Opinion | Horwath vows to make budget process less rushed

Coun. Jeff Beattie was answering a question about city spending the other day when he pointed out that he’d been seeing headlines about other cities and regions around Ontario already beginning their 2026 budget process.

This, of course, led to an obvious query. If others can do it, why not Hamilton?

“It’s a valid question,” he says. “Why are we not having those same conversations now during the summer? Why do we wait until the very end and then suddenly there’s a rush to try to trim things down?”

It’s a particularly pertinent question since a number of councillors were quite vocal about their frustrations at the conclusion of the last process.