red hill dissertation: chapter 4
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4. Re-Envisioning Urban Development? Globalization,
Ecological Modernization and Vision 2020
Endangered Environments and Economies
During the 1980s, while the Red Hill debate continued to intensify, the valley continued
to re-naturalize (Figure 4.1). The area remained a popular site for recreational activities,
including walking, cycling, and fishing, as well as organized sports. A number of
baseball diamonds and small parks had been constructed in the valley, the Rosedale
elementary school and hockey arena were built along its western edge and, against the
advice of the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority, the Hamilton Civic Golf course
had been expanded to occupy a significant portion of the now densely vegetated Kings
Forest. The 1980 Regional Official Plan recognized the valleys designation as an
Environmentally Sensitive Area that should be protected to the fullest extent
possible while simultaneously calling for a new north-south road, crossing the
Niagara Escarpment along the Red Hill Creek Valley.
Figure 4.1: Red Hill Valley, looking north from the escarpment (Peace, 1998)
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At the same time, the valley had now become surrounded by urban development and
much of its watershed was now covered by pavement (Figure 4.2). Despite widespread
public usage of the valley, the creek and surrounding area continued to be polluted by
abandoned refuse and raw sewage, the later flowing directly from combined overflow
pipes installed in the 1950s and 60s. Seven such pipes now emptied into the creek,
redirecting wastewater away from the Woodward Avenue Sewage Treatment Plant
during heavy rainfalls. Storm sewers, built to direct run-off from rainstorms and melting
snow toward local streams, presented further problems. These sewers were forced to
accommodate increasingly large overland flows of water as urban development replaced
natural waterways with pipes and the permeable surfaces of forest and field with the
concrete of housing developments, business parks and strip malls. Massive storm sewer
flows emptying into the Red Hill Creek damaged the creek bed and aquatic life with
their sheer force and their contents, which included pollutants from city streets and
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sewage from local sanitary lines cross-connected to storm sewers, in many cases
unintentionally. By the late 1990s, ecologist Bruce Duncan (1998: 92) described the
creek as a typical urban stream in a developed area with flashy (as in flash flood)
flows. We also see far more frequent high flows and resulting severe erosion. These
flows cut into the exposed banks, wash away fish eggs, gouge out the bottom of the
stream along with its invertebrate life, and carry debris as large as boulders and full-
grown trees as small as suspended clay and silt.
Figure 4.2: Red Hill Valley and surrounding area, 1990s (Friends of Red
Hill Valley, 2004)
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In 1980, the closure and capping of the Upper Ottawa landfill site, which
bordered the creek for almost 700 metres, was applauded by many but public
concern continued to grow about the contamination of the creek by leachate from
this site and the older municipal waste sites further downstream. By the end of the
decade, a Combined Sewer Overflow tank had been installed, but overflow
problems continued. During the following decade, citizens complained of foul
odours in this area and environmentalists reported high levels of e-coli bacteria
downstream (Friends of Red Hill Valley newsletter, November 1999).
While these threats to the ecological integrity and health of the creek and the valley,
as well as to the Hamilton Harbour, were a concern for many local citizens, such issues
did not figure as prominently in public discourse about the future of the region as did
the concerns expressed about its economic future. In the shadow cast by slow economic
and population growth during the preceding decade, predictions of a gradual but steady
decline in local manufacturing and employment appeared as a dire threat to many at the
beginning of the 1980s. Business owners and advocates feared a loss in profitability,
while unions feared job losses and thus largely continued to practice the politics of
compromise that emerged in the post-war era, relying upon negotiation, collective
bargaining and party politics rather than public protest and direct action. Politicians and
planners feared a long-term decline in the local tax base, coupled with rising social
service costs and meagre assistance from higher levels of government (Webber and
Fincher 1987). The political and economic pressure to compete against other
communities for private investment would only increase as the globalization of trade,
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finance and commodity production began to accelerate. A new urban
entrepreneurialism was beginning to emerge, alongside and often in apparent conflict
with growing awareness of the social and ecological costs of economic growth (Smith
2002).
This chapter examines these changing political economic and socio-ecological
relationships during the 1980s and 1990s, and accompanying transformations in the
place-based narratives used to create, sustain and understand those relationships, as they
were enacted through the Red Hill Creek Expressway conflict. During this period,
significant shifts occurred in the political narratives articulated by the most prominent
groups involved in the debate. The discourse of sustainable development provided a
means of greening the dominantgrowth and progress narrative by presenting
economic sustainability as forms of urban development that simply endeavoured to
reduce negative social and ecological impacts, rather than entailing a qualitative shift in
development processes. Simultaneously, deindustrialization, economic globalization,
and the subsequent rise of urban neoliberalization provided further justification for the
rhetoric of inter-urban competition for investment and the privileging of established
strategies of economic development over other approaches and other municipal
priorities. Yet, sustainability discourse also introduced an emphasis on collaborative
governance that would prove challenging for expressway advocates and it provided new
opportunities for presenting more substantive notions of urban sustainability and more
radical, if vaguely defined, visions of a green economy. Through debate over the
Vision 2020 sustainability plan, discussed below, the relationship between nature,
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development and democracy became central to the larger debate over the future of the
Red Hill Valley and the city itself.
Politics, Ecology, Economics: The 1985 Joint-Board Hearing
By the end of 1979, the Red Hill Valley Expressway had been granted approval from
both the City and the Region but still faced a number of hurdles. Citizens, city
councillors, and provincial members of parliament from the Liberal and NDP parties
had immediately begun pressuring the provincial Conservatives to hold an
environmental impact assessment hearing but these demands were rejected on the basis
that the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act, adopted in 1975, did not yet apply to
municipal projects (Hamilton Spectator, October 31, 1979). Despite the lack of a legal
requirement to do so, the Region began preparing an application to the province with
the stated desire to maintain credibility with the public and ensure that promises that
the environment will not be harmed will be met (Hamilton Spectator, September 16,
1979). Hamilton Mayor Jack MacDonald and members of the expressway steering
committee, while publicly stating that "assessment of the environment is one of the
strongest arguments for the decision taken by the city and regional council" (Hamilton
Spectator, September 25, 1979), argued that the project should be subjected to an
Ontario Municipal Board (OMB)1 hearing rather than a full environmental assessment.
