Horwath: Hamilton has moved beyond potential and into momentum

Mayor tells business leaders at annual breakfast that city is “in its moment” as she touts housing, downtown revival, infrastructure spending, and a renewed confidence in Hamilton’s future.

Hamilton is no longer a city of potential, but rather a city reaching it, Mayor Andrea Horwath told more than 500 city business people and leaders at a sold-out mayor’s breakfast on Tuesday. 

“There's a shift underway, a shift in our collective confidence, perhaps, where we used to be comfortable describing ourselves as a city with potential, an ambitious city, if you will. We're now a city on the move, a city with momentum,” she said at the event hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce at Liuna Station.

Horwath urged her audience to share what is happening in the city with those inside and outside its borders.

“Because how we talk about this city shapes what it becomes. Hamilton is no longer a place defined by what it was or what it could be. It's a place increasingly defined by what it is doing and where it is going. And every one of you in this room has the power to amplify that, to be ambassadors for the city, to make sure the story being told about Hamilton finally matches the reality we're building together. Because Hamilton is no longer a city waiting for its moment. We are in it.”

The city was hit hard by the pandemic, she said, and it has long been held back by opinions, both from within and without.

“Make no mistake, that old attitude and reputation is hard to shake: A place where things move too slowly, where projects stalled out, where progress felt harder than it should have. A city that time forgot, I sometimes say. Over time that kind of seeps in. It shapes how others see you, how you see yourself, and for our city, it became kind of like a quiet constraint, a constraint on what we expected of ourselves, a constraint on our dreams, indeed a constraint on our very ambition,” the mayor said.

When she took office in November 2022, Horwath says she focused on modernizing city operations, building partnerships, working with other levels of government, and saying yes to progress. 

Horwath highlighted industrial and infrastructure investments at the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority (HOPA), and continuing upgrades to passenger and cargo services at Hamilton International Airport, along with the economic impact of the city’s post-secondary institutions and healthcare facilities. 

She also talked about arts and culture in the city, including music, live theatre, visual arts, and the thriving food scene. The newly approved 10-year downtown revitalization strategy will bring focus, coordination, and action to moving the core forward, said Horwath. There has been a renewed attention to safety, cleanliness, and maintenance over the last several years and that is paying off. 

“Downtown is our beating heart, but it's also our front door. It's the economic and cultural engine of the entire city. And right now, there's a lot to be confident about, more than 40 events at TD Coliseum, bringing over 300,000 people through our downtown. The economic uplift is undeniable, and just wait till we get to the final JUNOS numbers. My understanding is that those numbers are going to blow our estimates right out of the water.”

Horwarth said growing confidence in the downtown “allows us to move forward with the kinds of investments that shape a city for generations. Yes, I'm talking LRT, a generational investment that will modernize our entire transit system and bring hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure renewal to our city. I know that for a long time, LRT and Hamilton felt like a whole lot of promise and not a lot of delivery. That's changing too, and you'll see that very, very soon.”

The city also faces a massive infrastructure deficit – evident in rough roads, watermain bursts, closed recreation centres – that has built up over many years.

“There's nothing acceptable about that, but catching up will not be easy. It didn't happen overnight, and it won't be fixed overnight. It will take time and about $5.3 billion but we started. We have started. Last year, we increased road repair investments by more than 50 per cent and that's continuing. We're building water systems, pipe by pipe, rebuilding them. You can see that happening right now on Main and on King,” she said. 

A devastating cyber attack in 2024 forced a rebuilding of city digital services that are “stronger, more modern, and better aligned with what our residents and businesses need and what they deserve.”

Horwath spoke at length about efforts to address homelessness and create more affordable housing. She said the municipality has expanded shelter capacity by nearly 80 per cent and opened the emergency shelter project of modular cabins on the Tiffany Barton land on Barton Street West.

This is a project that was heavily criticized for more than $5 million in cost overruns and staff mismanagement by Charles Brown, the City’s auditor general, in a report released in January. 

“I'm asking you to look at it differently to see the reality,” Horwath told her audience. “This is a successful innovation. Were there missteps? Yes. Some errors? Absolutely. But the results are real. Thirty-two people now have a future to look forward to,” she said, referring to the number of former residents of encampments who were housed at Tiffany Barton and are now in permanent housing. 

“It's a model responding to a very real and growing human crisis on our streets, a model that can be replicated and scaled, and many communities are coming to learn what we've done. It was worth the investment. It was worth the risk. Because without risk, without innovation and without investment, there is no progress.”

Horwath says a housing pilot project called All4One, developed through the City’s participation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative – Innovation Track Program, has created real results in the housing sector.

“For too long, developers have been chasing their applications across departments, never knowing whose desk it was on or who had the answers at the City. We flipped that now in this pilot, the City takes responsibility. All the right staff are at the table for one purpose, keeping the project moving forward. What used to take months or years now happens in weeks.”

Horwath said Hamilton’s $2.3 billion in construction value in 2025, was the second strongest in the city’s history and showed record levels of housing intensification. She said that came despite a scuffling construction sector and a collapsed condo market, affected by rising costs, higher interest rates, and economic uncertainty.

Through the City’s housing secretariat, which works alongside non-profit housing providers, the City of Hamilton has invested $40 million in 2025 to support more than 2,000 new, affordable and supportive homes. 

Horwath cautioned that momentum is fragile and a city that isn’t moving forward is actually sliding back. She urged Hamiltonians to not give into negativity and defeatism. 

“Right now we are competing, not just with our neighbours, but with cities around the world for talent, for investment, for opportunity. We spent the last few years getting this city unstuck. The work now is to keep it moving, and I know we can, because we're building something stronger than any one project or policy or industry. We're building a way of working, a way of partnering and collaborating, a way of believing in this city and in each other.” 

While her address was assertive and hopeful, it began on a sombre note when Horwath paid tribute to Nabil Askafe, a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed in Jackson Square on Friday.

“My thoughts are with his family, his friends, his classmates, and everyone who is grieving this unimaginable loss. There are no words that can make sense of something like this,” she said. A 14-year-old has turned himself in and has been charged with second-degree murder.

“I attended Nabil’s funeral to pay my respects and let his family know that their city, our city, mourns with them, and we stand with all those who are hurting.”

Horwath then asked the audience to join her in a moment of silence.