City Council Audit, Finance and Administration Committee Meeting

The Audit, Finance and Administration Committee heard delegations and staff discussion on Ontario Works payment methods, including prepaid cards and the Pay Direct program under Directive 3.7. The committee also dealt with privacy incident reporting, utility billing transition issues, the 2023 audited financial statements, a fire staffing report, and several administrative items.

Topics Discussed

1. ONTARIO WORKS PAYMENTS: Prepaid cards and Pay Direct

Delegate Michelle McDonald questioned oversight of prepaid payment cards for Ontario Works recipients, asking: "How does the city ensure that the recipients remain eligible and continue to meet residency requirements if benefits can potentially be accessed anywhere in the world?" She also said, "My concern is whether sufficient controls exist to protect public funds and maintain confidence in the integrity of the program."

A separate delegation from Rosemarie Small Business Ownership Landlords of Ontario argued the city should make fuller use of Directive 3.7 / Pay Direct, which allows Ontario Works administrators to send part of a recipient's assistance directly to a landlord or utility provider. She said: "If you want people housed, we need your help to prevent this from happening. So you have the legislation, please help." She also said, "When a landlord confirms that eviction proceedings are being initiated because of non-payment of rent, the city is expected to immediately establish a pay direct arrangement to prevent housing destabilization."

Staff later said the city already has more than 1,100 clients on Pay Direct. Grace Mater, General Manager, said: "we in fact do pay direct are over 1100 clients that are are being administered through pay direct we can take the information and the comments that were raised today and we can bring that back at a future date for a more wholesome breakdown."

2. COMMITTEE ROUTING: Where Ontario Works delegations should go

Councillor Alex Wilson questioned whether Ontario Works delegations should be heard at Audit, Finance and Administration when operational staff are usually before Emergency and Community Services. He said: "My suggestion would be of direction. It's required that just so that our OW staff can be in the room as a matter of course when these delegations happen." He added that Emergency and Community Services staff deal with Ontario Works "with the exception of any ongoing audits."

Councillor Brad Clark defended hearing the delegates at audit committee, saying: "The three delegates indicated that they wish to delegate respecting the Ontario Works Value for money audit. This is the audit and finance committee. So it makes sense that they be here." The committee heard that delegate input would be considered as audit fieldwork continued.

3. PRIVACY REPORTING: Annual public reporting on incidents

Committee members discussed how privacy incidents are tracked and reported. Staff said the privacy office handled 57 privacy incidents in 2025. Councillor Brad Clark said council should receive more formal reporting, stating: "I feel uncomfortable with it being an internal process. And so if you're saying that there have been 57 privacy incidents, then I would think as a governor that I would want to have an annual report of the number of privacy incidents, how each one what it was, how what did we do?"

The committee approved a direction to include privacy incidents in the city's annual Freedom of Information report.

4. WATER/WASTEWATER BILLING TRANSITION: Relief extension and customer issues

The committee discussed the transition to the city's new water and wastewater billing system and approved an extension of penalty and interest relief. Clayton Pereira, director of revenue services, said: "This report seeks council approval to extend the temporary waiver of penalty and interest charges on Hamilton Utilities billing accounts from June 30th to September 30th, 2026 with regular penalty and interest charges resuming on October the 1st."

Councillors raised questions about billing changes and customer confusion. Councillor Maureen Wilson said: "The comments my office has been getting we getting a lot of calls and concerns when I'm in the community and it seems to be around the fact that the way the metered recording through the previous vendor that was providing it is different than what it is now and people are having a hard time understanding the difference."

Councillor Brad Clark asked about restoring an averaged billing option, saying: "I'm trying to understand when Electro was doing the water billing, they provided um some type of program where they averaged the cost of water and then there was an average bill so that customers weren't surprised with a giant increase in their water."

Staff also said delayed billing was not pushing customers into higher usage tiers. A director told the committee: "the system is smart enough to realize that um it prorates the consumption based on the number of days."

5. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND FIRE STAFFING

Staff and the external auditor presented the 2023 City of Hamilton Financial Report and Audited Financial Statements. Councillor Rob Cooper said: "So So just uh for the public's knowledge, what this means is we're going into an election with no 24 or 25 financial statements that's going to be publicly available to either counselors or to the public."

The auditor said the city could still receive a clean opinion despite uncorrected items below materiality: "three uncorrected misstatements totaling 11.1 million. To put that in perspective our audit misstatement posting threshold is 3 million... our materiality for the audit is 60 million. So well below the materiality. So we're able to still issue a clean opinion with those uncorrected misstatements."

The committee also discussed Hamilton Fire Department overtime and absenteeism. Dave Klo said: "since 2023 we have started to see... overtime variances that are not funded have started to grow," and that on average the department has eight absences every day tied to long-term issues such as WSIB claims, long-term disability, parental leave, and early safe return.

The fire chief said: "We're at a point now where we cannot sustain the delivery of service without this. So to your to your question, we're here today asking for this because we need we need staff immediately. We can't wait." He added: "This is not a result of underfunding. This is a result of the challenges that you're experiencing with overtime, dealing with long-term disability, WSIB, parental leave, etc."

Motions

Passed: - Item 7.1 - Privacy incidents in annual FOI report - Item 8.1 / PED 26010 - Local Consignment Merchandise Program - FCS21082M - Extension of penalty and interest relief on water and wastewater bills - FCS26036 - 2023 City of Hamilton Financial Report and Audited Financial Statements - Hamilton Fire Department staffing increase / hiring 32 firefighters - W 12 2026 - Ward 12 community grant dispensation - FS26058 - Commercial relationship between the City of Hamilton and Centerpoint Construction Inc.

Deferred: - Item 8.5 - Governance Review Subcommittee minutes / flag and sign policy matter

Attendees

Councillors identified in the meeting notes as present: - Tom Jackson - Mark Tadeson - Esther Pauls - Rob Cooper - Alex Wilson - Jeff Beattie - Mike Spadafora - Cameron Kroetsch - Ted McMeekin - Brad Clark - Craig Cassar - Tammy Hwang - Maureen Wilson - Matt Francis - Nrinder Nann