Before the Ballot - With Ward 4 Candidate and Incumbent Tammy Hwang

Welcome to this instalment of Before the Ballot featuring Ward 4 Candidate and Incumbent Tammy Hwang. 

Looking back on your current term, what accomplishments are you most proud of in your ward ? Please elaborate.

Four years may sound like a long time, but creating real, lasting change in a city of more than 560,000 residents takes patience and persistence.

This term we faced some unprecedented hurdles, including a major municipal cybersecurity incident and significant staff turnover. My office had to invest our time and resources into bringing new staff up to speed, rebuilding momentum and making sure our neighborhood projects didn’t fall through the cracks.

Setbacks aside, I’m incredibly proud of how we’ve stayed the course.

We’ve rolled up our sleeves and built a solid foundation for several long-term initiatives that I’m excited to see through and move forward. Here are some highlights:

● Kenilworth Avenue: This has been one of my focus areas. Kenilworth is a commercial corridor with immense potential. We’ve successfully pushed for a new, modernized Community Improvement Plan and strategy to bring new investment to the street, while actively supporting the local independent businesses that already call Kenilworth home. 
● Environment quality: To get to the root cause of the black soot, air pollution and noise affecting the lower city, I moved several motions to empower Public Health to conduct direct data analysis so we have evidence-based answers for residents about our environment.
● LRT: It’s a major transit project that will transform our entire city and especially Ward 4. LRT brings long-term benefits, but I recognize construction will cause real disruption to neighbourhoods and businesses. That’s why I’ve been working closely with Economic Development to build an intentional support system and strategy to ensure our small businesses have a safety net and can thrive through the construction period. 
● Infrastructure: Tackling our infrastructure backlog takes time, but our persistence paid off. After three years of planning and coordination, major road resurfacing and neighborhood reconstruction projects in Ward 4 are officially hitting the ground this summer, and my office directly advocated with rail companies to secure much needed safety upgrades for the rail crossings in the north end of the ward.

More than any single vote or project, though, I’m most proud of the relationships we’ve built. Our office has worked hard to be accessible, transparent and present in the community. True community building isn’t a one-and-done job; it's a continuous partnership built on trust. We’ve built wonderful momentum over the last four years, and I hope Ward 4 residents re-elect me for a second term so we can finish the good work we’ve started together.

Looking back on your current term, what things do you wish had gone differently? Please elaborate.

This term has been a crash course in managing historic and unexpected challenges, from dealing with a major city-wide cyber incident to navigating the deeply emotional housing and homelessness crisis alongside unprecedented turnover in city staff. It has been a lot, putting a real strain on our city resources and colleagues. These aren’t just local hurdles, as they are part of a shifting landscape that cities right across Canada are grappling with. When they happen in our own backyard, they hit close to home, and I know they can really erode public trust in their local government. Looking back, there are definitely areas where I see opportunities for improvement and wish we could have handled things more smoothly from the start.

For instance, the cyber incident was an incredibly expensive and frustrating lesson for our city. While cyberattacks are an unfortunate reality for large organizations these days, historical underinvestment in our IT infrastructure left our systems vulnerable when we ideally should have had stronger digital defenses already in place. To recover, it was like (re-)building an airplane while it was already in the air, but the silver lining is that we’ve used this challenge to completely modernize our security and digital infrastructure so our city's data is safe for the long run.

The housing and encampment crisis has also been, without a doubt, the heaviest and most heartbreaking part of the job. There is a delicate and difficult balance between our responsibility to take care of our most vulnerable citizens and our fundamental duty to keep our neighborhoods feeling safe and secure for families, women, and children. While I see park encampments, over-capacity shelters, and individuals who are visibly homeless, I also hear the safety concerns of Ward 4 residents loud and clear. In my view, municipal governments should’ve received faster and more coordinated support from the provincial and federal levels right from the start of this crisis, so that our local streets didn't have to absorb so much of the immediate impacts.

Finally, to deliver the quality services that our community expects, you need the right people in leadership roles at City Hall. Significant staff turnover at the very top of key departments, including recent disruptive challenges in our planning and economic development teams, meant local projects frequently lost momentum. My office spent a great deal of time introducing ourselves to new colleagues, re-explaining neighborhood goals, and restarting files. While bringing in new leadership was necessary to get things back on track, constant change can be tough on our hard-working frontline city staff. Having organizational stability much sooner could’ve lifted up our internal champions and gotten neighborhood projects built faster.

We’re still far from the finish line, and there is plenty of hard work ahead of us before we can take a victory lap. However, I genuinely believe that we need to push through these tough times and build on our progress.

Residents across Hamilton continue to express concerns about affordability, infrastructure, and public safety. What specific priorities would define your next term if re-elected?

