Sentiment but no cigar!

The motion; Whereas the Caterpillar Corporation has breached the Investment Canada Act, and has been subsidized by Canadian taxpayers who have been betrayed by the closure of its Caterpillar Plant in London, Ontario, be it resolved, the City of Hamilton review its policy related to any business relationship with the Caterpillar Corporation and boycott Caterpillar and encourage all Hamilton, Ontario and Canadian businesses from doing business with the Caterpillar Corporation. Pretty clear right? Not so much. The issue of course the Caterpillar pullout from London. The sympathy for the workers who have now lost their jobs was palpable. The sentiment is to naturally support those workers and that was expressed by the majority of those who spoke at Hamilton City Council this evening. But. And there's always a but the motion failed 10 to 4 with Councillor Lloyd Ferguson not involved due to a conflict of interest. Voting for a boycott were Duvall, Collins, Merulla the author and McHattie. Why didn't this go through? Several councillors believe that if a boycott were put in place companies who have relationships with Caterpillar would then be hurt with job losses resulting, companies like Toromont who had appeared before the General Issues Committee. Some felt like Councillor Brad Clark that this was not a municipalities purview, that although pressure should be applied and concerns expressed to higher levels of  government cities are not in the business of worrying about the Investment Canada Act. Others thought if the motion had used the word condemned instead of boycott they could have supported. In the end this long and sometimes tedious debate almost erupted into open warfare when on a second go round mover Merulla tried to imply that Councillor Clark a former Provincial Conservative Cabinet Minister and former federal conservative candidate somehow in the same sentence was related to robocalls in Hamilton East and Stoney Creek in the last federal election. Like where was that going? The Mayor stepped in to caution Merulla at that point and then finally after some byplay ruled Merulla out of order who then suggested an amendment or was it a new motion, or was it an amendment to an amendment to a new motion, who knew? We were all looking at each other as Merulla continued to chirp and the Mayor appeared to be ready to blow. Finally the Mayor ruled everyone knew the intent so lets get on with the vote which failed.
In other news, baseball as far as Pan Am baseball or softball is concerned is dead. A recommendation to refer to the GM of Public Works for a report to the GIC on any interest the city of Hamilton might have was lost on a tie vote. The Mayor who received through his office the request for expressions of interest pleaded with councillors to at least gather information from staff to see if this request made sense for Hamilton to even consider. Leading the charge against was Ward 1 Councillor Brian McHattie who said he had no stomach to revisit any Pan American games initiatives based on how Hamilton he felt had been treated in the past regarding the stadium debate and the Velodrome. Voting against gathering any information at all were McHattie, Merulla, Morelli, Collins, Clark, Pearson, Johnson and Partridge. The Mayor asked the clerk plaintively do ties mean a loss? "Yes". The correspondence was received. Good bye.
In brief the expanding where you can't smoke bylaw has been put off for further study and input until October. A motion to appoint Farr and McHattie to a special committee comprised of city and Hamilton Wentworth District School Board trustees and support staff was passed unanimously. They should report back within a month re potential sites that will keep the school board downtown. And finally a little kfuffle near the end when a motion to forward some monies to Opera Hamilton enabling them to sign a significant guest performer in the fall raised a few alarm bells since Opera Hamilton has had some fiscal problems in the past. In the end the motion to make sure they were forwarded monies to sign the deal even though the 2012 budget has not been passed and won't be until March 28th was passed with two dissenting voices, Whitehead and Jackson. Good night.