Elections
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?
Responses to the question: "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?"
In This Page:
53 Candidate Responses (top)
| Mayor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Davis, Jim | Yes | Most people stay in the areas they are raised in so attracting younger people shouldn't be that difficult. Friends attract friends to live in their area. To attract new business is the challenge. On average, it takes 5yrs to establish a new business so maybe a 5yr tax break could influence new businesses. |
| Eisenberger, Fred | Yes | Young people will cycle to work if there are safe cycling paths. I support increased bike paths. We know young people want access to natural areas such as the escarpment. Young people will resist using cars if there is good reliable transit such as LRT. |
| Gomes, Carlos | Yes | Of course I want the youth of tomorrow to continue to live here in Hamilton.I plan to start programs like osap to help our youth met their potential, by helping them afford college or university. Understand I plan to do this for ppl who were born here or have lived here most their lives. I don't plan on solving other cities problems, and this program will only be offer to students who go to either Mohawk college or McMaster. But before all that I have to fix the already damaged inforstructure. |
| Graydon, Edward HC | N/A | No response provided |
| Pattison, Michael | Yes | Personally, I feel that it's not just about trying to attract, but rather how do we continually stay attractive. Job growth, retention of graduates, and finding solutions to affordable housing are the primordial concerns that need to be addressed. Hamilton must focus on its place within Ontario and the future direction of our city. Once we have established our common role (Health Care, Shipping/Warehousing/Logistics, refuse, etc.) the proper investment strategies can help define and support local business and the opportunities they present. |
| Schmid-Jones, Ute | Yes | Certainly we can understand that in the long term we need to genuinely make Hamilton an attractive place for youth. Those young people will bring Hamilton the new ideas and energy that can lead us into the future. Since we see younger Canadians are less interested in car culture than previous generations were, the LRT and other improvements to public transit would certainly be a good start. Instead of assuming that I have the best ideas to do this, I would rather listen to those emerging young professionals themselves and hear from them what their priorities are so that they can effectively feel heard rather than merely catered to, and try to implement their suggestions. I would even like to consider creating a youth council that mirrors city council to collect their input. |
| Sgro, Vito | N/A | Please use our website vitosgroformayor.ca as the the answer to the provided questions. |
| Tavares, Ricky | N/A | How much are you going to pay me ? $100 and I will communicate with you at your basic level. Otherwise you are useless to me and Hamilton. |
| Wozny, Mark | Yes | In order to attract more young people to the City, we should ensure more affordable housing such as geared-to- income develpoment, revisions to our Bank of Canada to re-instate its mandate to pre 1974 and help in creating /contributing to co-operative housing/co-operative work/design/office space by engaging community based bond raising, akin to Tapestry and other similar organizations. |
| Yan, Nathalie Xian Yi | Yes | To any community young people bring innovation. They are full of energy and new ideas they push the world forward. It’s a powerful resource. Hamilton have many assets and tangible treasures that can attract young people not only to come but to prompting the spectrum from culture art and industry |
| Ward 01 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Allen, Jason | Yes | Hamilton should definitely be doing more to attract young people to move or stay here after school. One way to do that would be to attract investment to our city, so that there are good paying jobs for young people to work at. I have always said, however, that in order to attract investment like that, you have to first build a city where young people want to live. Creating an arts friendly city with active transportation will create a city where knowledge workers want to live, prompting employers to choose to locate their businesses here. |
| Anderson, Sharon | Yes | Yes. We need to get students to engage more with their surrounding community while they are attending school and get their surrounding community to engage more with them. Affordable housing and housing options for single households need to be available. We do this by encouraging the smaller mid-rise developments throughout our neighbourhoods. Finally we need employment within the boundaries of Hamilton itself as well as good transit and transportation connections to employment found in neighbouring municipalities. We need to complete the LRT, and work with the provincial government on regional rail connections as well as improvements to our highway corridors. |
| Cole, Sharon | Yes | Absolutely. Hamilton embraces an inclusive philosophy and culture. It is uniquely positioned to offer a diverse set of post-secondary educational opportunities, affordable housing alternatives to those in the GTA and a varied set of employment opportunities from a vibrant service industry, expanding arts and culture opportunities, a hive for innovation and entrepreneurialism, opportunities for skilled trades, an evolving industrial base which embraces innovation and research, and a centre for business (small and large). It offers a variety of recreational and sporting activities, a vibrant entertainment core, shopping and dining experiences, all surrounded by nature. |
| Eroglu, Ela | Yes | College or University grads are a key driver for innovation and vital for economic growth and wealth creation. Skilled work force attracts investors, clients, and creates jobs. Unfortunately, Hamilton loses its students after graduation because of limited employment offerings and opportunities. When we lose highly trained and valuable human capital to a neighbouring Cities we lose our chance of becoming a thriving community. As a city we should be aiming and attracting businesses to create a smart economy rendering sophisticated products and services to clients in Hamilton and around the world. We have the potential with 60,000 well educated vibrant students trained in engineering, technologies and science to become a City that influence the world in many ways. We must invest in our youth for a prosperous future for all. |
| Geffros, Sophie | Yes | Absolutely. We must move beyond “Town and Gown”, and I am deeply disappointed by the truly absymal “efforts” the City has made to engage with student communities during this election period. In Ward 1, students make up the largest single demographic group -- but no other campaign meaningfully mentions McMaster students in their publicly available platforms.
