What's Happening

City Manager's Breakfast: A Bright Future for Hamilton

On October 22nd, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual address from the Hamilton City Manager Chris Murray in front of a sold-out venue at the Hamilton Waterfront Centre. Chris is the highest ranking government staff member in charge of implementing a variety of government services and planning initiatives of the city. His speech highlighted emerging economic trends and, more importantly, the tremendous progress the city has made statistically and from the perspective of many external publications.

The chamber was pleased to hear statistics that point towards economic recovery for the city, as it claims one of the lowest unemployment rates and the highest economic diversity index for comparable municipalities in Canada. These figures are supplemented by a significant upsurge in commercial construction that has led to several major projects in the downtown core and an all-time low overall vacancy rate of 1.3%.

Chris also informed the crowd on some of the major challenges facing the city over the next ten years. The largest is a deferred maintenance cache for infrastructure that requires over $200 Million a year in investment to stabilize. This is in parallel with a community demand for lower tax increases and a suboptimal ratio of tax revenue (Only 23% of revenue to the city is the more lucrative commercial based, the rest being residential); as well as an aging population and associated health care costs.

An interesting conclusion of this speech was also recognition of community initiatives in the future of Hamilton with special mention to Young Professionals and Hamilton Hive for their initiatives and events. 

The event concluded with a series of questions from the Chamber CEO and audience on topics like Complete Streets and Brownfield remediation.   

Forum Highlights Advances in Local Urban Renewal

The Chamber, through its Renew Hamilton Project, continues to advocate for inspired urban environments needed to attract and retain talent and investment. Last week's Renew Hamilton Learning Forum, held in a tent beside the iconic Lister Building in downtown Hamilton, supported this work by highlighting the accomplishments of more than two dozen organizations engaged in the regeneration of downtown Hamilton and adjacent neighbourhoods. The event included a keynote address by local entrepreneur Martinus Geleynse that cited quality of life, transportation, a successful economy and human interaction as the essential ingredients of modern day city building. Another speaker, Annette Paiement (left), head of the AGH BMO World Film Festival, added arts and culture to the recipe. The event also included an announcement by the Hi-Rise Group of a major mixed-use building coming to the core.

"Our Chamber understands the direct link between a healthy downtown and a strong citywide economy," said Chamber CEO Keanin Loomis. "That's why we're keen to recognize and support the many companies and organizations driving urban renewal in our community."  We thank our forum sponsors - the City of Hamilton, LIUNA, Hamilton/Burlington Society of Architects and the Ontario Association of Architects - for making this community event possible.  CLICK HERE to learn more.

LiFT Seminar Series Presents: Employment Value Propositions

The key to personal health and wellness is setting expectations that can be realistically met given your present state in life. That was the key message

communicated by Tanya Fraser, owner of Total Balanced Health and Earthbound Market and Matthew Green, President and owner of Freestyle Fitness at the latest YEP Roundtable event at Radius Café.

Once a person has a goal set, the next step is to look at how to achieve it. That does not necessarily mean buying a gym membership or enlisting a personal trainer. One method advocated by Green is to set a personal schedule with all your day's tasks and unapologetically stick to it.

Green cited the example of Stephen Covey's Urgent/Important time management matrix and using the matrix to prioritize your tasks. This allows you time to achieve your goals while reducing stress and get an adequate amount of sleep, two parts of a healthy lifestyle that young professionals often neglect. Stress is a significant threat to a person's health and well-being as over an extended period of time it can cause a person's body to store more fat while also leading to depression.

Fraser said that the other component to staying healthy is eating well. For the busy professional willing to make an effort and do some comparison shopping, this is not difficult. She advocates avoiding processed and package foods and eating organic food whenever possible. For most people, just eating organic meat products can help make a noticeable difference in their diet. Fraser also recommends concentrating organic versions of the fruits and vegetables found on the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php).

Most important of all, Fraser and Green say that one needs to celebrate the small victories and not dwell on the failures as this is what keeps people motivated toward achieving better overall health and wellness.

- John Guise, Freelance Writer/Editor

To view past HR Committee Presentations CLICK HERE.