Ward 4 (East Hamilton) Councillor Tammy Hwang faced scrutiny from all four of the other candidates during the ward’s Cable 14 debate, which focused on residency, property taxes, and data centres.
The debate included Hwang, former City Councillor Jason Farr, Jemma Lambert, Tony Mamone and Tobin Tuff.
Candidate Todd Anderson was the only one who was not in attendance.
The Hamilton Independent’s previous coverage of the Ward 4 race can be found here.
“This is the most critical election in our city’s history,” Farr said in his opening remarks.
He argued that during the past four years, incumbent Hwang and a majority of council “taxed and spent our money as if there was no affordability crisis at all.”
“We need to stop this recklessness and return to pragmatic management,” he continued.
Mamone agreed, adding, “The City of Hamilton does not have a revenue problem. They have a gross, reckless spending problem.”
Farr also pointed to the tax burden residents have carried under the current Council.
He argued, “we can’t just keep relying on the residential taxpayers,” and said that new investment, like the downtown construction during his time representing Ward 2, is how the city grows its tax base.
Hwang countered that keeping taxes low would only make the infrastructure backlog worse.
“We cannot afford to go backwards with artificially suppressed tax rates while leaving behind the massive $5.2-billion infrastructure deficit,” she said in her closing.
Tuff blamed earlier councils. “Tax rates have been kept artificially low over time because they deferred critical work,” he said.
Farr’s sharpest exchange with Hwang was about where she lives. “We need a Councillor who is present in Ward 4,” he said.
“Now more than ever we could use a hyper local councillor who knows his way around City Hall.”
He told the incumbent that presence is the issue he hears about most while canvassing.
Hwang said she was unsure why residents would feel that way, describing a heavy schedule: “I attend over 300 community meetings and events. I host quarterly town halls.”
She added, “I literally spend 80 hours a week working for the ward.”
When Farr pressed her on whether she lives in a house on the Mountain, Hwang confirmed that, after marrying, she and her husband chose to live closer to his work.
However, she added that her commitment to Ward 4 “has never wavered.”
Mamone backed up Farr’s point about access.
“I believe that myself and Tobin are the only ones that actually live in Ward 4,” Mamone said, telling Hwang he had called her office almost a year ago about a four-way stop and had not heard back.
Farr and Lambert live in East Hamilton but not directly in the ward.
On the proposed data centre moratorium, Farr accused Hwang of reversing her position.
“Every city across Ontario and Canada seems to be working with these pauses now,” he said.
He described a councillor who voted in favour one week and then “completely flip flopped along with a few others” at ratification.
Hwang defended her vote. She said she opposes large hyperscale facilities but supports smaller, environmentally friendly data centres, arguing that “having a moratorium would have absolutely killed the economic benefit of that kind of good data centre that is there to support medical research and climate modelling.”
Near the end of the debate, Lambert called for reducing police budgets to fund other services, saying, “security doesn’t equal safety.”
Mamone retorted, “I think all the criminals and the people committing the crimes would agree with you.”
Farr shared, “All I hear is we need more cops.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
