Dear Editor:
Hats off to Dave Braden for alerting residents of Flamborough and the rest of Hamilton to the insanity of the aerotropolis plan.
Why should Flamborough residents care? Consider these facts:
Hamilton is already $2 billion in the hole for infrastructure maintenance. City officials admit that we are postponing or abandoning projects because we can’t pay for what is already broken.
Aerotropolis requires at least $500 million in new roads, pipes and other infrastructure. We should fix what we have before we gamble on an airport-centred field of dreams.
We have only one opportunity to speak up. But we need to act immediately! The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) will be conducting a hearing in the fall or later, but you must register on February 15. No need to have a lawyer or planner or a significant amount of time. As a registrant you will be entitled to make a written and/or oral statement to the OMB. You will have months to prepare.
To register as a participant in the OMB hearings, show up at The Hamilton Convention Centre, Webster Room at 10 a.m. on February 15.
For additional information, contact Environment Hamilton (contactus@environmenthamilton.org) or call 905-549-0900. For more information, see www.aerotropoliscosts.ca/content/about/.
Speak up, before this plan for the aerotropolis bankrupts all of us.
Don
Waterdown
As so often happens in Hamilton we always seem to be looking in the rear view mirror about how and why we got into our financial issues, our economic downturn, etc.. Don’s letter should focus us on the now of this issue. The financing of projects such as these can put extraordinary strain on a city that is struggling to maintain its current infrastructure and economic base that pays for it maintenance.
Lower economic growth or loss of industries means less business taxes for the city to use to provide services and less jobs to create wages for the citizens who also fund the city expenditures. This has been an ongoing problem for Hamilton for decades. A lack of a comprehensive plan to address these issues continues to plague the city.
Mega projects cost mega dollars. In good times it is not so critical funding these projects but look around, do you see good times? Do you think good times are just around the corner? Global patterns indicate increased low cost labour competition from industries, it makes sense to them to go to the lowest cost factors, go global and sell back to the countries that loss the jobs. Under this ongoing trend what is to become of this industrial park?
Intensive high skilled jobs, high tech jobs, or, low end wage jobs servicing a low need for staffing warehousing industry next to the airport? The project is presented as a sure thing, why else would the city spend upwards of $500 million, as some put forward as a realistic total cost, when it can’t afford to maintain the current infrastructure in the rest of the city, must be a sure thing!
The way this has proceeded has not been an open , free full information of how the staff and politicians have projected the increased jobs, taxes, and, new industries that would locate in the industrial park. Many commercial developments begin with identifying the need, then the locale (the land space), then an analysis of the cost to the benefit to be had once it is finished. Then property is acquired to make the property available to the end users. In commercial retail developments the deveolper then seeks a firm committment for leasing or joint partnership with a major tenant for the project. This ensures the success and revenue stream for the project. Others follow and flesh out the use areas as the major tenant forms the building block of the success of the project.
It is a cost effective way to ensure the end user benefits as well as the developing party. In this case, the city and the industrial companies they say will come. It is a shared benefit as both partiers benefit from committing resources in advance through committments, binding committments, to the project.
As a city our track record has not been stellar when we look at what has been done based on the expected outcome. Copps Colisieum is a good example of build it and they will come but they never came! Underutilized and costly to taxpayers. The fact that Hamilton and the surrounding communities were forced to amalgamate was because Hamilton could not afford to maintain itself withjout a large infusion of cash reserves and increased tax base. The province did not want to take over a bankrupt city so it put forth forced amalgamtion to fund Hamilton’s revenue needs. It goes on and on but you get the point, can we afford to jump into all the necessary infrastructure before we get firm committments from indutries for the services Hamilton will provide to these privately owned lands.
As well, the process needs more openness to the public who usually end up paying for these things when they don’t work out. The lack of information creates an atmosphere of distrust of the process and we enter into agonistic relations with concerned citizens which serves to further insulate the flow of information. Yes, privacy is important in financial dealings but an open process one can trust needs to be in place, needs to be earned in an ongoing manner to ensure the fairness to all parties.
If the city planners (staff) and the politicians want this development they should pay heed to these points as they are responsible to the taxpayers, both corporate and residential. It’s a joint partnership that beneifits all parties.
To assist in fostering this trust there should be policies of how to effectively present projects once they gain momentum, a way to show the taxpayers of how and who pays for what and what are the legal committments of all the parties to the success of the project.
Hamilton’s inability to make use of the brown spaces, to enforce environmental law in cleaning up areas in the city, the lack of committment to develop the vacated spaces leaves a frustrated fear amongst concerned groups who feel left behind even after they have been invited to the dance once they brought issues to the forefront of the city’s attention. Too often it seems the city drops the ball and moves on to the next new shiney toy.
So now we have a rally to make your opinions known to the Ontario Municipal Board hearing. Anyone interested should attend this meeting to apply to be a presenter to represent a ward, a neighbourhood, a business or businesses, the city, to make this an open discussion of the concerns and the merits of such a development before it proceeds and we are committed to the finacial costs which might reduce the ability of the city to further maintain the existing infrastructure and utilize the existing industrial spaces not currently developed in already zoned areas.
Be a good concerned citizen whether an individual or a business concern, we need a more open committment driven business like approach to the financing of such projects.
Tmatt
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