Ninth Annual General Meeting
Published: October 31, 2007
Our annual general meeting Sept. 18 at Dalewood Middle School was well attended, by over 200 residents. At the informal session in the lobby preceding the business meeting, Ward 1 Councillor Brian McHattie; Sergeant Tim O'Keefe, crime manager, Hamilton Police Service; Roger Trull, vice-president, university advancement; Jim Winn, Hamilton Fire Department; and Bill Young, manager of bylaw enforcement, were available to talk to residents individually.
They then repaired to the auditorium to give short reports and answer questions. Mr. McHattie commented that this was the fifth AGM he had attended, and he is pleased with the improved response from police and bylaw to our concerns and with the Student Community Support Network's outreach, going to student houses where there have been problems. In response to a question about problems with garbage pickup, he said that in April the collection date will be moved from Monday to Wednesday so that students will not have to put out their garbage before the weekend if they will not be back by 7 a.m. on Monday.
Sgt. O'Keefe said that he was pleased with the co-operation from bylaw, both police and bylaw were using the zero-tolerance approach, and a significant number of charges were laid during frosh week.
Mr. Young agreed that bylaw is working well with the police. Improvements in his department include more proactive enforcement of bylaws, staff being scheduled to cover weekends, charges being laid against students, and fees for service being charged to the landlords for coming to their property; these fees are added to their taxes. In response to a question about illegal postering, he said that we should call the city so they can talk to the source; firms often hire students, who have no knowledge of the rules that apply to posters. In response to a question about parking on lawns, he said that the rules and processes differ according to where the car is parked. Parking problems on the road are dealt with by the parking department; bylaw can ticket cars on city property, including the road allowance; and property standards deals with cars parked on private property.
Mr. Winn said that inspectors have been issuing warnings and charges and letters have been sent to the landlords. Fire-safety inspections would be conducted soon of a sampling of houses on a voluntary basis. In response to a question, he said that during the recent fire at a student house on Bowman, there was $25,000 damage to the building and $10,000 to the contents, caused by a knocked-over candle; there was a working smoke alarm.
Outgoing president Rob Payne opened the formal part of the meeting and gave his report. He said this was his fourth year as president and that it had been a unique experience being the president of a neighbourhood association. He listed some of the co-operative accomplishments during his tenure that directly affect the well-being of our community: creation of the Town and Gown Association of Ontario and the Campus Town Association, Operation Hush, extra police patrols (Mac 91/92), the Churchill Park splash pad, the AWWCA bylaw and walkability committees, a website for the AWWCA, an increase in AWWCA membership, two new on-campus residences, the Community Accountability Program, McMaster's house-inspection program, and completion of the Ainslie Wood Westdale Secondary Plan.
He urged members of the audience to attend an upcoming city council meeting to support city staff's recommendation that an obscure and never-used truck-route bylaw be cancelled. McMaster's lawyers had dredged up this bylaw in June and wanted to use it to permit the university to continue to route heavy construction trucks along Forsyth Avenue to the Sterling Street entrance.
Rob's main topic was the 38 per cent increase in undergraduate enrolment at McMaster in the last five years and the harmful effects it is having on the surrounding community. What he had hoped to present at this AGM was that McMaster had capped enrolment at approximately 17,000 undergraduates until 2010 and that we had managed to stop further loss of family homes to student housing through enrolment limits, the development of purpose-built student housing, and improved public transit. However, there are 5,400 more undergraduates than in 2002, an average increase of 1,080 per year.
In 2003 and again in 2006 the university opened a new on-campus residence, and this September an off-campus, purpose-built residence was opened to accommodate 449 students. But we are not keeping up. Approximately 200 more houses have been converted to student rentals. At this rate of increase, what will our community look like by 2014 with 6,500 more students? McMaster's current planning process means that the university alone determines enrolment levels and therefore the future of this community. We have no plan from the university for a carrying capacity on the Westdale campus.
But we can help the university because we are a smart community. There should be no more than approximately 20 per cent transient renters for a near-campus community to retain family amenities while retaining the vitality of having students around. An undergraduate enrolment of 17,000 makes sense if we are to continue to attract families, students, faculty, and staff. Two more student residences need to be built to free up approximately 140 family houses for permanent residents. The city and the university need joint planning for issues that affect the surrounding residential community; Planning is haphazard now.
