. How does an auto journalist who says Canadian gas is still cheap and what Canada needs most of all is fewer cars, not better ones, survive at the National Post? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We recap a three and a half hour live stream of coverage of the municipal election results in the 905 region. What did we learn from Monday night's results? Also what should we expect from council tables in the region. All eyes are on Hamilton as the only city to actually embrace change in the region and elect new faces to their council. What are the challenges to be faced going forward? The Doug Ford government already is taking action to establish it's relationship with the municipalities in the province. With the NDP and the Liberals leaderless it will fall onto the muncipalities to provide opposition and hold his government to account for the issues facing Ontarians. Do the Mayors and Councils of the 905 have what it takes? Speaking of Doug Ford, before any council had a chance to be officially sworn in and meet in person, his government was already gutting conservation authorities and declaring their enthusiasm for Ministerial Zoning Orders. Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clark laid out a clear plan to over ride the environmental stewardship of conservation authorities and to use MZO's to push ahead housing in prime land surrounding the 905. What will this mean for development and council autonomy over the next four years? More erosion of powers, that's what. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you miss the fun of the live results show on Monday? You did? Well do we have a treat for you. Over three hours of talk and analysis as the election results came in from across the province. We know you'll want to listen to every minute. And, you know what, the results were a lot of fun in some cities. There was genuine excitement in three cities at least where the mayoral race was extremely close, and it was an evening that saw a significant amount of change in quite a few places, even if other cities didn't see any change at all. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, for your listening pleasure, we look at the contents of two previously confidential code of conduct reports against two controversial Halton Catholic School Board trustees and ask what it says about them and the trustee system; Mayor Bonnie Crombie's call for 'MEXIT' for Mississauga (more like 'MEH-XIT', amiright?); and the latest poll from Hamilton and whether it confirms our by-the-seat-of-our-pants guesswork last week about where the mayoral race seemed to be going, or whether we now have egg on our face. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Racism has entered the Hamilton municipal race. Last week in Ward 14, candidate Kojo Damptey's bus shelter ad was vandalized by a poster saying "White Lives Matter" along with a link to a social media platform advocating white supremacist literature. The Hamilton Police Services have stated that they are treating this as a hate crime investigation. When something like this happens it draws our attention. We wanted to speak with the target of this intimidation, the candidate himself Kojo Damptey. Mr. Damptey is an Executive Director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusiveness. He is also a community leader and advocate along with educator. Would this attach deter his drive to win? What does this say about Hamilton and it's relationship with Anti-Black Racism? Will Kojo Damptey shy away from this intimidation? Find out by listening to the episode. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this episode of the Round-Up we examine a disappointing trend in Halton of candidates for public office not showing up for debates. In the race for Halton Catholic School Board Trustees, a major debate was cancelled due to numerous candidates declining the invitation to attend. The Regional Chair position isn't fairing any better. These elections matter due to the power and influence they can have on the places we live. What is driving this troubling trend? What should we do about candidates not wanting to answer our questions? Democracy depends on proper engagement with the voters. When candidates don't show up to answer them, its a dark path we start down. Roland and Joel get quite heated about this one. Then, we look at how the Hamilton mayoral race is heating up. Despite our misgivings that this would be a snooze fest and Andrea Horwath would walk into the mayor's office without a fight, the race has been quite interesting. After a well publicized debate between Keanin Loomis and Andrea Horwath on Cable 14, the race has become a bit of a free for all. Horwath's campaign has struck out against commentator Laura Babcock for her support of Keanin Loomis, and third place Bob Bratina is resorting to the tried and true law and order tactic. Both Horwath and Bratina seemingly have their targets set on Loomis. Does that make him the front runner? We look at all of it and give you our analysis. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we’ve mentioned before, we can’t cover every race, but we can highlight some of the races we think are most interesting. This week we're focusing on the Halton Regional Chair race. For the first time since the position became elected in 2000, there are three candidates in the race with clearly established credentials and contrasting platforms. Or, we assume they're contrasting, because two candidates have so far skipped all the debates, and also didn't reply to our invitation. Andrea Grebenc, former chair of the Halton District School Board did reply, and joined us to set out why she thinks she's the right choice for the job. The Region of Halton is home to half a million people and growing. It is a region usually considered to be among the most prosperous and safe in Canada, but which is home to a city and two towns (each themselves cities in all but name) experiencing the growing pains of intensification in municipalities designed almost entirely around cars, with no coherent regionally organized transit system. How Halton will grow as a region over the next half century exemplifies the challenges facing the 905 region. Andrea joins us to talk transit, housing, and more, as well as help us decide where exactly her two competitors are hiding. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems that in the 905, it belongs to the coyotes and we just live here. Coyotes continue to dominate the discussion around dinner tables in Burlington where 4 coyotes have been put down. Response from City of Burlington has been its people's fault for feeding or leaving food sources open for wild animals. This information isn't new to officials though. A conservation group Coyote Watch Canada put out a blog posting stating that as far back as 2014 they urged the City of Burlington to better educate the public on how to safely live with coyotes to prevent incidents like we've seen lately from happening. Why didn't the city take action then? After the break, a former guest of the podcast TVO Reporter Justin Chandler wrote an interesting article highlighting the fact that four candidates in Hamilton are former activists in various backgrounds, who are stepping up to the plate this election. Should they win what sort of change might Hamilton see? As well are activists in general good politicians? Short answer yes...long answer? Well check out the podcast! Coyote Watch Canada Blog: https://www.coyotewatchcanada.com/site/blog/2022/09/21/wildlife-encounters-are-preventable-if-timely-action-is-taken?fbclid=IwAR2gnV9hDD6TfTmMCc_rqmIM6QGl6_8mucKhVhhHnDVNze7DvL_ut3mujd4 Justin Chandler Article: https://www.tvo.org/article/what-happens-when-an-activist-runs-for-office This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Regular guest Alan Kan joins us again to chat about the latest news from the municipal election trail. And leading the pack for 'oh, good grief, really?' moments in this election are the good cities of Brampton and Hamilton. We look at the latest stories from those two cities, asking whether Patrick Brown's main challenger is much of an alternative, and whether what some assumed was a 'slam dunk' win for Andrea Horwath is being undone by, well, Andrea Horwath. Read and listen to Alan Kan at https://munipolimatters.substack.com/ This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's rare that we get to focus on federal politics when talking about the 905 region. However, we found our chance to with a story by Davide Mastracci over at Readpassage.com. His hard work discovered that close to 40% of all MP's were either landlords or invested in the housing market in some way. This list included recently crowned Conservative party Leader, Pierre Poilievre. Who got that crown by claiming he'd take on the gatekeepers holding back housing affordability. Well it seems that he is one of those gatekeepers. So isn't that a little hypocritical? Also, is it dangerous for any politician who's able to make decisions on the affordability of housing to be able to directly create or vote on legislation which can affect the price of housing? Roland and Joel have differing opinions on that one. After the break, we ponder what is the hold up on the $10 a day daycare that was promised to Ontarians prior to the election? Back then, we had on Minister Karina Gould to discuss the federal proposal and offer to fund the daycare program. At the 11th hour the Doug Ford provincial conservative government signed the deal taking it off the campaign table so to speak. Except we are now 6 months out from signing that agreement and we still do not have a roll out of the daycare plans. The federal government is concerned about what seems to be the Ford government's changes to the way funds would be distributed to providers, and Ontarian families who need the plan are left in the lurch. What's going on? Davide Mastracci's Article: https://readpassage.com/nearly-40-of-mps-invested-in-real-estate-during-housing-crisis/ Toronto Star Article on Daycare: https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2022/09/23/ontario-weakened-its-10-a-day-child-care-funding-rules-now-the-federal-government-is-demanding-answers.html This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, a picture shared to social media of a trans woman teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School erupted into an international controversy. The showed the teacher in question wearing overly large prosthetic breasts covered with a tight sweater, with the outline of the prosthesis nipples visible. Needless to say this attracted a lot of attention to the school and the school board. While the Halton District School Board rushed to contain the public relations story, elements on the far right were already mobilizing to use the issue as a new front in their culture war. On Friday afternoon, Freedom Convoy members along with other protestors gathered outside the school's exits to demonstrate. Covering that demonstration was Caryma Sa’d. You are no doubt aware of Caryma's work on covering the Freedom Convoy. Well today she joins Joel and Roland to share what she saw and why this high school attracted so much attention. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was brought to our attention that Burlington Councillor Paul Sharman's campaign was collecting donations from developers, which was helping to fuel his fourth time being elected to Burlington City Council. It brought people claiming that he was corrupt to come forward. We wanted to take a look at this and so we did. The thing is nothing Councillor Sharman has done is corrupt or in the wrong. It's all perfectly legal and in keeping with his self proclaimed values and priorities. If we're going to want a better democracy in the 905, Ontario and Canada, then we need to be better at criticizing our opponents. After the break, we travel up to Brampton to look at it's integrity commissioner finding Patrick Brown innocent of charges of using taxpayers funds to pay his staff for his failed Conservative leadership bid. But does that get him off the hook for everything else? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may be over 20 years since Gord Krantz faced a serious challenger in Milton. Back then it was Colin Best who got as close as 1000 votes to beating Krantz, before settling for a long career as a Milton councillor. Zeeshan Hamid, first elected in 2010, has the background and credibility to launch a serious challenge to a mayor so confident in his position he acts as if it's 1965 and email hasn't been invented. Whatever the relative merits of Hamid and Krantz, we think this is a race worth watching. In our interview today, Zeeshan Hamid is detailed and refreshingly frank about the challenges facing Milton, and what he believes he can bring to the table if elected. Wherever you live, you should definitely listen to this interview before you go to the polls in October. If you live in Milton, because it will decide who leads your town. If you live elsewhere, because we need to hear what credible candidates are offering and demand the best from candidates where we live. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We live in a country where the prime minister can't even declare a national day of mourning. So Ontario's workers will work while millions upon millions elsewhere in Canada and the Commonwealth nations either spend the day watching the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II, or, just as validly, enjoying one of the tangible benefits of living in a constitutional democracy via an unexpected day off. But Uncle Doug knows best, right? Right. Two stories from Burlington. Is City Hall successfully walking the fine line of allowing councillors to do their jobs without using it as part of their re-election campaigns? Or are we seeing pattern of weakness by the city manager and clerk in the face of a strong mayor and her most loyal councillor? Would mayoral hopeful Marianne Meed Ward have accepted in 2018 what Mayor Marianne Meed Ward insists is business as usual in 2022? Hmm. And Burlington's coyote problem has escalated alarmingly and dangerously. Should things have been done differently? Should things change now? And what about those whistles? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the run up to the municipal election on October 24th we want to give our listeners the opportunity to hear directly from candidates in some of the most hotly contested and important races. Unfortunately we simply can’t cover every candidate in every race, but there are certain high profile races where we hope to bring you interviews with the candidates who seem to us to be among the front runners. Nevertheless, exactly who we interview will depend as much on the candidates as on us. We can only interview those willing to be interviewed. We hope to speak to the three frontrunners in the race for Mayor of Hamilton, but only time will tell if all three would like to be interviewed. But we're kicking off today with an interview with Keanin Loomis. Keanin certainly got out of the gate early, and has been up front with policy ideas since day one. Will that be enough to tip the balance towards him and away from names that may be more familiar? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the first day back at school we ask whether the province is looking for another fight with teachers, to restart the battle that was called off in March 2020. But teachers have been on the frontline of the COVID battle for the last two years, so don't they at least deserve pay increases that keep their salaries in line with inflation? The province says no. A story from the campaign trail in Hamilton highlights two points: the role of Third Party Advertising and the role of 'personal' donations which represent corporate interests. Did any good come out of the so-called ban on corporate donations, or were they just forced into a murky untraceable netherworld? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As is the PC government's style since 2018, especially when it comes to municipal matters, a surprise announcement with major implications for at least two cities was announced as part of the throne speech on August 9th. It wasn't in the PC election platform (because they didn't publish a platform) and there wasn't even the pretence of consultations ahead of the announcement of a finalized plan to legislate. That announcement was the plan to introduce 'strong mayors' in two Ontario cities - Toronto and Ottawa - with the possibility that Hamilton could follow shortly afterwards. Prima facie, it's an idea worth at least discussing. Strong mayors exist in some of the world's most famous cities, and Ontario's 'weak mayors', some might suggest, are not so much weak and entirely lacking in power to do the job the public believes they are elected to do. But are the PC's plans well thought out? Or even slightly thought out? To discuss the implications and motivations, we are joined by André Côté, Head of the Secure and Responsible Tech Policy program at Toronto Metropolitan University. He also runs a mission-driven consulting firm that has worked with numerous clients on urban policy issues, as well as higher education, technology and public finance. Recent cities projects included a Canadian Urban Institute design lab for the new federal Housing Accelerator Fund; an Evergreen strategic foresight project with the City of Calgary; and supporting the Sidewalk Labs public consultations on behalf of Waterfront Toronto. These roles follow stints working for both the political and non-political sides of the government of Ontario, and as a manager at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG). The result is a fascinating discussion of what makes cities tick, and whether the, er, Great Minds that produce policy for the provincial government have complex ulterior motives, or are producing legislation without much of a clue about how it is likely to work in practice. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have on this episode, old friends of the podcast! Laura Steiner of the Milton Reporter and Alan Kan of the Munipoli Matters Substack join us to give us their expert analysis of what this falls' municipal election could look like. As well as what to look for in the various races around the 905. You won't want to miss out! This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well we're back folks! After a restful recovery over the summer, from the tumult which was our most recent Ontario election, Joel and Roland decided to return to behind the microphones. Just in time for another election! This falls' municipal election. With the deadline to register as a candidate recently passed, we decided to take a look at who was throwing their hat in the ring for this election to decide the course of action for our communities in the 905 for the next four years. Let's just say our view of the playing field is less than optimistic. We give you our honest and no holds bar take on this election's offerings and ponder where is the vision and bold ideas that we need for the serious problems we all face in the region. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As one Ontario election ends, it appears that immediately we look at the upcoming municipal election in the fall. More specifically the rumours surrounding former Ontario NDP Leader, Andrea Horwath. For a little while now, the rumour mill has been circulating that Ms. Horwath is possibly looking to throw her hat in the ring for Hamilton Mayor this fall. What are her chances of winning? Should she run? More importantly, should the people of Hamilton reward another politician shopping around for elected offices? After the break, we look at social media shenanigans on the part of Larry DiIanni, who has no problem identifying male councillors by name and yet can't seem to remember the names of Maureen Wilson and Narinder Nann. Should we take such disrespect at face value as a slip of the fingers on Twitter? Or should we call out sexist behaviour as we see it? Lastly, yet another update on the ongoing saga at Burlington City Hall. Councillor Shawna Stolte seems to be getting what she asked for. The city is reviewing their procedures for in-camera sessions. So why the need to drag her name through the mud in the first place? Joel and Roland dive into all of this on this episode of the Round-Up! This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week Mississauga's city council got in the news for something they didn't do. Specifically failing to address allegations of intimidation and vandalism on the part of one Councillor against another. Karen Ras repeatedly brought to the attention of the city that her car was being vandalized in her parking spot at city hall. Upon investigation by Peel police, they allege that her fellow Councillor Ron Starr. Why did the integrity commissioner fail to act for two years, and why was no action taken by the city council or Mayor Bonnie Crombie? Then Roland shares his perspective on the fact that Burlington city council is shaping up to make a major purchase of land from a former high school in the city. What