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September
2002 Newsletter
More
Delays for Expressway
The
City appears to be having great difficulty obtaining any
of the approvals and permits required to start construction
of the Red Hill Creek Expressway. In fact, there is no evidence
they have gotten any closer to their goal since unveiling
their plan last March to get all their ducks in a row by
this fall. You will recall they need to:
- obtain
a permit from the federal Fisheries department
- get
approvals from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment
to excavate the toxic Rennie dump
- finish
all the requirements of the 1997 exemption order including
such issues as air pollution, health impacts, stream re-location,
visual effects, noise, traffic, and impacts on vegetation
and wildlife
- obtain
approvals from the Niagara Escarpment Commission to cut
trees and for the escarpment crossing
- arrange
for the re-location of a major pipeline
- complete
at least eight months of work removing archaeological
artifacts
Most
of their attention has been focused on the last item, and
that has gone nowhere since representatives of the Iroquois
Confederacy forced a stop to all digging in April. A half-dozen
meetings have taken place since then between the City and
both the Confederacy and the Six Nations band council, but
no digging has occurred. Indeed, at this point, there is little
evidence the City has made progress on any of the tasks outlined
above.
This
has generated a new crisis at City Hall that erupted in
mid-August. You'll recall that last March the City handed
$258,000 to their lawyers to get all the permits. In early
August, less than five months later, the lawyers came back
empty handed and demanded another $334,000. Of course the
majority of council gave it to them. The lawyer that was
going to solve all their expressway problems for $75,000
to $100,000 has now fished over $3 million out of the pockets
of Hamilton taxpayers. This includes $2 million for the
court case to stop the federal assessment, $500,000 for
the appeal of that case, $258,000 last March and $334,000
in August.
We
don't know much about the most recent $334,000 handout,
Of course, there was no written report to Council and the
discussion about the spending was done "in camera"
(behind closed doors). However, it did come out that an
outrageous amount had been billed by an ex-police chief
hired by the lawyers to influence the natives. She apparently
has been collecting $10,000 for each meeting she's attended.
As a result, a new "Technical Advisory Committee"
has been set up to oversee the project and control spending.
The city's Chief Executive Officer is its chair.
We
have also been told by federal officials that the City has
not even filed its application for a federal fisheries permit
(you'll recall that they withdrew their earlier application
in a snit in 1999 in vain hopes that this would stop the
federal assessment). It also appears no progress has been
made on an attempt to get Ministry of the Environment approval
for the dangerous plan to excavate part of the toxic Rennie
Street dump.
All
of this means that it is becoming increasingly unlikely
that construction will start next spring as announced, and
more and more likely that the current council will have
to face the voters at least once more (in the fall of 2003)
before any shovels hit the ground.
Consequently,
it is becoming more and more important that friends of the
valley ensure that the voters get the facts about the expressway
project, as well as the disastrous state of the City's finances
and policies. We have stepped up our efforts on several
fronts, including the delivery of the flyer enclosed with
this newsletter. Please consider helping out with this work,
writing letters and talking to your friends and neighbours.
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