Our City must increase our efforts to reach out to student residents and young people in general, and we must engage them in decisions that affect all of us. For too long, students have been ignored or dismissed as politically engaged citizens on the basis that they don’t vote and won’t remain in our city. This must change: pitting students and non student residents against each other hasn’t been working and we must work together to solve the problems within our community. Working with the McMaster Students’ Union (MSU), I believe we can re-imagine the Student Community Support Network to create a program that truly works for everyone. With joint funding from McMaster, the MSU and the city we can develop a proactive bylaw education and enforcement system that prioritizes education and peer to peer outreach to solve problems before they are in violation of a bylaw. Under this model fewer property standard violations will occur and problems can be reported before they reach the criteria laid out in the bylaws. Additionally, we can better educate and inform students of their rights and responsibilities as tenants and hold absentee landlords accountable. This program can also explore non financial restorative justice based solutions that are proven to reduce recidivism and build up communities. Young people are also much more likely to use public transit and active transportation to navigate our city. Improving the reliability and service of our public transit -- including implementing LRT -- and ensuring that truly protected bike lanes exist to help cyclists navigate the city safely will help retain young people in our city. Further, young people are much more likely to be renters than the general population, and improving the quality and quantity of our rental housing stock will go a long way towards ensuring that students continue to live, work, and play in Hamilton. |
| Massie, Richard | Yes | Yes, young people can be faster to adapt when unexpected events happen in business. Among these educated student assets are young entrepreneurs. And even one successful start-up company will build wealth and create jobs. We can attract young people with more dense urban amenities to have fun and a growing labour market so they can find their next job. |
| Miklos, Lyla | Yes | We should be making Hamilton a welcoming city for students NOW and not wait until they graduate. Some of things to improve the quality of life for students immediately include affordable housing, improved public transit, landlord licensing, job creation and community engagement. We need to ensure students have a voice and a seat at the table and need to be providing incentives for them to not only want to go to school hear, but to find work here, buy homes here and be a vital part of what makes Hamilton the city I love. |
| Narducci, Linda | Yes | Yes, absolutely, Hamilton has a lot to offer this demographic. Students and young people need to know that there is housing that is affordable and transportation that will accommodate car-less lifestyles. Hamilton offers several services to support business startups, but it’s not perfect. Hamilton Economic Development offers Summer Company for youth aged 15-29. This encourages young people at a young age to think about entrepreneurship and starting a business. It’s been my conversations that once proceeding to opening a business there are many frustrations with the bylaw and licensing hoops to jump through. This can be quite discouraging. |
| White, Harrison | Yes | Young people are already Hamilton’s largest demographic with 153,000 residents born between 1982-97. It appears that Hamilton already has a draw for younger demographics. I think Hamilton should continue to try and attract youth to the city, the City of Hamilton has a large aging population, with seniors expected to be the largest demographic by 2031. We need to ensure a consistent influx of new ideas, drive and ambition into the Hamilton community, we can do this through engaging youth through innovative ideas and improved quality of life. We need to ensure that Hamilton continues to be a place to work, start a family and establish roots. I do not want to see Hamilton turn into a commuter city, and I believe engaging with youth is the best way to do this. Hamilton is lucky to have a plethora of attractions for youth, but we need to make sure they feel like Hamilton is the place to call home. We don’t want students to simply take their knowledge to other cities, we want them to settle in Hamilton and utilize their skills here. Hamilton is already trying to create a youth city strategy, I believe that hearing from youth is an important first step in implementing necessary changes. I believe what will continue to attract younger individuals to Hamilton is similar to what attracts most people. Affordable housing, reliable public transit, friendly neighbourhoods, safe streets, various forms of entertainment and plenty of community engagement from the city. That is what I will focus on if elected to city council. |
| Wilson, Maureen | Yes | The migration and retention of young people, including young graduates, to Hamilton is critical to our city’s long term economic prosperity and the ability to finance future city infrastructure and services.
