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January
22, 1998
WHAT FINANCIAL CRISIS?
Region pays $2.95 million for scrapyard;
Cleanup estimated at extra $1.35 million
Tuesday
night's Regional Council meeting approved the expenditure
of $2,950,000 to purchase Nash Auto Parts, a scrapyard at
the corner of Nash Road and Brampton Street. The owners
of the 2.6 acre eyesore will walk away with more than $1.1
million an acre. The derelict auto graveyard is also known
to be heavily contaminated. Consultants have estimated that
environmental remediation will cost the Region an additional
$1.35 million.
Last June, the Regional government offered $500,000 for
the scrapyard, but its owners refused the deal and the Region
went to expropriation proceedings which resulted in an agreement
to jump the price to $2.95 million. This figure does not
include the cost of regional staff time, or payments to
Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Toronto legal firm of Weir
and Foulds who were hired by the region to provide expert
opinions on the expropriation.
The expropriation was initiated because the scrapyard lies
in the path of the proposed north-south Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Recent reports have put that project in jeopardy because
an extensive federal environmental assessment is now underway
and because the region can't afford to borrow over $80 million
for the project. Canadian law requires that assessments
must be carried out before "irrevocable decisions" are taken.
These matters, however, apparently didn't give councillors
pause to delay the acquisition. There may be no money for
buses, sewers and other essential services, but there always
seems to be an unending supply of public dollars for the
valley expressway project.
In
the same meeting, council also approved the payment of $1,264,444
to Paletta International Corporation for 2.1 acres of land
used for the east-west expressway project.
Details
of the two expenditures are found in two reports to the
Transportation Services Committee (RDS 99002 and RDS 99007).
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