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January
14, 2004
THE RED HILL CREEK EXPRESSWAY AND THE 2004 CITY OF HAMILTON
BUDGET
The
2004 draft budget baldly admits that spending on the Red
Hill Creek Expressway is creating major financial difficulties
for the City of Hamilton. The opening paragraph of the report
on this year’s capital budget declares: “The City’s
tax supported capital budget is at a sustainability crossroad.
That is to say, due to two major City capital initiatives,
which are now past the planning stage and into major funding
commitments and implementation (Red Hill Valley and Solid
Waste Management Master Plan), the rising debt load is starting
to constrict available capital dollars for other City projects.
How to deal with this most important capital issue will
be the focus of this year’s capital report.”
Red
Hill spending in 2004 is set at $32.9 million – just
under one-quarter of the entire capital budget of $141 million.
However, the $141 million is only the “affordable”
portion of the budget. An additional $105 million in capital
spending is required but can’t be paid for. As a result,
235 projects have been designated this year as “unaffordable”.
The
budget report consequently refers to a “dramatic 50%
decrease in capital funding for regular programs (roads,
facilities,…e.t.c.) which would take effect in 2004
due to increased debt attributable to the Red Hill Valley
Project and the SWMMP.” It also warns that “the
amount of debt to be issued in the next few years (RHVP
& SWMMP) and the inadequate redirection of tax levy
dollars to the overall capital program is going to constrain
the City’s ability to deal with all of its infrastructure
needs.”
In
response to this crisis, the City wants the provincial government
to increase its subsidy for the expressway “to reflect
the fact that Hamilton is building a new road that, once
linked with the east/west expressway, will act as a major
highway of provincial significance and benefit”. More
specifically, the budget report recommends that the City
“pursue a new deal on the East/West & North/South
Expressway that more closely reflects the traditional cost-sharing
split of 75% / 25% for Province/City contributions”.
“Traditional”
in this sentence refers to 1974! The current provincial
funding subsidy was agreed to by Hamilton eight years ago
in 1996. The following year the province ended all its other
subsidies of local roads. Expecting Queen’s Park to
reverse this policy is quite a leap of faith, and the budget
authors apparently realize this, because they suggest an
alternative way to deal with the crisis – the transfer
of $60 million from the Hamilton Future Fund into the capital
budget.
The
Future fund (perhaps about to renamed the “Now”
fund) appeared in 2001 when the City sold Hamilton Hydro
to itself for $137 million. More precisely, the City converted
Hydro to a wholly-owned subsidiary which then mortgaged
its assets to borrow the $137 million. The debt does not
appear on the City’s books, only on the books of its
subsidiary. As a result, Hamilton Hydro’s customers
are now paying for the assets a second time, as part of
their electricity bill. In the meantime, the City spent
$37 million of this “windfall” and then solemnly
promised it would keep the remaining $100 million as an
endowment and only use the interest — for community
projects. Last year, the interest was used, “just once”,
to reduce the tax hike.
To
justify now plundering the “Future” fund, the
budget document rhetorically asks: “Would the senior-levels
of government grant the City capital subsidies when the
City is sitting on a $100 million uncommitted capital reserve?”
If this is true, it suggests our leaders were idiots to
put us another $137 million in debt with this scheme in
the first place.
Using
$60 million of the hydro monies will still leave 139 projects
“unaffordable” in 2004, and at best will only
postpone the crisis caused by the expressway spending. Next
year, the expressway budget demands $33.7 million more,
and in 2006 it will eat up another $35 million.
The
opening of the road is scheduled for 2007, and City finance
staff are already nervous about that. In open defiance of
a decision made last June by Larry DiIanni and his expressway
implementation committee, the staff are demanding that the
expressway be tolled. “For the Red Hill Valley Project,
options for tolling the Lincoln Alexander Parkway and/or
the Red Hill Creek Expressway are being examined by staff
with the view that at a minimum, the annual repair and maintenance
costs (including a replacement reserve provision) be covered
by tolling revenues with consideration to minimum traffic
diversion rates.”
Of
course it may not be defiance. It may simply be that staff
understand that Mr. DiIanni’s bluster about tolls being
unacceptable was just part of his election strategy. Promises
like this are easy to make when there is no highway to toll,
and apparently are just as easy to break after it’s
built and municipal finances on their knees.