1 The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is an independent tribunal, created in 1897, thatadjudicates applications and appeals for municipal planning issues such as official plans, zoningbylaws, subdivision plans and land use proposals governed by provincial legislation. Membersare appointed by the Provincial Cabinet. The OMB has been widely criticized for allegedlyfavouring property developers in their deicisons. Indeed, approximately 75% of the decisionsmade by the OMB to date have favoured the development interests involved. The OMB has also
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The province had been considering the possibility of creating consolidated hearings
for projects requiring assessment under two or more planning acts and soon announced
that the expressway project would be assessed by a joint board consisting of two
members of the OMB and one representative from the Environmental Assessment
Board (Hamilton Spectator, March 25, 1980). Approval was also required from the
Niagara Escarpment Commission and the Hamilton and Region Conservation Authority,
both of which had indicated concerns about the valley route, but these groups were
excluded from the joint-board process.
While the Region prepared its application, opponents of the project continued to
mobilize. Local environmentalist group Save the Valley, whose official membership had
grown to approximately 400 people by the early 1980s, remained the most prominent
voice of opposition. In addition to their lobbying and public relations efforts, the group
continued to organize public walks and events such as a festival in the valley (Hamilton
Spectator, August 24, 1980) and later introduced a tree adoption program (ibid,
February 1, 1984). Save the Valley also began to direct criticism at the Regions
population forecasts and insistence on the need for the expressway despite the scaling-
back of predictions of the 2001 population from 550,000 to 445,500 people (just 7%
above 1981 levels) (ibid, February 10, 1982). John Ellis, chairman of Save the Valley,
cast doubt upon the claim that the highway was needed to stimulate new industrial
development, referring to the gradual decline of manufacturing in his argument that the
city should work to encourage high tech industry and more upwardly mobile
been criticized for allegedly interfering with municipal decision-making processes.
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employees attracted to the recreational opportunities offered by the Red Hill Creek
Valley (ibid, February 10, 1982). This argument invoked the need for innovation and
the re-envisioning of Hamiltons economy and public image beyond the Steel City,
but also ran the risk of offending local pride in the citys industrial image and working
class roots sentiments to which highway proponents routinely appealed in their
argument that the project would support new and existing industrial development.
At the same time, traffic congestion and frequent accidents on local roadways
continued to arouse public concern and frequent media attention. These concerns were
met by renewed calls for completion of a perimeter road, including another east-west
highway running parallel to the waterfront (Hamilton Spectator, October 5, 1982).2 The
diminishing prospects for manufacturing growth made it increasingly difficult for
proponents to present this project, and particularly the more controversial Red Hill
section, as a vital link between suburban housing and the industrial waterfront.
Accordingly, the projects potential to foster new development on the escarpment was
gradually emphasized. Political pressure from land speculators, construction and real
2 Debate also surrounded an elevated rapid transit line, linking the downtown and theescarpment in the citys west end a proposal that faced a great deal of local opposition and thatwas ultimately rejected by Regional council. The provincial Conservatives proposed thisproject, the first of its kind in Ontario, but the idea was soon abandoned due to publicopposition and a lack of political support. Curiously, the transit line was supported by some of
the politicians and advocacy groups that favoured the Red Hill project, while some of thoseopposed to the highway spoke out against it. Some critics strongly advocated the need forsubstantial investments in public transit but argued that this particular project provided too littleservice to justify the financial cost and substantial disruption to local neighbourhoods(Hamilton Spectator, December 16, 1981). Perhaps because they shared these concerns andperhaps due to their preoccupation with protection of the Red Hill Valley, anti-expresswayforces did not appear to invest much time in supporting this project, despite its practical andsymbolic value in encouraging alternatives to road-building.
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estate interests to move ahead with development projects on the southern edges of the
city was steadily increasing.
These efforts were bolstered by consultation reports that presented completion of the
North-South (Red Hill) and East-West (Mountain) roadways as a strategic link in
transforming the Regional economy (Currie, Coopers and Lybrand Ltd. 1984: iv). This
report predicted that the roadways would link the Regions industrial / business /
commercial areas into a viable, efficient network, provide for efficient movement of
trucks, enhance regional labour market accessibility and serve new residential
developments on the Mountain (ibid: iii). TheHamilton Spectatoreditorial board was
quick to support this southward expansion of the city and the promise of new
development and employment. Referring to the provincial environmental assessment as
political and bureaucratic rituals, they urged the Region to set aside capital budget
funding for the project so that construction could begin as soon as approval was given
(April 25, 1983). This advice was soon followed, amidst worries over the amount of
funding that the Province would ultimately be able to provide.
In preparation for the provincial joint-board hearing, anti-expressway groups sought
the counsel of lawyer Herman Turkstra. Pointing to the estimated $250,000 that the
Region was preparing to spend on lawyers and consultants to defend their position,
Turkstra asked the Board to provide funding to assist his clients, which included Save
the Valley, the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority, the Conserver Society of
Hamilton (a non-profit organization that evolved out of Clear Hamilton of Pollution),
and the Limeridge Road Property Owners a group opposing the east-west portion of
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the road. The Board agreed to provide some funding for Save the Valley and the
Limeridge Road group.3
This decision was described by theHamilton Spectatoras the
best the board could do in an adversarial system that pits the community in general (the
regional government) against part of the community (the freeway opponents). The
editors called for a new and better approach that would rely on impartial experts to
balance the interests of all citizens, presenting a pluralistic view that reduced the
conflict to one between freeway opponents and the government, here equated with the
community in general(Hamilton Spectator, October 18, 1984).
