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September
2003
Newsletter
The
Niagara Escarpment Commission Needs to Act
The
City is claiming to have all necessary permits from the
Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) to allow construction
of the expressway. This is both outrageous and false. The
City requires formal NEC agreement that the conditions of
a 1987 permit have been met. It does not have this approval.
The City also requires a new Development Permit because
of the dramatic changes to expressway design that have occurred
since 1987. We are asking all our members to send letters,
faxes or emails on this very important issue. This is
a particularly important time to do this because of the
provincial election.
The legislation governing the NEC requires it to "provide
for the maintenance of the Niagara Escarpment and land in
its vicinity substantially as a continuous natural environment,
and to ensure only such development occurs as is compatible
with that natural environment". This includes "(a)
to protect unique ecologic and historic areas" and
"(b) to maintain and enhance the quality and character
of natural streams and water supplies".
The NEC became involved in the expressway project in 1978
and continuously opposed its location in the Red Hill Creek
Valley, advocating instead that the roadway follow Highway
20. In April 1984, Hamilton-Wentworth applied for a development
permit for the expressway. NEC staff recommended that it
be refused and this was clearly the view of the Commission,
but it's power to make a decision was overridden by the
establishment of a Consolidated Joint Board. Nevertheless,
the Commission voted that
"The NEC is not in agreement with the proposed
Red Hill Creek Expressway at this location since it is
in conflict with the purpose and objectives of the Niagara
Escarpment Planning and Development Act and the policies
of the final proposed Plan."
The
NEC was not represented on the Consolidated Joint Board.
Instead two members of the Ontario Municipal Board out-voted
a single representative of the Environmental Assessment
Board and approved the expressway. The Board also ordered
the NEC to provide a permit (the 1987 one) and declared
that "there will be no adverse impact on the Niagara
Escarpment" and that the road would be built "without
creating an additional opening through the escarpment."
Today, these claims are laughable.
Today
the City plans to cut an 80 metre wide and 12 metre deep
hole in the face of the escarpment — the single largest
cut in Ontario history. Other major changes to the project
within NEC lands include construction of a 220 metre viaduct,
several stormwater ponds and a complete redesign of the
Greenhill Avenue interchange. The City also plans to relocate
Red Hill Creek from the foot of the escarpment to the QEW,
a scheme not even contemplated in 1985.
Of
course, we also now have far more knowledge about the escarpment
lands and the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Since that
time the escarpment lands have been declared a World Biosphere
Reserve. This includes all of Red Hill Valley south of the
TH&B rail line.
Investigations
since 1985 have uncovered more than 30 archaeological sites,
mostly within the NEC lands. These include an 11,000 year
old site that is the first evidence of humans in the Hamilton
area, and a native village whose partial excavation has
generated over 56,000 artifacts. And the City has also admitted
that there will be "high-level impacts will occur throughout
the entire Red Hill Creek valley system including the re-entrant
section into the Niagara Escarpment".
Thus
it is absurd and outrageous for the City to claim that a
1987 permit is sufficient. They claim that all of the above
changes to NEC lands are not the business of the NEC —
that no permit is needed to blast the largest ever hole
in the escarpment; that no review is required of the relocation
of Red Hill Creek; that the most extensive archaeological
treasures in Hamilton can be bulldozed without review; and
that the effects on the nationally vulnerable Southern Flying
Squirrel and many other rare species on NEC lands can be
trashed without NEC oversight.
Both
the Commission and the staff of the NEC have repeatedly
stated that a new permit is required, and the Commission
has never voted to rescind this position.
However, today's NEC is a mere shadow of what it once was.
The Harris-Eves government has slashed nearly half the NEC's
staff and appointed a number of individuals to the Commission
who have called for its abolition and who have economic
interests in the exploitation of the escarpment. In the
past few years, the Commission has approved more than one
third of the development applications that openly violate
the NEC legislation. And despite many violations of the
escarpment legislation, it has carried out no prosecutions
for several years.
The
City of Hamilton is counting on this drastically weakened
NEC to keep its head down, ignore its past rulings and meekly
forget about protecting the escarpment near Red Hill Valley.
The NEC staff person who is orchestrating this surrender
told Friends of Red Hill that the Commission can't afford
to fight a lawsuit that the City of Hamilton will certainly
launch if the NEC gets in its way. After all, the City spent
$4.5 million to stop a federal environmental assessment
of the expressway.
None
of this changes the fact that the NEC has told the City
that it must apply for a new permit, and that any construction
activity by the City at Greenhill Avenue or in other NEC
lands is illegal and makes a complete mockery of the laws
established to protect the escarpment.
The
City is also falsely claiming that the NEC has signed-off
on the conditions attached to the 1987 permit. This claim
is based on a letter received on August 5 from the above
noted NEC staff person in response to letters of July 28
and August 1 from the City.
The
NEC did not meet between July 28 and August 1 so it could
not have given any approval to the City. When the NEC originally
established these conditions in June 1984, it passed a specific
resolution saying that a Commission decision, not a staff
decision, must occur with regard to these conditions. The
motion reads:
"That we accept the staff recommendation, amending
conditions #3 and #4 to delete the word 'staff' in front
of approval. Both conditions shall read 'Commission approval'."
Thus
the City does not have a legal permit from the NEC.
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TAKE
ACTION
Responsibility
for the Niagara Escarpment Commission rests with
the Ministry of Natural Resources of Ontario. We
urge you to contact the Minister and ask him to
ensure that Hamilton is required to apply for a
new Development Permit for all expressway work in
escarpment lands.
Please copy your letter to your Member of the Provincial
Parliament, to the Minister of the Environment,
and to the Chairperson of the NEC. Because of the
election, the faces in most of these offices may
change. Therefore, we urge you to write to the current
officeholders, and then re-send your letter after
the October 2 election to the new officeholders.
The
Honourable Jerry Ouellette
Minister of Natural Resources
6th Floor, Room 6630
Whitney Block
99 Wellesley St. W.
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1W3
jerry_ouellette@ontla.ola.org
The
Honourable Jim Wilson
Minister of the Environment
12th Floor, 135 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario M4V 1P5
minister@ene.gov.on.ca.
Don Scott, Chair
Niagara Escarpment Commission
232 Guelph Street,
Georgetown, ON L7G 4B1
don.scott@mnr.gov.on.ca
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