Bryan Wilson, Candidate for Ward 14 in Hamilton Municipal Election 2018 - Raise the Hammer Elections

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Candidate Details
Responses to Questions

Candidate Details (top)

Name	Wilson, Bryan
Election	Hamilton Municipal Election 2018
Area	Ward 14
Party	N/A
Votes	0
Email	bryanwilson@techie.com
Website	https://www.bryanwilsonward14.com/
Home	226-789-1075
Business
Fax
Bio	My Name is Bryan Wilson. I am a father of five, and husband to one. I have been involved in politics for more than a decade, working on behalf of the working class. With your help, we can build a stronger, more involved, and transparent ward 14! I am currently sitting chair of my local union's political action committee. I have been elected as the legislative member for my provincial council of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union for more than seven years. I have also been appointed to my district council's political action committee. I frequently lobby on Parliament Hill, and have lobbied at Queens Park on behalf of you and your family. Through this work I have helped expand the Canadian Pension Plan for future generations and bring back some of the employment insurance reforms. I believe in taking care of each other. I believe in bringing communities together and that is what I have worked tirelessly to do over the years.

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Responses to Questions (top)

Question	Brief Response	Full Response
Bonus question: If LRT goes ahead, what will you do to ensure Hamilton receives the maximum benefit?	Yes	Expand it.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act mandates that cities must be completely accessible by 2025. What changes would you make to ensure Hamilton complies with this mandate?	Yes	We definitely need to be more accessible as a whole in this city. We need to make sure that when building or rebuilding our infrastructure that we don't centre it so much around the automobile in the future and actually think of people who live there and want to be there not just drive through the neighbourhood. We can build as a person centric city and still have roads that aren't always backed up we just need to have more vision and willingness to do so.
Do you support improved public transit in Hamilton? If so, what changes do you propose? If not, why not?	Yes	Yes I do. I support accepting the generous one billion dollar funding from the provincial government to build LRT and from there the BLAST network. I would like to see dedicated bus lanes added where possible as this encourages more people to use transit when the traffic doesn't affect it as it would a car.
Since the 1950s, most new residential and commercial development in Hamilton has been single-use suburban sprawl. Do you believe Hamilton needs to concentrate new development within the already-built area? Why or why not?	Yes	We do need to have development within the built up areas as we grow into a larger and larger city our downtown needs to be denser in its development as space is limited and to sprawl out is expensive. You need the infrastructure that goes along with that and most cities don't have it or don't expand it until after the development is there at which point it becomes very expensive to do as well as a major hassle for those living within those communities. To build upon land where infrastructure exists maximizes space and what we've already invested in and grows our population and tax base at the same time.
Global warming is an existential challenge facing humanity. Do you think Hamilton should play a role in addressing climate change? If so, what should the city be doing? If not, why not?	Yes	Every municipality can play a role in this. There are many things we could be doing from installing rooftop solar on all city buildings, to planting trees in our downtown core. I would love to see an expanded recycling program. We can offer a program as other cities do to redo lawns with drought resistant plants that need no care and no watering saving on water usage and storm runoff that when it comes from a grass lawn is usually full of harsh chemicals needing cleaning. Id love to see Hamilton implement a food forest for the food bank in a few different parts of the city. So that lower income individuals can have in season fresh fruits and vegetables and we get more green space.
Should Hamilton be trying to attract more young people to live, work and start businesses here, including the 60,000 students studying at Mohawk College, McMaster University and Redeemer University? If so, what should we be doing? If not, why not?	Yes	Absolutely we should be. Hamilton should include a divers range of people and encourage them to stay here. It will take all ages and types to keep Hamilton moving forward for the future. Hamilton is doing well in attracting new people to the city, the apprenticeship programs that are in place area great start. Building a better transit system and a denser core will also attract younger folks to stay.
Do you support phasing out area rating for transit? Why or why not?	Yes	I do support phasing out of area rating. And I know a lot of people will say they don't like that idea because now people are paying for something they aren't receiving. But they wont receive it unless it can be paid for and the only way to do that is to adequately fund it. I saw this happen as a small child growing up outside of Ottawa. We amalgamated and were forced to pay Ottawa taxes and guess what? We ended up getting a bus route 20 minutes out of town. It works.
Do you support the "Vision Zero" goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Hamilton? If so, what specific actions would you take to implement this policy? If not, why not?	Yes	Yes I do. There is no reason anyone should die while walking down the road. We need two way streets in downtown Hamilton. We also need more and better transit to encourage less cars downtown and more biking, walking and transit use. There is also no reason whatsoever for a downtown core to have a five lane one way road that cuts straight through it. This is just asking for trouble. this could be converted to two land two way streets with wider walkways/ bike paths and trees/ green space to brighten up the downtown core. We need to stop designing our streets wide and straight in urban areas. Unless our goal is for people to drive straight through. But that's what highways are for.
Council has voted dozens of times since 2008 to advance Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) project, including voting to submit the plan with a full funding request to the Province in 2013, and voting to accept full funding and implementation from the Province in 2015. Do you support completing the LRT plan? Why or why not?	Yes	At this point it would be pure foolishness to not move forward. Not only would we be losing a billion dollar investment but the taxpayers would be on the hook for all the money spend on studies and work done to bring it to this point, not to mention the over 100 million spent on acquiring land for it. And the loss of severely needed infrastructure along the route where we could install the power producing water pipelines making Hamilton an even greener city.
Hamilton has been experiencing a slow-motion crisis in housing affordability. Do you support an expanded role for the City to provide more affordable housing? If so, what should Hamilton do? If not, why not?	Yes	Yes I do affordable housing should be one of the top priorities for a lot of municipalities these days. The price of rent keeps rising faster than the price of a home and most assuredly faster than incomes. I myself have lived in affordable housing at one point and it was a huge stepping stone to getting to where I am today. One of the biggest tools the province has given us is the ability to make all new developments up to 20% affordable housing. We have the means to do this but we aren't yet and I am unsure why. With the building of the LRT we are seeing development come in at a good rate along that corridor and now would be the perfect time to ensure that we have affordable housing available within these new developments.
Hamilton has a legacy of multi-lane, one-way arterial streets dating back to the 1950s. Do you support accelerating the conversion of these streets to two-way? Why or why not?	Yes	Two way streets are better for people and for communities. One way streets generally end up with cars driving faster. And as stated in the previous question I do support the conversion to two way streets.