The hearing began in late October 1984 and ran for nine months, involving numerous
witnesses and costing over $2 million. In defence of the project, the Region claimed that
the North-South and East-West roadways would meet future traffic demand, alleviate
traffic congestion and stimulate economic development. On this first point regarding
traffic demand, Regional planners submitted their models and predictions of population,
employment and traffic volume levels, arguing that the roadways were essential for
supporting anticipated growth on the mountain and an increase in traffic moving across
the escarpment. Despite the reduction of population growth estimates in 1981 to an
estimated 7% increase by 2001, these forecasts predicted a 39% increase in population
3 Pro-expressway neighbourhood groups such as the Centennial Parkway Ratepayers wereunable to afford legal representation, a situation that one member described as a real David and
Goliath situation (anonymous, April 10, 2006). The Region objected to the awarding of costs tocitizen groups in advance of the hearing. The debate over funding for citizen groupsparticipating in such hearings eventually resulted in an Ontario Supreme Court case. This suitwas launched by utility companies such as Ontario Hydro and Union Gas who feared thatprecedence would be set for the provision of funding to critics of large-scale infrastructureprojects prior to the beginning of an environmental hearing. In July 1985, the Court sided withthe corporations and ruled against providing advance funding in such cases (HamiltonSpectator, July 1, 1985).
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and a 40% increase in the number of jobs located on the mountain (Region of Hamilton-
Wentworth 1982). These predictions were challenged by counter-experts who noted
that the modeling exercises assumed a steady increase in population, employment and
traffic but only a very modest increase in public transit (Hamilton Spectator, March 26,
1985). Lawyer Herman Turkstra, representing expressway opponents, argued that the
Regions growth predictions assumed rather than demonstrated the need for extensive
development on the escarpment (Hamilton Spectator, December 4, 1984), and noted
that all previous growth forecasts had proven to be over-inflated (Hamilton Spectator,
December 18, 1984).
Experts testifying on behalf of the Region also argued that the North-South
expressway would reduce traffic congestion, particularly the growing levels of truck
traffic in the east-end of the city, but Turkstra countered that no studies of truck traffic
patterns had been presented to support this prediction. Under cross examination,
Hamilton traffic commissioner Murray Main conceded the proposed freeway would
likely have little impact on east-west truck traffic in the lower city because most
industrial and commercial traffic originated from the waterfront or areas north and west
of the city. Main agreed with Turkstras assertion that little truck traffic entered
Hamilton from the south but noted the proposed freeway would accommodate and spur
residential and industrial growth on the Mountain through improved access to major
highways (Hamilton Spectator, November 28, 1984).
A good portion of the debate during the hearings centered upon the claim that the
highway project would ensure future economic growth. This position was advanced by
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planners, consultants and various business groups, including the Hamilton Construction
Association, Hamilton Automobile Club, and the Hamilton and District Home Builders
Association. Regional planning director, John Gartner, noted that Hamiltons economic
and population growth rate was among the very lowest in Ontario during the previous
decade and, citing previous efforts such as the railroads and the Burlington Canal, he
argued that transportation improvements were the best means of stimulating new growth
(Hamilton Spectator, October 24, 1984). Existing and proposed industrial parks on the
escarpment were identified as the crucial areas for new development, namely the lands
surrounding the Hamilton International Airport, the Ancaster and Allarco industrial
parks further west, and the East Mountain and North Glanbrook industrial parks south
of the Red Hill Valley (Figure 4.3). These later sites received particular attention.
Proponents predicted that the highways would attract new industries to the hundreds of
acres of land available at these sites, arguing that lack of highway access had prevented
investment to date.
Figure 4.3: Existing and proposed industrial parks (Webber and Fincher 1987)
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In the effort to convince the panel and the public that the expressway was essential to
future economic growth, various calculations and predictions of the jobs provided by
the project were presented, ranging from the Regions estimate of 12,000 to the
Hamilton Construction Associations estimate of over twice that number (Hamilton
Spectator, February 19, 1985). These figures were challenged by economist and former
City of Hamilton planner Lukin Robinson, who estimated that roughly one third of the
number of jobs predicted by the Region would be created.4 Robinson also argued that
the proponents were presenting an exaggerated gloomy picture of Hamiltons
economic status in order to make their case and pointed to the steady increases in
4 A subsequent assessment by Michael Webber and Ruth Fincher estimated that completion ofthe expressway would contribute to roughly ten additional jobs per year. They concluded, noreasonable multiplier would give rise to the estimate of Currie, Coopers and Lybrand (1987:251).
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employment that had occurred during the preceding decade, despite the low growth rate
(ibid, April 4, 1985). Finally, he cited evidence of increasing economic activity within
service industries such as finance and communications and argued that Hamilton should
be pursuing employment in these sectors rather than competing for dwindling industrial
investment (ibid, April 6, 1985). Herman Turkstra also noted that roughly 2,470 acres of
serviced land was already available at various industrial parks in the immediate region
(ibid, February 26, 1985).
In response to the frequent claim that the highway was necessary to support new and
existing industrial parks, critics questioned the wisdom of planning and building
development projects such as the industrial parks before the approval of the required
transportation links. It was suggested that a circular logic appeared to be at work. On the
one hand, proponents argued that the highway was needed to respond to projected
increases in population, employment and automobile traffic. Yet, at the same time, many
also claimed that it was essential forencouragingcommercial, industrial and/or
residential growth.5 Of course, this contradiction can be partially explained by the
different interests involved in promoting the project. From the perspective of many
politicians, planners, and traffic engineers, the expressway was the most politically
expedient and well-established means of accommodating future automobile traffic.