SOME CHARGES AGAINST VALLEY DEFENDERS DROPPED
By John Milton (from Hamilton Indymedia – January
14, 2004)
Charges
against protestors, and "protectors of the valley"
arrested at the "Long house" site in the Red Hill
Valley in Hamilton on November 6, 2003 were dropped today,
several weeks before they were due to be heard in court.
14
people were arrested and charged with trespassing on that
day as they attempted to prevent the construction of the
Red Hill Creek Expressway. Reports of that days events are
available in the IMC Hamilton features section (Story title:
VALLEY FIGHT NOT OVER: Massive police raid on Longhouse,
Valley)
The
reason given by the authorities for dropping the charges
was that technical errors had been made by the police on
the paperwork completed at the time of the arrests which
would have made conviction of those arrested uncertain.
While
this may be true it has been speculated by members of the
protest group that the real reason may be that the authorities
had no desire to give the group another forum for publicly
outing the issues surrounding the Expressway project.
It
is not uncommon for the government to drop charges laid
against non-violent protestors and other civil rights activists
in cases of this sort just prior to trial when it becomes
clear that those charged intend to go forward with political
trials and vigorously defend themselves in court. The announcement
that the charges were being dropped came just after those
charged had begun to apply to the court for "disclosure",
the provision of the evidence and police documents that
they would use in the preparation of their defense.
Trespass
charges remain outstanding against another group of a dozen
people who were arrested at the south end of the valley
during the last week of October, 2003 All of those persons
have pled not guilty and trial dates for them have been
set for the second half of March, 2004. More news on these
trials to follow...
HAMILTON
TRANSIT GROUP FOUNDED
A
Hamilton Transit Users Group has been established to advocate
for HSR and DARTS users and improvements in transit. The
group meets in Room 110 of Hamilton City Hall every second
Tuesday. The next meeting is January 27 at 7 pm.
The draft City budget is already proposing another 5 cent
fare increase, and further hikes plus service cuts may be
put forward by City staff or councillors during the budget
discussions. You can get involved in the group by calling
(905) 308-9138 or emailing transit@environmenthamilton.org
VALLEY
WALK
Red
Hill Schoolhouse is holding a “Winter Moon Magic”
walk in Red Hill Valley on Saturday, February 7.
Meet at Rosedale Arena at 8 pm
NEIGHBOURHOOD
VALLEY RALLIES
Red
Hill Schoolhouse is holding a Neighbourhood Valley Rally
in Ward 5 on Tuesday, February 10 at the corner of
Mt. Albion Road and Greenhill Avenue between 4 pm and 5:30
pm. Everyone is welcome. A ward 2 rally is scheduled for
Tuesday, March 9 at the Gore Park Fountain, also
between 4 and 5:30 pm.
Other
Events:
visit www.actlocally.info
THE
HIGHWAY THAT BECAME A FOOTPATH
(after the civic election)
by John Terpstra
"And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and
I saw the holy city, coming down out of heaven..."
and
the raving holy protester who had climbed into a tree
to
resist the building of the last highway
was
still in among the leaves,
but
the tree had grown much taller,
and
the protester had been living up there for such a long time,
not
alone, that several generations of protesters now populated
the canopy,
freely
trafficking the branches of their swaying neighbourhoods,
as
the six-lane highway,
(which
ultimately was built)
wound
between the trunks below
as
wide only as a footpath,
a
red dirt earthway, busy with pedestrians,
and
the highway-that-became-a-footpath
led
past the longhouse raised
during
the same resistance, down in the valley,
for
it still existed (both longhouse and valley existed still)
and
other longhouses,
which
were standing at that location several centuries earlier,
had
re-materialized, their hearth-fires
burning
still; an entire village, thriving
beside
the hallowed creek that ran through the east end of the
city.
And
I saw the trees that formed the longhouse walls
take
root, and continue to grow,
forty
thousand times forty thousand,
their
canopy providing all the roof
that
the people needed.
And
from a privileged perch at the top of the escarpment,
watching
as the new city come down out of heaven,
it
was clear that the leaves of those trees
were
for the healing of the community.”
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