is the problem with this plan? For starters, it all seems to be taking place behind closed doors. Meetings regarding the potential cost to purchase the former Robert Bateman High location are taking place in-camera. Meaning that public consultation isn't happening and that a lot of the details surrounding the plan are being kept from public scrutiny. Of course, we view this as bad, but why is it happening at all? And why does this seem to be a trend lately in how the city conducts its finances? This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired on April 5, 2022 Don't worry, you didn't miss the week! Due to a scheduling conflict, our Thursday episode of The 905 Round-Up is today! This week had huge news in Hamilton. Local area MPP Donna Skelly earned some local headlines, by saying that #Hamilton city council made the wrong call in not expanding its urban boundary earlier this year. At the same time, the PC government tabled legislation based on the Housing Task Force report, and this gives a lot of power to developers, restricting municipalities in how they respond to proposals, and puts it all basically on the Ontario Land Tribunal to sort it out. It appears that the Tories are showing their true colours on development. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired on March 22, 2022 If you live in the 905 Region, there is a good chance you live relatively close to a gravel quarry, and there’s a good chance that the existence of the quarry is or has been controversial. Aggregates, to give them their proper name, are one of the constituent ingredients in a huge amount of infrastructure. Multiple environmental groups have recently formed the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition aimed at province-wide change to the aggregates industry. They are calling for an immediate moratorium on all new gravel mining approvals in Ontario, to allow a pause and consultation on a new approach to balancing the need for aggregates for infrastructure with the needs of the environment. We are joined by Greg Sweetman, EVP of James Dick Construction to put the aggregate industry's case, and singer, songwriter and activist Sarah Harmer and activist Graham Flint, co-chairs of the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition, to explain why they think now is the right time for a moratorium. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired May 24, 2022 Last but not least, we present our review and take on the Ontario PC Party's platform, or lack thereof, for the provincial election. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired on March 1, 2022 Last year, we had on to the podcast Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada. We discussed their made in Canada entry into the world of electric vehicles. A bold and ambitious project to show to the world that the automotive industry here in Canada is poised to take on the 21st Century. We had followed developments of the project and wanted to reach out to him to give us an update and see how it was all unfolding. That was back in late January. Instead, the month of February saw us all glued to our phones and screens as we watched our nation's capital fall siege to the truck convoy and then the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit was blockaded. Hundreds of millions of dollars were prohibited from crossing the border. Work was held up in both Canada and the US as badly need parts for assembly weren't delivered. Lines at factories across not only the 905 but all Ontario were shut down. Workers lost hours and wages due to no work being done. It was so bad that the Ford plant in Oakville was forced to shut down a line until the blockade was lifted. In the face of inaction by the federal and provincial governments, Flavio and the APMA took action to seek an injunction to end the blockade. Their decisive actions helped to give the police the direction and tools to end the blockade and open the bridge back up to trade. Needless to say, after this happened we knew our conversation wouldn't just be about Project Arrow. In this episode, we talk about it all. How the project has progressed, what drove them to take action against the blockades, what the current attitude is in the industry and what our reputation looks like to our largest trading partner. Read up on Project Arrow here: https://apma.ca/project-arrow/ This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of The 905 Round-Up, we have a special guest. Alan Kan writes a municipal politics blog titled #munipoli Matters. He is from Mississauga and often writes about what is going on in Peel Region. We invited him on to the podcast to give us a different perspective on what has been happening at Mississauga City Council with Karen Ras resigning over allegations of bullying and intimidation on part of another councillor. Then we look at Brampton City Council and its ongoing troubles with their CAO under charges of nepotism on part of Mayor Patrick Brown. What is going on and where is this going? Finally, Joel brings up the good news of Premier Doug Ford announcing a major investment in ArcelorMittal Dofasco to make their operations greener. But why now? Is it a deflection against criticism of the Ontario Government's handling of the Ottawa crisis and what has happened at