Skilled labour is now ranked as one of the most important factors in a company’s locational decision. Hamilton must identify what magnets it has to attract young people and what glue it needs to keep them in place. As Ward 1 Hamilton City Councillor, I am committed to the following: 1. Encourage and Allow for Density, Align Spending The City of Hamilton must remove the built in pricing disincentives to urban (re)development and align our spending decisions to support the kind of urban amenities that will help us attract and retain young talent. (see answer #1 above) By all accounts, younger residents favour urban places. Removing the built in subsidies that benefit greenfield development will make intensification more economically feasible and allow for more housing development within the urban envelope. In addition, the City of Hamilton must ensure an integrated approach to investment that will see spending aligned with strategic priorities, including the goal of enriching assessment along transit corridors. This will enable the city to deliver on necessary urban amenities like transit, recreation centres, cultural activities, park and green space. For example, the city of Hamilton will spend $1.7 billion over the next 5 years on growth related capital costs. Three-quarters of this amount is for linear types of infrastructure (water, wastewater and roads) the cost of which is directly impacted by density or the lack thereof. $300 million of this amount is to be spent on road infrastructure compared to $100 million for public transit. 2. Build Better Transit More and more young workers are without permanent employment status and the benefit packages that accompany work that is non precarious. Access to affordable, reliable and quality public transit is a critical magnet in attracting young people in addition to private residential and commercial investment along high order transit corridors. Transportation planning and land use planning go hand in hand. 2. Deliver a range of housing affordable to all Young residents need entry-level housing close to their place of employment. Some graduates or skilled youth may earn too much to qualify for housing assistance but not enough to afford market housing. The city of Hamilton requires a housing strategy that will deliver a range of housing affordable to all residents. 3. Make It Easy & More Affordable to be an entrepreneur Despite a decade long commitment to “cutting red tape”, complications in obtaining necessary permits and licenses, along with costs caused by delays, continue to be cited by small business owners and entrepreneurs. The city must commit to a transparent, predictable process that eliminates costly delays and creates a level playing field for all small businesses. 5. Be an Open, Tolerant and Inclusive City A city that is welcoming to outsiders, views diversity as a strength and is committed to creating and sustaining a civic culture of tolerance will have greater success in attracting and retaining young minds. 6. Be a Clean, Green and Safe City A city that values connected green spaces, insists on sustainable development and is clean and safe will have greater success in attracting and keeping young, more mobile residents. 7. Civic Engagement Citizenship enjoys both rights and responsibilities. Individuals are more likely to feel a sense of ownership of their civic domain and stay in place if a city encourages and welcomes their activism. 8. Support a Living Wage There is both a moral and economic imperative to supporting a living wage. It is never okay for people who work full time to not be able to afford decent housing and to put nutritious food on their table. |
| Ward 02 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Daljeet, Suresh Venodh | Yes | Yes, we absolutely need to attract a younger population. We have to keep our University and College grads here. The future depends on people coming to the area to build the future of the city. We need programs to encourage small business development and a qualified workforce to attract new businesses to Hamilton. Companies will come here if we have the talent they are looking for. We have to build to attract a younger population. Recreation, shopping, culture, food and improving and keeping our nature areas like trails, waterfalls and waterfront is key to attracting a younger population. Schools are also important, young families want a good school system if they will raise a family here. |
| Farr, Jason | Yes | Indeed. In ward 2, the philosophy is, "students welcome." As students, they have more spending power than ever before and that's great for the local economy. As grads, we must continue to make efforts to retain as many bright young minds as possible. We should continue to offer easy and efficiant support to start ups and grants and loans where applicable. Be inclusive with our approach to housing; offering a wide range of affordable options with new builds. Continue to maintain an environment that attracts the businesses that cater to this demographic. I have succeeded in working with city staff on objectives like providing for wider ranges of uses under commercial zoning, creating zoning for models like micro-brews and even Arcades and Escape Rooms. I have supported temporary zoning for start-ups and often supported reduced parking variances for new restaurants. Of course, I have always and will always continue to advocate for and produce results in safe and complete streets initiatives. Among the many good reasons for this is that it is clearly desired by young professionals.