When I talk to our neighbors at their doorsteps or at different events, these three concerns come up more than anything else. Families and households are feeling stretched to the limit. Our streets and recreation facilities are showing their age. Everyone deserves to feel entirely safe in their own neighborhood. To tackle these challenges head-on, we need to look at the real numbers.

This term, we applied rigorous data analysis to our municipal assets, revealing that Hamilton faces a daunting $5.2 billion infrastructure deficit. That’s exactly why we’re dealing with constant watermain breaks and bumpy roads, among other challenges.

We’re managing a $2 billion municipal budget. My core priority for the next four years is simple: finding ways to modernize our city and protect public safety without placing the burden on the backs of property taxpayers.

If re-elected, my next term will be defined by three interconnected priorities:

● Boost taxpayer affordability through other revenue-generating opportunities: We cannot keep raising property taxes every time the city faces a bill; it’s just not sustainable for working families or seniors on fixed incomes. My focus is on finding ways to generate non-tax-based revenue. This means working closely with municipal partners to fiercely advocate for a modernized provincial funding framework, optimizing our existing city assets to generate their own returns and reviewing city services to ensure we are delivering more value with less waste.
● Making smart infrastructure investments: We cannot erase a $5.2 billion infrastructure gap overnight, but we can work through it strategically. I want to use our newly established asset management data to make evidence-based decisions – prioritizing critical neighborhood road resurfacing, replacing aging pipes before they break,and upgrading our parks so they are safe and accessible for kids to play.
● Address public safety through collaboration: True public safety means meeting the expectations of our community, and that requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. My priority is to foster deep collaboration between police services, all levels of government and frontline social service agencies to roll-out relevant solutions. By working together, we can actively deliver programs that reduce local crime while simultaneously addressing the complex social and mental health challenges we see and feel on our lower city streets.

Balancing the drive of a community builder with the discipline of a prudent fiscal governor, I’m incredibly optimistic that we can build a safer, more resilient and genuinely affordable Hamilton.

What distinguishes you from potential challengers seeking to represent your ward in this election? If your bid is presently unchallenged, summarize what skills you offer that defines you.

What truly sets me apart is a deep, 16-year track record of working for Hamilton from nearly every angle; as a local community builder, small business owner, a city staff member and now your city councillor.

I bring a unique combination of inside governance experience, entrepreneurial spirit and community connections to the table.

While I’m now completing my first four-year term on council, my roots in our local government run much deeper. Before being elected, I spent eight years working within city administration as a staffer, learning exactly how the gears of city hall turn. Prior to that, I spent four years in our innovation ecosystem helping small business owners and entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground while building small businesses on the side.

Over the past 16 years, I’ve built strong, collaborative relationships with key community partners, advocacy groups and all levels of government. Because I already know how the system functions and where the levers of change are, I can bypass the steep learning curve and continue to deliver results for Ward 4 and our neighborhoods. I combine a deep love for our community with the practical, hands-on knowledge required to make city hall work for you.

I have the energy, enthusiasm and most importantly – hard skills, connections and the passion – to keep pushing Hamilton forward, balanced with the care and transparency needed to continue building the trust you deserve from your elected representatives. This work is deliberate and painstaking, but it’s exactly what the residents of Ward 4 deserve – and I want to champion us at any opportunity I get.

If re-elected, what would success look like for your ward by the end of your next term?

Success to me isn't about a single ribbon-cutting ceremony or a big milestone plaque.

It's about seeing the tangible energy back on our streets and feeling a renewed sense of confidence when I talk to neighbours.

Having gone to McMaster University and co-founded small businesses right here in town, I always look at Hamilton through two lenses: the heart of a community builder and the practical mindset of an entrepreneur.

Four years from now, a huge part of success will be seeing our main streets truly thrive. We need the right systems in place to back our local shops. A critical piece of that is rolling out a dedicated, creative strategy to revitalize Kenilworth Avenue. Success will look like new independent businesses opening their doors, fresh investment breaking ground and plenty of foot traffic filling up our neighborhood storefronts.

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that big city-building projects like the LRT are going to bring some real construction headaches. To me, success on that front means navigating those disruptions with total honesty and transparency from city hall. I want our community to feel completely informed and respected, trusting that any short-term pain is being managed properly and thoughtfully to get us to that long-term gain. I want all of us to feel incredibly proud to live here, knowing that our daily decisions are actually making Hamilton the absolute “best place to raise a child and age successfully.” We have the momentum to get there, and I’m optimistic about what we can do together.

How can voters contact you or learn more about you, in the context of this election?

Residents and voters can access my website tammyhwang.ca for more information and can send me emails to hello@tammyhwang.ca

Website: tammyhwang.ca
Email: hello@tammyhwang.ca
Campaign Phone: 289-426-0788
Instagram: @tammyhwang
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/tammyhwang/

Thank-you Tammy for engaging with Hamiltonians on The Hamiltonian!