From the perspective of the various real-estate, housing, transportation and land
5 Many advocates presented the highway as both a vital driver of economic development and anecessary response to projected population growth and traffic demands, while also defendingagainst environmental critiques by suggesting that the project would redistribute rather thanincrease population, traffic and air pollution levels. Unfortunately, this is contradicted by a greatdeal of research on the relationship between highways and urban form, including many studiesavailable during the 1980s. See, for example,
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development companies lobbying for the completion of the road, the project was a
means of raising land prices and opening up new development opportunities on the
escarpment.
For these later groups and businesses, the highway was not simply a response to
growth, but a means of making it happen in a particular area and with particular primary
beneficiaries. This is a good example of what Logan and Molotch refer to as structural
speculation the attempt to create differential rents by influencing the larger arena of
decision making that will determine locational advantages (1987: 30). While some
entrepreneurs simply worked to estimate future growth patterns and place themselves in
the path of development opportunities, many business associations played a more active
role in pushing for the most advantageous highway route and forming loose networks
around a shared narrative of growth and progress. These networks concentrated on
development at the southern limits of the city, but other real-estate and housing interests
remained focused on the lower city and eastern suburbs. A representative of one of these
businesses, Finochio and Finochio Ltd., told the hearing that downtown housing sales
were doing very well during this period and claimed that the municipality had been
redirecting investors away from lands to the northeast in order to encourage
development on the escarpment (Hamilton Spectator, May 15, 1985).
As discussed in the previous chapter, the established Fordist narrative of urban
growth and progress could no longer appeal to the benefits of economic expansion
without addressing the growing awareness of its negative impacts. Within the confines
of the joint-board hearing, this was limited to efforts to demonstrate that the highway
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route would not destroy the valley. On this point, the testimony of Dr. Derek Coleman,
an environmental planner whose firm had been employed by the Region, was
particularly significant. Dr. Coleman testified that the highway would have a moderate
impact on the natural environment and the areas scenic and recreational resources if
measures were taken to mitigate the damages (Hamilton Spectator, January 16, 1985).6
Those measures would be part of a proposed Recreation Master Plan, along with efforts
to clean up polluted sections of the valley and provide for more recreational pursuits
and amenities. This became a central argument for the Region and other proponents of
the project. The valley was continually described as polluted and its restoration was
linked to the construction of the highway. The presence of infrastructure such as gas
lines, power lines, storm sewers, municipal dumps and other roadways in the valley was
presented as evidence of its degraded state (Hamilton Spectator, June 13, 1985), in
order to demonstrate that this was not the kind of pristine space typically associated
with environmental conservation and to present the local government as most capable of
healing the area while obscuring their responsibility for creating that pollution.
Further support for the Regions position was provided by Dr. Sydney Barton of the
Ontario Research Foundation, who presented the results of his study of the highways
6
Lawyer Herman Turkstra suggested that Dr. Coleman was suffering from a so-called kidnapsyndrome, having gradually adapted his own views to better fit those of the Regional plannershe was working with. To back up this claim, Turkstra quoted from a 1979 report whichdescribed the virtual elimination of the marshlands at the north end of the valley by theexpressway as a major, irreversible impact and then noted that Colemans more recentassessment described the same impact as moderate. Coleman maintained that he had changedhis position after realizing that the impact could be mitigated (Hamilton Spectator, January16, 1985).
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impacts on air quality. Barton had used estimates of the volume and type of traffic on
the proposed roads to calculate the expected levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides
and suspended particulate (road dust from exhaust and vehicle wear) within 100 metres
of the road. While total suspended particulate levels during heavy traffic volume
exceeded the provincial half-hour standard, Barton found all other measures below
those standards and declared there would be no significant adverse affect on air
quality. Barton went further by claiming that the highway would actually reducethe
total amount of air pollution by allowing for more efficient driving and thereby reducing
overall emissions. Herman Turkstra countered by noting that Bartons study did not
actually measure existing traffic patterns or the levels and distribution of air pollutants
in the east end of the city (Hamilton Spectator, February 5, 1985).
The Region was also forced to defend against charges that their decision-making
process had been exclusive and undemocratic. Before the hearing began, the Social
Planning and Research Council (SPRC), a non-profit social advocacy group specializing
in local issues related to poverty and housing, had issued a report that summarized many
of these criticisms. The SPRC observed that, in spite of the Regions stated aim of
encouraging public involvement throughout all phases of the program, public input
was invited only after an original list of fifteen possible routes had been reduced to six,
all of which included the Red Hill Valley. The report also stated that it was also unclear
how (or if) the Region integrated public input into the decision-making process,
particularly in light of the fact that the route selected was ranked fifth out of the six
proposed routes in public questionnaire responses (Hamilton Spectator, September 24,
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1984). The SPRC raised concern that evaluation criteria, including population growth
projections, appeared to have been changed, deleted and reintroduced during different
stages of the evaluation. Lawyers for the Region responded only by noting that the
revision of population predictions had prompted a reconsideration of other alternatives
but that planners were confident that the road was still needed. They also questioned the
objectivity of the SPRC report, given that the group had collaborated with members of
Save the Valley in the past (Hamilton Spectator, February 11, 1985).
Finally, criticism was directed towards provincial planners and politicians for
allegedly pressuring the city into considering and favouring the Red Hill route. A brief
from the Regional chairman was presented that referred to the provinces interest and
investment in ensuring good access to its Heritage Green Development the newly
renamed Saltfleet satellite city housing development adjacent to the valley and owned
by the provinces own Ontario Land Corporation (Hamilton Spectator, March 4, 1985).
Representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Communication denied these
charges, insisting that they had only offered advice to the city and Region (March 1,
1985). Asked to provide further evidence but unable to convince to panel to order the
Region to produce all relevant internal documents, Herman Turkstra could only point to
the various public and private sector interests promoting the highway and note that the
Regions primary consultant, DelCan, was also recently employed by the Ontario Land
Corporation (Hamilton Spectator, March 4, 1985).
