Today I want to spend some time celebrating local organizing wins in the Hamilton community. Two days ago, six ACORN Hamilton members—Stewart Klazinga, Damien Ash, Christine Neale, Arnim Hughes, Marnie Schurter and Liz Scott—alongside the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the Hamilton Community Benefits Network, the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction and the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic delegated to the public health committee and successfully called on the city of Hamilton to protect tenants in extreme heat.

ACORN launched their extreme-heat campaign in September 2022, and due to their advocacy, a motion passed unanimously at public health which states that the staff in the licensing and bylaw division should prepare an information report for 2023 identifying 2024 priorities and timelines for the development of a maximum-heat bylaw. I’m happy to share that this motion passed with unanimous support from the public health committee, and I look forward to seeing Hamilton be the first city in Ontario to implement a maximum heat bylaw, hopefully by 2024.