In short, students and grads do wonders for the growing vitality of the core. We must support keeping Hamilton at the top of mind when it comes time for grads to make their roots. |
| Kroetsch, Cameron | Yes | Yes, Hamilton should be trying to attract and retain more young people. We should be engaging with young people, including during municipal elections, to make sure their priorities are incorporated in the decisions we make. We need representation from younger people on City Council and we need to find ways to break down the barriers that prevent them from happening (i.e. introducing term limits). We need to act, yesterday, on youth strategies across the City, empower young leaders, and focus on an inclusive approach to budgeting and decision-making. Simply put, we can’t continue to focus on how we have “always done things” and need to focus on what makes cities vibrant and attractive to all residents, including young people. If Hamilton is going to be the best place to raise a child then we have to let young families take root here. We also have to provide some incentives to those who want to stay here to work, which means improving transit so that they can get around the City and helping small- and medium-sized businesses to grow so that young people have places to work. Finally, the City needs to build a better public relationship with McMaster, Mohawk, and Redeemer - it’s not just the job of the Ward 1 City Councillor to foster these relationships. In my opinion, “town and gown” programs haven’t been effective at engaging with young people in this City and we need to rethink the way we do this engagement by asking young people, themselves, what works best for them. |
| Smith, Nicole | Yes | Young people are not our future but our present hope. We need to encourage them in every way, by providing affordable quality housing, a wide variety of job opportunities, and actively promoting the shift from co-working startups to opening new businesses in their own spaces, as opposed to entangling them in endless red tape. |
| Tennant, Mark | Yes | Keeping in mind where young urban professionals want to live and work, we need to engage their input. We can revitalize the downtown by providing a mixed-use development of culture, entertainment, with affordable public housing. New entrepreneur tax and rental incentives.. The motto; a healthy community equals a strong local economy includes a collective participation of local businesses, not for profits, community partners and residents. This would include the participation of local businesses in offering apprenticeships and paid student placements through the ministry of education. We can do so much more. I cannot be all things to all people so its is necessary to include the the participation of experts in the planning. |
| Ward 03 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Bureau, Alain | Yes | |
| Farr, Laura | Yes | We absolutely should be attracting more young people to live work and start businesses here, and continue the work done on the Blue Ribbon Task Force (https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=123600) in connecting the companies looking for good employees with the education sector and job seekers, while seeking out skills gaps in our workforce. The City has several small business programs (Starter Company, Access to Professionals), but given the interconnectedness of Hamilton we can make this much a much more robust network. |
| Kuruc, Ned | Yes | Yes, I believe Hamilton should be actively attracting more students to stay in the city. Hamilton will naturally attract these students through continuing community development. This includes taking further measures to ensure community safety, making housing accessible and to make key infrastructure investments that will increase everyone's quality of life. |
| Nann, Nrinder | Yes | Yes! We absolutely should be doing as much as possible to keep our young people - born or visiting - here in Hamilton.
Keeping and attracting more young people to Hamilton will take a number of initiatives on a number of fronts, but includes: * Improving our transit system - young people by and large don't own cars or homes and need to be able to criss cross the city efficiently. * Improving our pathy system of bike lanes so they allow for safe cycling across the city. * Improving our availability of affordable housing options, which can include looking at loans or grants for homeowners to create 2nd units. * I've already proposed that we look at creating an industrial campus in our north end that can bring together entrepreneurs, artists, light manufacturing and community organizations together under one roof. * Improving our availability of affordable office / studio / incubator spaces - The Forge and Kitchen Collective are two great examples and we need more. |
| Smith, Dan | Yes | Definitely. I am a graduate of McMaster and have chosen to stay in the city. I would like to work at mentoring young graduates and help create opportunities for them in Hamilton. |
| Sprague, Kristeen | Yes | I think Hamilton should continue to attract young people, but we need to make sure that we have the resources in place for young people to thrive here. We need to put an emphasis on decent, good quality affordable housing so that current residents and young people (like those attending one of our postsecondary institutions) can live and thrive in our community. We need to make sure that that the city is on board with the $15 minimum wage and improvements to labour standards that are being threatened by Ford to set an example of our City's progressive and people-centered approach. Finally, we need to make sure that there are adequate mental health and recreational supports for any young people that may make their homes here. |
| Ward 04 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Merulla, Sam | Yes | We are already attracting young urban professionals; the vast majority of new East Hamilton residents are from the GTA which is as a result of the Red Hill Creek Expressway and the easy access to the GTA opening the City Of Hamilton for business and to be a great place to live work and play. |
| Ward 05 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Yes | ||
| Maldonado, Juanita | Yes | YES to young people living here. YES to young people working here. YES to young people starting small business here.