The joint-board panel announced their decision on October 24, 1985. The two
members of the Ontario Municipal Board ruled in favour of the highway, stating that the
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Region had conclusively shown that the project was required to meet a demonstrated
need, in terms of traffic demand enhance opportunities for future economic
development and to ensure the maintenance of the Regions existing industrial and
commercial economy (Jeffrey, Ball and Henderson 1985: 190). To their satisfaction,
the Region had demonstrated that the proposed road can be constructed in such a
manner that the physical qualities and the environment of the Valley can be greatly
enhanced to the benefit of the citizens of Hamilton (ibid: 187-188). Michael Jeffery,
the representative from the Environmental Assessment Board, reached the opposite
conclusions, declaring in his lengthy dissenting submission that he was unconvinced
that the proposed facility will, in any meaningful way, enhance economic growth in the
Region and it cannot, in my view, be supported on that ground (203). Indeed, Jeffrey
cited internal memos from the Province, City and Region to support his claim that the
Region had adopted such arguments only after population and traffic growth projections
were scaled back in 1981. He concluded that the proponent has failed to prove need on
the basis of projected traffic demand (ibid: 245) and that, even if such need could be
demonstrated, the road should not be located in the valley as it would inhibit the
preservation of this area as a continuous natural environment and is in fact incompatible
with that natural environment (ibid: 286).
While the other members of the panel found that the Region had completed an
exhaustive environmental assessment showing that all anticipated adverse impacts
on the environment will be successfully mitigated, (ibid: 196) Jeffrey highlighted the
failure to provide empirical data on traffic patterns and air quality and the lack of
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consideration of the roads impact on three adjacent landfill sites. He also noted that the
Region had provided no evidence that the city was able and willing to implement the
mitigation and rehabilitation measures outlined in the proposed Recreation Master Plan.
Jeffrey criticized the city for having failed to clean up and enhance the valley in its
natural state and questioned the prevailing idea that restoration will somehow be
better accomplished by the construction of an expressway (ibid: 284).
Finally, Jeffreys submission outlined the history of political pressure exerted by the
provincial Ministry of Transportation and Communication and the Technical Advisory
Committee, as detailed in the previous chapter. Citing both public reports and internal
documents submitted during the hearing, he demonstrated that planners and engineers
from both levels of government had continually pushed for the Red Hill route despite
the opposition and resolutions of elected officials at the city and regional level.
Furthermore, Jeffrey called attention to a perceived conflict of interest with respect to
DelCan and other consultants employed by the Region. He advised that in future
hearings attempts be made to ensure that the evidence being presented is not influenced
by the promise of future consultation contracts for the same project. Despite these
concerns, the Region soon offered the position of expressway project manager to Dale
Turvey, a former employee of DelCan.
Expressway opponents quickly launched a formal appeal of the joint-board decision
and began lobbying provincial politicians for support. A recent provincial election had
placed the Liberal party in power, ending 42 years of Conservative party rule, and anti-
expressway groups were hopeful that the new government would accept their argument
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that the Environmental Assessment had failed to establish the need for the highway.
Nevertheless, on March 13, 1987, Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament Lily Munro
announced that the Province had approved the project and told theHamilton Spectator
(March 13, 1987) that she would ensure that it would be a model project of how social
concerns can be wrapped together in transportation and environment. This vision of a
green road was echoed by the Spectatorin its description of the highway as a scenic
route that will be as beautiful as it is useful and provide incentive to clean up the
valley and end its career as an impromptu garbage dump (March 24, 1987). With an
estimated completion date of 1999, the Region soon established a highway steering
committee and began awarding contracts for preliminary construction work, including
local road realignments and bridge construction (Hamilton Spectator, June 6, 1990).7
Ecological Modernization and the Politics of Sustainable Development
The outcome of the 1985 joint-board hearing would have lasting impacts on the Red
Hill debate. Most obviously, the decision added further legal legitimacy to the political
support now provided by three levels of government. Furthermore, the various
arguments, ideas and representations articulated during the hearings would recur
throughout the following decades, setting the parameters of the popular debate as a
7 On the eve of an official ground-breaking ceremony for the project, John Ellis, chairman ofSave the Valley, reflected on the failure of activists to stop the project and pointed to a numberof factors, including the political expediency of the valley route; the focus of proponents onshort-term economic gain; a lack of investigative reporting from the local media; and theprevailing belief among local activists that reason and the system would protect the valley. Healso mentioned the tendency of environmentalists to be concerned with distant problems ratherthan local urban issues (Hamilton Spectator, June 6, 1990).
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conflict or trade off between economic growth and environmental conservation.
However, the larger political, economic and cultural context in which those ideas and
visions circulated was rapidly changing. The proliferation of discourses of sustainable
development and economic efficiency would provide new opportunities for both
proponents and critics of the Red Hill Creek Expressway to reframe the debate over the
citys future, expanding upon many of the ideas and arguments expressed through the
Joint Board Hearing.
By the early 1980s, coordinated restructuring programs of deregulation, privatization
and tax reduction had begun to emerge in the leading capitalist nations, spearheaded by
the right-wing governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Pointing to union
militancy and the wasteful social spending of big government as the primary causes
of the economic and political crises of the previous decade, these new administrations
aimed to dismantle the welfare state by removing regulatory constraints on international
trade, investment and financial services, drastically reducing government funding for
social programs, and shifting the tax base from corporations to individuals.
Discursively, these reforms were bolstered by appeals to the virtues of entrepreneurial
initiative, the demands of international competitiveness, the bureaucratic inefficiency of
government, and the alleged selfishness and inflexibility of labour (Saad-Filho and
Johnston 2004; Harvey 2007). Additional support was provided by neoconservative
narratives that celebrated individual responsibility, the inviolable right of private
property, and economic freedom from excessive taxation and government regulation,
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while warning of the threats to family values and traditional social roles posed by
radical social movements and other special interest groups (Frank 2000).
