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November
5, 2003
MR McGUINTY IS AS CONFUSED AS HIS ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
Today,
media are reporting statements attributed to Premier Dalton
McGuinty about the proposed Red Hill Creek Expressway. Premier
McGuinty is reported to have said that the expressway has
gone through TWO environmental assessments. This is not
true. Indeed, a fair person would say that the project has
gone through ZERO environmental assessments.
An
earlier version of the expressway project was subject to
the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act in the early 1980s.
It also required three other major regulatory approvals
—from the Niagara Escarpment Commission, from the Hamilton
Conservation Authority and from the Ontario Municipal Board.
The provincial government of the day combined all of these
approval processes into a Consolidated Hearing that was
conducted by three hearing officers.
The
single officer who came from the Environmental Assessment
Board ruled decisively against the project in a 116 page
dissent from the decision of the two officers from the Ontario
Municipal Board. The 2-1 decision ordered the Niagara Escarpment
Commission and the Conservation Authority to provide permits.
Both these agencies appealed the decision to cabinet which
allowed the decision to stand. While the 2-1 hearings board
decision officially approved the environmental assessment,
any fair person knows this is a legal fiction, since all
three environmental agencies opposed the project. In addition,
this was a much different expressway proposal than the one
now on the table, which has not undergone any environmental
assessments.
The
project was substantially altered in the 1990s. These changes,
plus the fact that the interchange with the QEW had never
been assessed, brought the project back under the aegis
of the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. The government
of Mike Harris then proceeded to EXEMPT the project from
the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act by a Declaration
Order issued in March 1997.
A
federal environmental assessment was initiated in June 1998
and bumped-up to a full panel review in May 1999 because
the project was expected to generate significant adverse
environmental effects that could not be mitigated. The City
of Hamilton launched a legal challenge against this assessment
process in July 1999 and after a $4.5 million court battle
it obtained a decision that exempted the expressway from
the federal environmental assessment process.
No
informed person could say that this project has undergone
two environmental assessments.
Mr.
McGuinty’s comments follow the revelation that his
environment minister isn’t even sure where Red Hill
Valley is located, and was unable to tell reporters anything
about the project. We assume that she also is unaware that
the valley has been occupied for over two months by the
Haundenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy who are protecting
their treaty rights and the burial sites of their ancestors;
that the project has not yet received several major permits;
that the project will remove over 44,000 trees and blast
the largest ever cut in the face of the Niagara Escarpment;
and that it is openly a road to promote urban sprawl.
Both
the Haundenosaunee people and Hamiltonians deserve better
from our Premier and Environment Minister!
For
more information, contact
Don
McLean, chair
Friends of Red Hill Valley
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