Internal city emails reveal tension over response to Hamilton tenants who went 12 weeks without water

CBC Hamilton is investigating the living conditions that tenants face and what responsibility the city has to uphold property standards. This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Part 1 can be found here and Part 3 will run next week.

When Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath turned on the local six o'clock news in late December, she says she was shocked and outraged by what she saw.

Tenants at a downtown apartment building had been without running water for two days after pipes froze and burst. The landlord had yet to make any repairs.

Within minutes of the CHCH news segment airing, the mayor sent an email to top staff, including city manager Janette Smith who oversees all divisions. 

"This is unacceptable … a black eye for the city," the mayor wrote Dec. 30. "We look terrible and uncaring here…are we? I am not." 

Despite the new mayor urging swift action, and Smith acknowledging in a subsequent email it was an "untenable situation," the water shutdown at 1083 Main St. E. dragged on well beyond a couple of days.

It lasted nearly three months. 

CBC Hamilton obtained the mayor's email, and dozens of others sent by senior staff and elected officials this winter, through a freedom of information request (FOI), to uncover how tenants could be left without a vital service for so long. 

The records reveal Hamilton's response was hindered by delays, red tape and actions questioned by council members — from a building inspection done without the inspector entering the building to the city relying on what one councillor called a "Mickey Mouse" report prepared by an unregistered plumber and delays caused by staff on holidays and city hall weddings.

"We have all the ability in the world to make sure people have access to their basic services," Horwath said in an interview with CBC Hamilton last week. 

"And the fact that was not taken seriously and it went through all kinds of processes and procedures that didn't actually solve the problem, it was extremely frustrating. I'm outraged with the city's response." 

From Dec. 28 to March 24, nine tenants relied on a few 22-L bags of water delivered by the city every other day, limiting their showers, toilet flushes, cleaning and cooking. Nearly all live with disabilities and receive social assistance. 

The city spent $22,000 on the water and, following legal advice, has decided not to try to recover this cost from the landlord, it said in a statement.

Tenant David Galvin said in an interview that landlord Dylan Suitor's handling of the situation wasn't surprising.