Hamilton has gained acclaim because of its transportation corridor; i.e. access by land, water, air and rail. As Hamilton moves forward to fully fund a healthy transit plan, young people, and students building a future, are a critical part of its success. |
| Ward 06 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Jackson, Tom | Yes | Yes we should be attracting more young people to live, work and start businesses here. We should continue to target both business retention along with new businesses to our City. Quality of Life is very important and our City has it!! But attracting good paying jobs with a decent availability to esthetically pleasing housing either rental or ownership is necessary too. |
| Taylor, Timothy | Yes | I believe Hamilton is already trying to attract young people to live work and do business in the city. I also believe we should continue to do so. Hamilton could reduce red tape for new business owners, and make city services more accessible. Hamilton could protect neighbourhood schools to encourage families to fill communities, rather than building large K8 schools and bussing kids around. We could ensure the promised GO Train service actually comes to Hamilton in a reasonable timeframe to encourage commuters to live here. There is a myriad of things we could do, and even more that we already do to encourage people to move and live here. |
| Ward 07 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Benson, Steve | Maybe | At first glance, the answer should be yes. But in Hamilton there are much larger issues to be dealt with that are limiting the growth of the city. Small business is the backbone of every city, but we seem to manage to stifle its growth.
Currently the Small Business Economic Development Office answered close to 100,000 inquiries last year of eager entrepreneurs. However, even though the Development Office offers incredible support and resources, less than 1% of these enquiries ever result in success. WHY? It seems that the system is designed for entrepreneurs to fail from the get go. For most entrepreneurs, the prohibitive fees for permits and rezoning are far too steep and their dreams of opening a small business are squashed. Or in some cases zoning has been approved by one zoning officer only to be denied by another. At present, there are more than 40 different zone distinctions, each with their own set of rules: The process is too lengthy, extremely expensive, and the fundamental reason why it is so difficult for individuals to do business in Hamilton. The result is a frustrating experience that many just give up on. So yes, offering opportunities to 60,000+ former students certainly seems like a good idea to help grow the economy. However, unless something drastically changes at City Hall, it’s easy to see that it’s difficult to do business in Hamilton. |
| Kazubek, Joseph | Yes | We should always be focused on expanding and trying to attract more people and businesses in general, with new residents and businesses coming to the city, we will bring in more tax revenue aswell as small businesses will have more opportunities for prosperity, but with this being said, I believe that we should equally look at increasing residents and not focused on one set age group. |
| MacIntyre, Dan | Yes | One of the planks of my platform is youth engagement and in that plank we emphasize the need to anchor our young talent here in Hamilton. Speaking strictly from my perspective as an alumni of McMaster University, the city and the school have failed for decades to fully integrate students into our communities beyond the McMaster bubble in Westdale. In recent years, we can see evidence that McMaster has begun to recognize the value of introducing students to the rest of the city. As Hamilton continues to develop culturally the younger generation will find a home in the city but we need to ensure there are quality, high paying jobs in the city to keep new graduates here. Overall though, we fail to capitalize on the human capital that flows into Hamilton for three-five years during the post secondary experience that will serve as one of the most important chapters in these student’s lives. I’d like for that chapter to be the beginning of their life in Hamilton rather than their lone experience in our city. |
| McMullen, Geraldine | Yes | Hamilton has a plan to attract and retain our young people here in the city. In many of our large employer areas, this effort is already in motion. We certainly have the skill to retain our own citizens and train them well; however, we need to enhance our efforts to attract young people effectively.