Our advantages are great communication structures and great assets in the community. But the impact of unplanned enrolment is at a critical juncture. We should work together with the city and university to attract and retain graduate students and employees of Innovation Park. But do we have a shared vision with the university?
McMaster is taking more than its share of demand for higher education. Enrolment would be only 17,000 if it was taking its share.
Janet Woodward, membership secretary, reported that she on Aug. 31 we had a record 534 paid-up members, including 19 Friends of the AWWCA, and the lowest number of overdue memberships on record--just 12.
Treasurer Loreen Jerome reported that our total income and assets for the year ending Aug. 31 were $9,415, our total expenses were $4,237, and $3,000 had been transferred to an ING interest-bearing account.
Loreen, as nominations officer, read the names of candidates for each position on the board. As there was only one candidate for each position, they were acclaimed: Rob Payne, past president; John Wigle, president; Lisa Dodds, first vice-president; Ira Rosen, second vice-president; Loreen Jerome, treasurer; Carolyn Kinsley, corresponding secretary; Janet Woodward, membership secretary; Brian Coombes, Megan Coombes, Barb Mansfield, Michael Tan, and Lavinia Welsh, board members.
Incoming president John Wigle made presentations to outgoing board members Tracey Lindsay and Alice Sabourin. Tracey was AWWCA police liaison and took over as recording secretary when Dmitri Malakhov left Hamilton. Alice started (and still heads) the walkability committee and was our first vice-president. John also thanked Rob for getting lots done on his watch and noted that over 200 new members joined while Rob was president.
Dylan Aiello, a Westdale High School student, represented Hamilton West on the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform. He announced that the AWWCA would be holding a meeting of provincial candidates for the Oct. 10 election and that he would be making the case for mixed-member proportional representation on the referendum.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger, our guest speaker, was introduced by John Wigle. Mr. Eisenberger had given a State of the City address in the morning and mentioned some of the highlights. Then he moved to his topic for the evening, Achieving Town and Gown Balance in Ainslie Wood and Westdale. Elsewhere in the city there is envy of Westdale, but the students are a mixed blessing. The city has been involved in the development of the new student residence on Main Street West, and there is another proposal for one on Ewen Road. We are not keeping up, however, as pointed out by Rob.
Mr. Eisenberger mentioned that a master plan will be developed for Churchill Park starting in 2008. He also praised police and bylaw for working together effectively on enforcement and mentioned a meeting involving the city, police, and community to acknowledge good students.
He said that we must maintain a sense of resolve and recommended a consensus conference to mediate outstanding issues, such as truck traffic, between the university and the community. A consensus conference is a bit like a jury of people who are not involved with the issues and have no personal stake in them. They listen while the competing interests give their presentations; then this "jury" makes recommendations. We must always look for a path to resolution, as these issues are not going to disappear and he does not have a complete solution to the density problem.
Roger Trull requested time to respond to the enrolment issue. McMaster has grown 50 per cent in the past 10 years. It is in the middle of the pack in the province. The university has taken steps to minimize the impact with two new residences. The downtown centre has approximately 250 full-time employees who do not have to come to campus, and 3,000 students use that centre. The new GO bus terminal on campus uses the Cootes Drive entrance. That is 120 buses that no longer are on Sterling Street. The Burlington campus will also take some of the load.
World-class people are attracted to McMaster partly because of this growth. Large donations have been made that will change health care in this community. It is one of only four Canadian universities among the top 100 in the world, according to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking.
Every qualified student in Ontario has the right top a postsecondary education, although the province is not funding that. The new provost has put the future size of McMaster as her top priority. Mr. Trull welcomed the mayor's suggestion of a consensus conference and said the university is committed to discussing the issue of size.
In his brief Ward 1 councillor's report, Mr. McHattie emphasized the good relations we have here and welcomed the mayor's suggestion of a consensus conference. Licencing houses is being looked into; city staff are using Oshawa's bylaw as a model. Mr. McHattie said that we should take home the theme of the night--enrolment and carrying capacity. Due to his background in eco-planning, he knows that size is critical. There are limits to growth.
Author: Carolyn Kinsley