Conservationists take on Hamilton Port Authority

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Conservationists take on Hamilton Port Authority

 

Kate Harries, January 24, 2008

[/color=red]The Globe and Mail[/color]

 

 

 

HAMILTON -- Unknown to all but a few steelworkers who fed the snapping turtles on their lunch break, nature has regenerated a blighted industrial property in the shadow of Hamilton's mills.

 

"It's a gem," Jim Howlett, a member of the Hamilton Conservation Authority board, says of Harris Inlet.

 

But the hidden jewel now faces extinction from a different quarter. The Hamilton Port Authority, local conservationists say, has used its federal status to shut down public comment on plans for a new shipping berth and storage facility on the site. The fight is calling into question the apparent disconnect between the city and its port.

 

The port authority, which has already begun filling in the front of the 42-hectare Pier 22 property with dredged sediment, did not consult Hamiltonians when it did an environmental screening of the project last year. It did seek comment from other agencies, including the conservation authority. But it determined that no public input was necessary because of the location's industrial character - then approved its own environmental report on the grounds that it is a federal agency defined as a "responsible authority" under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

 

Questions about the commercial need for an expansion of Hamilton's harbour facilities were referred to port environmental manager Marilyn Baxter, who e-mailed a section of the screening report. According to the port authority's report, the "site upgrades" will improve efficiency, although "the long-term use and specific nature of the future cargo handling facilities on this site is unknown at this time."

 

The conservation authority voted last month to intervene to save Harris Inlet.

 

"The port authority is using discretionary powers to say that because nobody knows that it's there, we don't have to consult the public," Mr. Howlett says. "It appears that it's legal. Well, the law is an ass. The legislation needs to change."

 

Groups such as Environment Hamilton and Lake Ontario Waterkeeper are also calling for a curb on the port authority's powers

 

"They see themselves as this sort of special federal creature that only really needs to follow federal rules," said Waterkeeper president Mark Mattson, who points to similar tensions over a disregard for local priorities in Toronto and Oshawa.

 

The authorities should follow local rules in matters that aren't federally regulated, Mr. Mattson argues.

 

Hamilton City Councillor Chad Collins agrees. "It's not 1950 any more," he said. "It's important for the port authority and the federal government to recognize that the rules should apply to them as they do to other public agencies and private organizations."

 

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger says that when he headed the port authority between 2001 and 2004, "we tried to work with all the local agencies as if we were required to comply with their policies. ... It certainly sounds to me that that kind of approach has fallen off the rails."

 

Tony Valeri, the port authority's interim CEO, said in an interview that it is "always open to consultation."

 

He said the agency does plan to preserve two "nature pockets" around two ponds at the rear of the site.

 

Ms. Baxter said the port authority board will decide today whether to approve a plan that would involve filling in the large pond identified by the Fisheries Department, while preserving and naturalizing the channel that runs through it. The Royal Botanical Gardens has been approached for possible compensation habitat to be provided in Cootes Paradise, in the west harbour.

 

That's not acceptable, says Mr. Howlett, who opposes any reduction of ecological resources in the polluted east harbour.

 

On the issue of accountability, Mr. Valeri, a former Liberal cabinet minister who lost his Hamilton East-Stoney Creek seat to an NDP challenger in 2006, pointed out that his agency must address any issues raised by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or Environment Canada. "We couldn't just move forward without dealing with those issues."

 

On the slag-filled land of Harris Inlet, a colony of black-crowned night heron nest every year, beavers build dams and coyotes raise their pups. Mr. Howlett visited it last year, and says he was astonished by the spontaneous resurgence of wildlife in an area shaped by man-made fill.

 

"We could see hundreds of fish - largemouth bass, long-nosed gar, these are fish we want," he says. In contrast, in nearby polluted waters "we have invasive species - roughy, zebra mussels, gobie, carp. ... If we want native species to spawn, we've got to work with what we've got."