Cities played a prominent role in this era of roll back neoliberalization (Brenner
and Theodore 2002).8 Whereas local governments had previously served as the primary
point of administration for the standardized services of the welfare state, the role of the
local state was now redefined as one of facilitating and coordinating market-based
solutions for the production, distribution and exchange of goods and services by
mobilizing local resources, encouraging entrepreneurship, providing economic
incentives for innovation, and ensuring that urban policies did not interfere with the
profit-making ability of the private sector. Neoliberal urban policies focused on various
ways of attracting external investment by lowering the costs of state regulation,
capitalist production and social reproduction. In many ways, this could be seen as a
return to the vision of the early 20 th century municipal reform movements that sought to
recreate local governments in the image of the corporation by allegedly removing
political influence from their managerial role of facilitating economic growth (Tindal
and Tindal 2000).
8 Over the past three decades, the neoliberal critique of the welfare state has grown from amarginal academic debate into a globally influential discourse. This discourse has influenced a
wide variety of political and economic reforms that have been promoted by variousinternational organisations and adopted by governments around the world. However, contrary tothe claims of those who extol the universal benefits of unregulated free markets, neoliberalprojects and policy reforms vary greatly from one place to another. Rather than the internallyconsistent, fully realized ideology, policy regime or regulatory framework implied byneoliberalism, Peck and Tickell (2002) have referred to processes of neoliberalization market-driven transformations of economic, political and social relations that are incomplete,contradictory, contested, and contingent upon specific historical and geographical conditions.
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These sentiments accorded well with many business interests across Canada but such
urban policies were not widely adopted in this country until the mid 1990s.
Nevertheless, the neoliberal ideas and policy proposals exemplified by the governments
of Reagan and Thatcher had a significant influence on political discourse and practice
during the 1980s, particularly with respect to international trade. The federal
Conservative government headed by Brian Mulroney replaced the Trudeau Liberals in
1984, blaming Canadas economic problems on the previous governments alleged
hostility to US investment. With sustained and well organized support from business
advocacy groups such as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Conservatives
would go on to sign the Free Trade Agreement with the United States in 1988. This first
bi-national agreement later set the stage for the North American Free Trade Agreement
of 1994 and its controversial legal mechanisms for challenging governmental
regulations deemed trade restrictive (Shrybman 2001).
These trade agreements, along with a cheaper Canadian dollar and a sustained
economic boom in the United States, stimulated growth in commerce between the two
countries. Foreign direct investment in Canada grew during the 1990s but the vast
majority of this investment took the form of takeovers of Canadian companies by US
firms (Hemispheric Social Alliance 2003). Canadian manufacturing jobs declined
between 1988 and 1994 as many companies decentralized production processes, often
relocating labour-intensive assembly functions to countries with lower production
costs.9 In Hamilton, the slow growth of the 1970s had given way to a dramatic decline
9 The geographical decentralization of production systems has given rise to a new internationaldivision of labour characterized by the outsourcing and subcontracting of manufacturing from
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in manufacturing jobs during the 1980s. Manufacturing employment had reached a peak
in 1981 but soon declined over the next decade, as jobs were lost to capital flight,
outsourcing, bankruptcies and the further mechanization of production (Webber and
Fincher 1987). Stelco and Dofasco, Hamiltons largest employers, dramatically reduced
their workforces while changing manufacturing processes to meet the rise in
competition with foreign steel producers (Anderson 1987). Between 1981 and 1996,
almost fifty percent of local manufacturing jobs had been lost, while service sector jobs
grew, particularly in the field of health services. By the turn of the century, the Hamilton
Health Sciences Corporation had become the citys largest employer (Freeman 2001).
Hamiltons economy and workforce gradually became more integrated with the
Greater Toronto Area to the north and the Niagara Peninsula to the east. By the mid
1990s, more commuters were leaving the city for work than entering it. Suburban
development on the escarpment continued to expand, while the population of the lower
city continued to decline. Increasingly, the escarpment could be seen as a dividing line
between two cities. The mountain remained a predominantly suburban area, with large-
scale housing developments and commercial centres moving southward into the rural
developed to less developed regions and nations, primarily in the search for lower wages andgovernment regulations that are considered less intrusive and restrictive. Place-marketingbecomes increasingly important as cities compete for jobs and investment (Short 1999).
Formerly prosperous manufacturing centers are faced with rapid decline as they struggle toredefine and reposition themselves in relation to the economic processes that drive growthwithin these new regional and international urban hierarchies. This increase in economicdisparities between cities within the same nation is mirrored by increasing socio-economicpolarization within cities. The expansion of high-wage jobs tied to international finance andspecialized services has been accompanied by the growth of low-wage and/or part-time jobsthat are frequently non-unionized and poorly regulated, such as sweatshops and homeworking,and which rely heavily upon feminized and immigrant labour (Sassen 1994).
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periphery. By 2001, the household income on the mountain was 30.7 per cent higher
than other regions of the city and over two thirds of residents in this area were
homeowners. In contrast, the lower city has many more tenants, significantly lower
levels of household income, and a much older housing stock that includes many vacant
buildings (Freeman 2001). Those who live in the central and eastern sections of the
lower city also face higher concentrations of air pollution10 (Jerrett et al. 2001),
unemployment, poverty and homelessness (Social Planning and Research Council 2003,
2004). Racial divisions have also become more pronounced as more visible minorities
and recent immigrants settle within the inner city, particularly within low-rent
neighbourhoods (Bird 2006).
