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May 15, 2004
COUNCILLOR SAYS PROJECT BREAKS ALL THE RULES
by CATCH May 15
Councillor Dave Braden says the Red Hill Creek Expressway is "the only project that crosses all the rules". He was reacting to a surprise move to okay the issuing of $56.5 million in contracts even though four different approvals from the provincial and federal governments have not yet been received.
The motion allowing the construction work to begin appeared without notice and without a staff report near the end of the May 12 city council meeting. It was moved by Stoney Creek councillor Maria Pearson and seconded by Glanbrook councillor Dave Mitchell.
Braden demanded to know "why are we doing this now with out any sort of warning?" His anger was echoed by west Hamilton councillor Brian McHattie who painstakingly extracted details of the missing government approvals from acting project director Chris Murray.
McHattie had to ask twice before Murray revealed that four separate approvals are still required - the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Hamilton Conservation Authority. Murray said he had expected these approvals were "days away" but had received a telephone call the previous day that indicated "it may take a little bit longer".
McHattie suggested issuing the contracts was a "tactic to go ahead and start building parts of a project [so] it becomes very difficult for any ministry or department to withhold an approval". He noted that work on the expressway had started even before last November's municipal elections "apparently without a number of approvals that I just heard about now". Citing the large financial cost and the outstanding aboriginal lawsuit against the project, McHattie accused the city of "moving ahead in bad faith".
In the same vein, Braden stated that "in 25 years we never got a comprehensive analysi of the project". In contrast, he noted that 20 minutes earlier council had delayed a decision on the location of the waterfront trail near Leander Boat Club and instead asked for another in-depth staff report. "You'd think for the biggest project the City ever had, we would have had the courtesy to ask ourselves for an independent analysis," he declared. "That's what I'm sad for, because we're going forward absolutely blind based on propaganda."
Mountain councillor Terry Whitehead also asked why the issue hadn't been presented in the normal way to a council committee instead of surfacing at the last minute at council. "We would have been in the same position last week as we are this week", Whitehead argued, but he was prevented by Mayor DiIanni from getting an explanation from Murray .
Despite his concerns about the process, Whitehead voted for the motion. Andrea Horwath, Russ Powers and Margaret McCarthy joined Braden and McHattie in voting against it. No other councillor made any comments on the matter.
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