the border to date? We talk about it all in today's episode. Read Alan's blog here: https://munipolimatters.substack.com/ This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last few weeks for this podcast, you might have noticed that a theme has appeared. Homelessness has crept into the forefront of discussions here in the 905. Especially in Hamilton, where the city has struggled to get a handle on the problem and find proper solutions. The public reception to the city’s policies has been controversial. In November, the police dismantled the homeless encampments in J.C. Beemer park leading to a large amount of criticism of excessive force and questioning if they were the best tool to solve the issue. Recently a grassroots initiative of building tiny shelters for the homeless on the site of the Sir John A MacDonald school showed real entrepreneurship and innovation to the problem. We had Ted McMeekin on to discuss the potential and hope for this initiative and how it might change the shape of Hamilton’s approach to homelessness in the future. However, we weren’t finished talking about this complex issue. Homelessness often gets framed in terms of a housing issue, rather than the complex one of social needs and mental health illnesses that often exist in the community. We wanted to get a better understanding of what exactly the issues happening on the ground were, and how we got here. Denise Davy is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for The Hamilton Spectator. Her book, “Her Name Was Margaret”, outlines the experience of Margaret, a woman Denise met who had been living for decades on the streets with severe mental illness. Denise has written numerous times on the issue of homelessness and its causes. We speak with her to understand better the issue how we need to reframe our conversations on homelessness if we are to solve it and work to help those on the streets. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired March 10, 2022 You just can't keep Patrick Brown out of the news this week, as his plan to run for the federal CPC leadership sees him put one story behind him, while another story is exploding in Brampton. We discuss what it says about him that he's trying to jump ship on another job. Then we look at a little bit of criticism we received for not being tough enough on Mayor John Taylor and what role the municipalities played in the creation of the Affordability Task Force Report. Is the Affordability Task Force Report "good" for Urbanists, or a superficial nonsense that would blow up in the government's face if ever implemented word for word? We love the feedback, both good and bad, so keep it coming! This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired March 8th, 2022 On February 8th, the province’s Housing Affordability Task Force released its report on how to make housing more affordable in this province. Nobody can claim the recommendations aren't radical. And while the objectives of housing affordability are shared by all, and some of the ideas contained in the recommendations have been championed by advocates for less car-centric cities, many have argued that the specific recommendations would not achieve their stated goals, and place all the blame on the municipalities for getting in the way of developers -- perhaps not surprising given the municipalities were not consulted in the creation of the report. To better understand the criticism against the Task Force’s recommendations we invited the Mayor of Newmarket, John Taylor, on to the podcast. Mayor Taylor, along with other mayors including Burlington's Marianne Meed Ward, was at the forefront of the 'Small Urban GTHA Mayors' group released a statement on February 18th detailing the issues they had with the report. Mayor Taylor was first elected as a councillor in 2006 and held the position for 12 years before becoming Mayor. In 2014, as Chair of the Human Services Planning Board, John spearheaded a campaign called “Make Rental Happen” which conducted research and advocacy that led to the construction of the first major purpose-built rental building in York Region in over 25 years. He is the Chair of Housing York Inc., a member of the Human Services Planning Board (HSPB) of York Region, and a member of the Association of Municipalities Ontario’s Housing Task Force. He also sits on the Newmarket Economic Development Advisory Committee and the Board of Newmarket Tay Hydro. Today Mayor Taylor joins us as the head of the Affordable Housing Subcommittee of the Small Urban GTHA Mayors. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally Aired June 14, 2022 This week we are joined by Glyn Bowerman of the Spacing Radio podcast. Spacing is something special and increasingly rare - a quarterly magazine printed on paper. But Spacing is also an important website and a highly recommended monthly podcast, hosted by Glyn. It all its formats, Spacing exists specifically to promote ideas and discussion relating to urbanism in Canada’s cities. Although it looks especially at urban issues in Canada’s big cities - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and Edmonton - it also explores the subjects which are very familiar to everybody in the 905 region. Check out Spacing at https://spacing.ca/ and make sure you subscribe to the Spacing Radio podcast wherever you get your podcast episodes. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally Aired February 22, 2022 Halton Regional Council has just taken one of the most important votes it is likely to take this decade. At a meeting that went late into the evening last Wednesday, with over 50 delegates attending to give their opinions, the regional councillors voted 15-9 for a motion that will prevent the Region from updating its Official Plan to allow boundary expansion for further development. In doing so, Halton became the second council in recent months to vote against boundary expansion, in the face of both provincial and industry pressure to open up more lands for development. Indeed, Halton followed Hamilton’s lead in seeing a quickly established ‘Stop Sprawl Halton’ movement, mirroring Hamilton’s successful Stop Sprawl HamOnt campaign. It appears that the movement to end low-density sprawl in the 905 has gained huge momentum in the last four years. We wanted to speak to people on both sides of this debate, to give their arguments for why the boundaries should expand, or why they should stay the same. To that end, we invited two councillors who took part in last week’s vote to answer questions. Councillor Paul Sharman has been City and Regional Councillor for Burlington’s Ward 5 since 2010. In this role, he has frequently served as chair of city committees and boards has worked to implement Burlington’s net carbon-neutral plan, as well as representing the interests of his ward. Prior to entering politics, Councillor Sharman had a successful career in the private sector as an organization performance management consultant. Last week Paul Sharman was among the 9 councillors, including the mayors of Halton Hills and Milton, who voted in favour of urban boundary expansion. Councillor Jane Fogal has served her community in Halton Hills for over seven terms, dating back to 1997. She introduced the Climate Emergency Declarations at Halton Hills and Halton Region, and chairs multiple committees. She has been a core member of the Stop Sprawl Halton group and is co-chair of Halton Hills Climate Action. She voted with fourteen other councillors, including the mayors of Burlington and Oakville, last Wednesday to halt boundary Expansion in Halton until 2041. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there when we can, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired June 21, 2022 At the same time as the history of the Residential Schools was exploding on the front pages of newspapers, two women in Halton were creating something new and unprecedented with the potential to do much to bring about a genuine knowledge of the truth, and a real road towards reconciliation. They are seeking to bring healing to all based on indigenous treatments for, in their words, “healing of the body, mind, soul and spirit while connecting to the land.” Jody Harbour and Sherry Saevil are the two co-founders of Grandmothers Voice, the first urban Indigenous Center in Halton, but also a new kind of education and wellness centre where a collective of Indigenous Women are providing programs that emphasize healing based on traditional methods, open to all. This includes a Healing/Medicine garden, a Wellness Centre and a Community garden. But as you’ll hear in our conversation with Jody and Sherry, it seems like Grandmother’s Voice has the potential to grow from its Halton origins into something of national importance. https://www.grandmothersvoice.com/ This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally Aired April 12, 2022 There is carnage on the streets of Hamilton in recent weeks. It's too easy in the world of journalism and current affairs to reach for overly dramatic language when describing a problem. Too easy to suggest a disagreement is a crisis, or an inconvenience is a calamity. But if there is any word other than 'carnage' to describe what has been happening on Hamilton's streets in recent months, we'd like to hear it. Death after serious injury after death has been announced, reaching a grim milestone two weeks ago when much-loved conductor Boris Brott, who brought classical music to thousands upon thousands of Canadians, was senselessly killed in an alleged hit and run incident. Only weeks before, three people were killed by a car crashing into a sidewalk. Days later, a young man was killed on the mountain by another hit and run incident. Hamilton is signed up to Vision Zero ... an objective to eliminate road deaths through better design. As Vision Zero Canada states, "The essence of Vision Zero is not a nice sentiment or a target. It is, rather, the action of continuously and preemptively removing the very possibility of violence (and that means serious injury as well as death) from our transportation systems." It is about making so called 'accidental' road deaths and serious injuries impossible. But that objective appears to be a very long away from realization. To talk about this subject and much more, and the resistance of some Hamilton Councillors to consider anything that might inconvenience drivers, we spoke to Alex Bishop. Alex Bishop (alexbishop.info) is a business leader and consultant to executives and politicians. He has successfully created hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mental health programs and has advocated to prevent legislation that would have trampled on Indigenous People’s Rights. His firm was credited by CUPE Ontario as the reason Ontario Schools didn’t go on strike in 2019. His advocacy work stems from turning his life around and getting sober in 2011 and a realization that any privilege comes with a duty to give back. He writes regularly for National Publications as well as being a regular contributor on television. He is most proud of being a father of two extraordinary children. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired on April 21, 2022 We have talked about a lot of bad behaviour at city halls in the two years this podcast has been running. We've seen bullying and threats on social media. We have seen councillors who see their entire reason for existence as disrupting and derailing council meetings. We've seen activists and volunteers abused and cross-examined for hours as councillors call their integrity into question. There are councillors who don't understand the most basic aspects of their job, who constantly need to be reminded about how meetings are supposed to be run. There are councillors who frankly don't work very hard, but get re-elected because nobody ever knows. There are councillors who work part time on other jobs. There are councillors who seem to take pride in just how rude they can be to constituents. None of these things apply to Shawna Stolte. Stolte has been a hard-working councillor since she was elected in 2018. She has worked especially hard on Burlington's tree by-law, housing affordability, and ensuring openness and transparency in council business. In council meetings she is polite and respectful and the opposite of disruptive - even at a meeting that talked for three hours about how much pay she should be docked. Whether you agree with specific policies or not, Stolte has been an exemplary councillor. She has now announced that she will not seek re-election in October 2022. Why? Because of complaints made by her colleagues against her of revealing confidential information. These complaints followed Stolte's campaign to have clearer rules via an updated Closed Session Protocol, a campaign that has frequently exasperated and irritated colleagues who make it clear they can't see any point. We dedicate this whole episode to discussing one of the most counter-productive and unhappy instances in recent Burlington history. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally aired on March 15, 2022 Among the unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, surely one of the better ones is a nationwide rediscovery of the Canadian outdoors. Today we are joined by Eleanor McMahon, President and CEO of the Trans Canada Trail. Eleanor has over 30 years of experience within the private, public and non-profit sectors in a resume that defies easy summary because of the sheer number of areas in which she has played a leading and influential role. But she is perhaps best known as the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition - formed in the wake of the tragic death of her husband - and then for the period between 2014 to 2018 when Eleanor served as MPP for Burlington, entering the Ontario cabinet as Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and later President of the Treasury Board. But the reason we are speaking to Eleanor McMahon today is not connected to any of those achievements but in connection with her current role as President and CEO of the Trans Canada Trail. As we shall hear today, the Trans Canada Trail is much more than a pathway across Canada. Much more than “just” the largest trail in the world. Eleanor describes the numerous ways in which in the first thirty years since the Trans Canada Trail concept was born, it has come to embody and symbolize something truly important for our heterogeneous nation. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our last episode before our summer break, we look at some different stories from around the 905. Rents have jumped in the last year. Why, and what are we doing about it? Gary Carr has announced he is running for Regional Chair again, torpedoing Jane McKenna's hope of an easy election to be regional chair of Halton. Does McKenna have what it takes to be a serious challenge to Carr? We look for evidence. And Peel District School Board has a racism problem, as trustees resist doing what the province has ordered them to do, and abolish streaming. We'll be back in good time for the municipal elections. Until then, have a great summer! This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We invited back to the podcast, fellow amateur municipal political pundit Alan Kan. For those who might not remember Alan writes the #munipoli matters newsletter, focusing on the news and politics of municipalities not just here in the 905 but across the country as well. Today we talk with him and ask him to share his take on what he predicts will be the more interesting municipal elections in the region. Coming off the provincial election outcome, the fall's municipal election is already starting to heat up. Check out Alan's newsletter here: https://munipolimatters.substack.com This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing. Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices