By Ray Rivers
June 30th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a meeting that never needed to be called. A team of Hamilton traffic civil servants came to deliver a lecture to more than a hundred Carlisle local residents assembled last Thursday evening in Carlisle arena. Apparently somebody had to talk-down those noisy locals objecting to a traffic light being rammed down their throats. At best, it was a top-down consultation after the fact – at worst another example of why the amalgamated city of Hamilton was a bad idea.
All-way stop sign at Centre and Carlisle Roads
City officials claimed that traffic at the village’s existing four way stop was something like 480 cars per hour – which might have made it eligible for a stop light had it been a city intersection in Toronto. That sent the 100 plus local folks attending the meeting into a fit of laughter. Someone in the crowd suggested that number might be over a week, not an hour. Carlisle, with a population numbering fewer than 2000, is a small quaint place which has mercifully been mostly saved from the kind of urban sprawl we see elsewhere in Hamilton.
Ted McMeekin: Hamilton City Councillor for the Carlisle community.
The people were clear – they don’t want this solution to a problem which doesn’t exist. After it became painfully clear that the bureaucrats weren’t listening, let alone getting the message, Ted McMeekin, the local Councillor commandeered the microphone. He then invited comments and about 20 or so people politely explained how the stop light would ruin their peaceful village. They wanted to keep the status quo and rejected the City staff’s stop light pet project.
McMeekin’s introductory comments bemoaned that the city faces a $5 billion dollar capital deficit and was planning an almost 9% tax increase planned for 2026. And yet property taxes in Hamilton continue to be significantly higher than those our neighbours pay. And, the price for this stop light project is tagged at over $400,000.
As the member of the local government responsible for that financial mess, you’d think McMeekin would be pleased to listen to the people, save taxpayers half a million dollars, cancel the ill-conceived stop light project, and take a victory bow. McMeekin, who had lived in Carlisle for a number of years, just needed to listen to his electors, and former neighbours, and say…. no.
A pot hole like this could cost you a hub cap.
But the councillor didn’t do that. Instead, he created just another local committee most likely intent on wearing down the locals until they’d accept the stop light. This whole stop light project has been a waste of time and money, and is symptomatic of what’s wrong with the government of this poorly conceived City of Hamilton. And, it’s not that there aren’t all kinds of much needed opportunities to spend that kind of tax payer money rather than somebody’s pet project.
Hamilton has the worst roads in Ontario, bar none. And, duh, it’s not that lonely intersection in Carlisle but all the pot holed roads surrounding the village that pose the greatest safety threat for residents. Some pot holes are so large enough they’d destroy a car’s suspension and blow its tires, forcing drivers to dangerously straddle the centre line to dodge them. I’d heard about a motorcyclist recently getting thrown off his bike when he inadvertently hit one of those mini-craters.
But city hall would rather spend staff time and our money installing just another unneeded stop light.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Highway Traffic guide – Carlisle Meeting – Worst Roads – Tax Competitiveness – Tax Spending – Frustrated Residents –
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