The international student populations at post-secondary institutions in Hamilton is also thriving. There are plans in place to increase this student population for years to come. These institutions are thriving as a result, and the global experience is transferred back and forth from international to domestic students, and back again. In order for Hamilton to compete for this next generation and also keep our own people, we must do more to keep our stock of affordable housing. Hamilton is a great city, and we are attracting more and more people because of our vigorous arts and culture scene, it is this type of thing that makes Hamilton so attractive to young people and makes them want to stay. |
| Pauls, Esther | Yes | Absolutely, Hamilton should be focusing efforts on attracting new cutting edge technology through research. Working with educational and health organizations in our community will help us achieve this.
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| Ward 08 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Danko, John-Paul | Yes | Millennials recently overtook baby-boomers as the largest population demographic in Hamilton - so clearly it is critical for the future success of Hamilton to make sure that we build a city that provides a lifestyle this demographic is looking for - along with opportunities for quality jobs, business development, affordable housing and a thriving arts and culture scene. One of the biggest assets we have as a City is our pool of motivated, educated students at Mohawk, McMaster & Redeemer. We have to remember that as a city we are not just competing with the GTHA and Kitchener Waterloo for talent, we are competing with cities across Canada and the world. |
| Wicken, Colleen | Yes | Yes. The City of Hamilton should be engaging these students from the day they enter the schools to engage them in the advantages of having a business in Hamilton. The key is the city partnering with these schools to develop the thought leadership of starting a business here |
| Ward 10 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Beattie, Jeff | Yes | Attracting youth is one thing - retaining them is another. We need a better city-wide focus on youth issues and engagement. We need to understand what the obstacles are to keeping young people in Hamilton. I believe that a lack of jobs, affordable housing, transit, and barriers to small business creation, are among them. We need a better plan to address these issues and keep young people here. |
| Ward 12 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Marley, Kevin | Yes | Absolutely, this city offers amazing opportunities for businesses however it is up to the local government to facilitate this. We need to be more transparent in how people can start and grow their business and this includes other areas of bureaucracy such as zoning by-laws and transportation access to different areas throughout Hamilton. |
| Scime, John | Yes | We need attract well balanced industries into the city without stigmas. When these opportunities are available, we lessen the probability for people to move and work/live elsewhere. As a resident of Hamilton my whole life, and a brief move to Ottawa and back, there is a stark difference in the culture of both cities. We need to encourage the development of our people and provide the culture and amenities to never leave. We do this by providing affordable housing, vast areas of cultural venues, and move our people safely around the corners of our city. Ultimately the decisions we make as a municipality should be in the best interest of retaining our residents. |
| Ward 13 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Gelder, Rich | Yes | Hamilton should most assuredly be attempting to attract young people to the city. Although the city can't really affect the programming at places like McMaster, Mohawk and Redeemer, which is outstanding, we can still prioritize affordable, dense housing and high order transit for young people, more of whom are eschewing private car ownership. This means LRT. This means the BLAST network. This means a return to the Ten-Year Transit Plan. |
| Mitchell, Pamela | N/A | Declined to answer |
| Vanderbeek, Arlene | Yes | Yes, young people are the future of this City. Focusing on transit, infrastructure and affordable housing must be a priority of Council. |
| Ward 14 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Iszkula, Robert | Yes | Hamilton creates high quality graduates from our world class post secondary institutions. We can no longer afford the local "brain drain" caused when these young people move away when the city does not offer what they need. We must begin to acknowledge that today's youth have different needs than those of us who graduated in past decades. I will work for what youth want: better transit, high quality jobs, compact urban living, car-lite lifestyles, etc. so that those who chose to learn here are more likely to decide to build their careers and families here. |
| Whitehead, Terry | Yes | Yes. We have to ensure that our educational system is graduating students that align with the current and future needs for employers in the city of Hamilton. There are many examples of well qualified people graduating out of our educational institutions today that are not finding jobs aligned with their education. |
| Wilson, Bryan | 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. |
| Ward 15 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| McKechnie, Susan | Yes | Absolutely. This population represents the future and the city should develop aggressive strategies to keep the talent here. Just look to examples of critically successful University and College towns in Canada and the United States. Look at Pittsburgh – similar in its history to Hamilton, and similar in educational structure, with Carnegie Mellon located at its doorstep. Pittsburgh is now contending with Silicon Valley and capitalizing on that great scientific talent pool. It is becoming the Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Vehicle hub of North America. Entire neighbourhoods are equipped with self-driving vehicles – all a function of careful and close cooperation between the city and its spectacular schools. Hamilton could look to these examples for inspiration. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 48 | 90.6% |
| No | 0 | 0.0% |
| Maybe | 1 | 1.9% |