As discussed earlier, proponents of the Red Hill Creek Expressway responded to the
gradual decline of employment along Hamiltons industrial waterfront with an
increasing emphasis on the necessity of the road for stimulating and servicing industrial
and commercial development on the escarpment. This argument contrasted with the
RegionsEnvironmental Assessment Submission from 1982, which presented the road as
a vital response to projected increases in north-south traffic flows across the
escarpment, as people commuted between the growing suburbs there and employment
located in the lower city to the north. Here, the circular logic mentioned earlier is starkly
revealed. As Michael Webber and Ruth Fincher (1987: 248) noted in their critical
assessment of the project, if the expressway does lead to the creation of new jobs and
10 The concentration of air pollution in the lower city is exacerbated by air temperature inversions that arecreated by the escarpment, often trapping pollutants in the lower city beneath a layer of warmer airmasses (Rouse and Burghardt 1987).
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business south of the escarpment, as the regions consultants predict, then it is precisely
this that will reduce use of the proposed escarpment-crossing road, because people will
not need to drive north to work or shop.
Nevertheless, from the late 1980s onwards, many proponents emphasized the need
for the expressway as an essential means of attracting new investment to employment
lands on the escarpment rather than servicing existing industrial development on the
waterfront. Advocates emphasized the threats to local jobs posed by growing inter-
urban competition for investment within an emergent global economy and the need to
create a favourable business climate to encourage that investment and reclaim
Hamiltons status as a vibrant and powerful urban centre. The provision of large, well-
serviced greenfields on the escarpment was presented as crucial to the citys success in
this new economic environment and the road was presented as a vital piece of this larger
development plan, along with various industrial parks, the John C. Munro International
airport further south, and commercial areas such as the proposed Meadowlands big
box development to the west.
While this vision of Hamiltons future was supported by growing acceptance of the
neoliberal conception of the city as global competitor, another related discourse of
urban renewal was beginning to dramatically reshape the dominant environmental
imaginary of the industrial city. Following the publication of the Brundtland Report by
the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, the concept of
sustainable development circulated widely, shifting the environmental debate away
from the limits to growth imposed by the depletion of natural resources and toward the
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actual practices and goals of development. This naturally brought with it a focus on
urbanization and the articulation of a brown agenda for urban health and
sustainability to complement the more familiar green agenda of global environmental
problems such as resource depletion, deforestation and global warming (Satterthwaite
1997.
The ambiguity of sustainable development and its optimistic promise of a new era of
people and planet-friendly development has contributed both to its wide-spread
acceptance and to ongoing debates about what sustainable development actually means
in practice (Redclift 1987; Mebratu 1998; Robinson 2001). Interpretations vary greatly,
but all generally accept the basic thesis of ecological modernization, which maintains
that the social, political and economic practices and institutions of capitalist
modernization can and must be modified to create a new strategy for long-term
economic and ecological stability, alleviating both poverty and environmental
deterioration (Christoff 1996; Mol 1996, 2001). Based on the recognition of the
negative environmental impacts of economic growth, the global scale of many of these
problems, and the failures of the piecemeal end-of-pipe solutions promoted by the
standard view of environmental management, ecological modernization recommends
that the ad hoc, fragmented and bureaucratic approach to state regulation should be
replaced by a far more systematic set of politics, institutional arrangements and
regulatory practices (Harvey 1996: 377).
The Rio Earth Summit of 1992 further advanced the discussion of ecological
modernization and urban sustainability through its implementation programme, Agenda
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21. This document was intended to assist the creation of effective national and local
strategies for sustainability, with a strong focus on urban issues, environmental
education and the need for public dialogue and engagement. Agenda 21 and subsequent
elaborations of urban sustainability by prominent government and non-governmental
bodies over the last fifteen years have helped to shape a dominant discourse that
emphasizes urban environmental management, good governance and technological
innovation (Haughton and Hunter 1994; Brand and Thomas 2005). As many have
argued, this discourse of environmental management, like previous forms of
developmentalism,11 is firmly grounded in European Enlightenment notions of a single
path to progress and the redemptive powers of science and technology (The Ecologist
1993; Sachs 1999). As Anne Broadhead writes, by taking the language of ecology and
diversity and marrying it to the economic exploitation and growth that led to
environmental deterioration in the first instance, the Brundtland Report can be seen to
be responsible for the construction of a limited and limiting concept one that diffuses
critique by reconciling the inherent tension in the logic of growth and development
(2002: 44)
11 Developmentalism here refers the notion of development as political ideology, based on aset of core assumptions that include: 1) linear modernization: the belief that all of the worlds
nations are moving along the same track toward greater maturity and prosperity, exemplified bywealthy Western nations such as the United States; 2) the sustainability of capitalism: the beliefthat capitalism is infinitely sustainable, and can and should be adopted by all nations; 3) theuniversal benefits of growth: the belief that economic growth is the key to human well-beingand happiness. All of these beliefs have, of course, been profoundly shaken by the widespreadrecognition that capitalist development and modernization, particularly in its present neoliberalform, is creating enormous wealth for some and terrible poverty for others, while contributing toenvironmental degradation that increasingly threatens the survival of human and non-human life(Sachs 1992; Rahnema and Bawtree 1997; Easterly 2007).
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In an urban context, this dominant discourse frequently employs apolitical
conceptions of the city as a dynamic system or organism and, like earlier functionalist
models of urban metabolism, assumes a rational choice perspective in which emphasis
is placed upon the effective management of individual and collective behaviour (Gandy
2004). In the march towards urban sustainability, issues of cultural difference and
political and economic power remain neglected or obscured. This approach easily
coexists with neoliberal economic trends and faith in the power of unregulated markets
to foster the innovation required for sustainable development. In such a context,
urbanization is taken as an evolutionary phenomenon and the significance of the
globalization of capital is subsumed within Darwinian analogies of urban competition
(Brand and Thomas 2005: 39).
The widespread adoption of urban sustainability discourse and practice during the
1990s should be understood in the wider context of the crisis of Fordist urbanization
and the search for new forms of economic development, urban governance and social
regulation (Keil and Graham 1998). These crisis tendencies, emerging since the 1970s,
revolve around decreases in the financial capacity of the public sector to maintain low-
density housing and infrastructure, the drain of suburbanization upon central urban
regions, growing public concern for environmental health and the preservation of
existing communities, social polarization and a more general disenchantment with
modernist values and consumption patterns (Filion 1995). The turn toward a discourse
of sustainability in urban planning and politics can be seen as part of the larger shift
throughout the advanced capitalist nations towards more flexible, decentralized
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modes of production, consumption patterns and institutional norms in the attempt to
address the conflicts and contradictions that emerged within the Fordist paradigm
(Amin 1994).
The compact, green city presents a potent image for re-imagining and re-marketing
cities in the effort to attract new investment, while responding to public concern over
the detrimental impacts of development. This re-branding is particularly attractive to
industrial centres as they work to counter negative images of pollution and decline
(Watson 1991; Short 1999). In addition to recasting a citys image, the rehabilitation of
polluted urban spaces and investments in environmentally friendly measures such as
public transit can open up new spaces for investment and attract people to previously
undesirable areas (Desfor and Keil 2004). Further, investment in energy and waste
reduction programs promised to provide real savings for governments, businesses and
residents in an era of cost-cutting and funding roll-backs. The adoption of sustainability
discourse within urban planning can also be seen as a way of re-casting and
reinvigorating the role of the planner in the midst of the neoliberal contraction of the
state. With the shift towards market-based solutions and collaborative modes of urban
governance, the planning profession began to redefine itself as managing
communicative processes rather than state budgets and public investment. Urban
sustainability provided substantive content to the deliberative procedures of
communicative planning, drawing together the increasingly important issues of social
cohesion, quality of life, and economic development (Brand and Thomas 2005: 40).
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Drawing upon the work of David Harvey (1982, 1996), While, Jonas and Gibbs
(2004: 151) have usefully conceptualized the selective adoption of environmental goals
within urban policy regimes in terms of the search for an urban sustainability fix the
effort to safeguard growth trajectories in the wake of industrial capitalisms long
downturn, the global ecological crisis and the rise of popular environmentalism. In the
midst of neoliberal state restructuring, and under the twin pressures of growing
environmental concern and a resurgent urban entrepreneurialism, the discourse of urban
sustainability provided a way of trying to reconcile conflicting imperatives and interests
by balancing economic, social and environmental demands (ibid). However, this
balancing act is never an easy one, as the case of Hamilton demonstrates.12
In the Hamilton region, the discourse of sustainable development challenged some of
the basic features of the dominant industrial imaginary, particularly the conception of
nature as a raw material and waste sink for economic production. Ecological
modernization suggested a shift from a linear model of urban metabolism in which
natural processes are simply utilized and wastes externalized to a circular model of
biophysical exchange that defines urban sustainability in terms of the achievement of
homeostatic stability and efficiency, primarily through technological and regulatory
12
On a more global scale, we can understand the embrace of sustainability as part of an emergent
ecological phase of capitalism (Escobar 1995; OConnor 1996; Luke 1997). The primarydynamic of capitalism changes form, from accumulation and growth feeding on an externaldomain to ostensible self-management and conservation of the system of capitalized natureclosed back on itself. Conditions of production that previously absorbed the extra burdens ofunhealthy working conditions and provided an external domain of exploitation, includingnatural environments, public spaces, and communal, domestic and subsistence forms of labourand social organization, are re-conceptualized as productive sectors of the economy that must bepriced and factored into the sustainable management of capital on a planetary scale (OConnor1994: 126).
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innovation (Giradet 1992). As discussed below, many planners and business interests in
Hamilton embraced this vision as a way of revitalizing the regions economy and
identity, recasting the industrial city as a clean, efficient and innovative green city. In
addition, the discourse of sustainable development provided further impetus for moving
towards a more collaborative mode of local governance, as demonstrated by the
Vision 2020 plan discussed below.
These discursive shifts opened up new challenges and opportunities for those
involved in the expressway conflict. The dominant narrative of growth and progress
articulated by expressway proponents continued to foreground the political frames of
urban growth, representative democracy, and freedom and prosperity, but the language
of sustainable development now provided a means of presenting the expressway as vital
to the economic sustainability of the region in the face of the new challenges
presented by economic globalization, even as this same discourse presented new
challenges with its emphasis on collaborative governance and increased pressure to
reconcile urban development with the degradation of land, water and air. Expressway
opponents were provided with new discursive support for their arguments, linking the
local struggle against the expressway to a seemingly renewed global effort to address
ecological degradation, even as the language of sustainability was quickly being co-
opted by business interests and fused with the imperatives of neoliberal urbanization.
Nevertheless, as detailed below, the language of sustainable development and urban
sustainability, alongside the new social fissures and economic divisions exacerbated up
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by neoliberalization, provided new tools and opportunities for advancing the struggle
against the expressway and the larger vision of urban development it represented.
Vision 2020: Participatory Planning and the Promise of Ecological Modernization
As early as 1989, the Region of Hamilton Wentworth had established a citizen Task
Force on Sustainable Development, composed of volunteers from various sectors,
including the local government, academia, business, and a variety of community groups.
Through community forums and discussion groups, this group facilitated public input in
the creation of a comprehensive urban sustainability plan for the Hamilton region. Well
over one thousand citizens participated at various stages through working groups and
implementation teams assigned to develop reports on specific theme areas, and/or
public forums that solicited input on the principles, goals and implementation of the
plan (City of Hamilton 2003a). Out of this process, the Vision 2020 sustainability plan
was generated a collection of principles, goals, strategies and policy recommendations
intended to guide municipal planning. Invoking the familiar language of the Brundtland
Report, sustainable development in Hamilton is defined as the achievement in all
decision making of a balance between the three legs of sustainability: the economy, the
natural environment, and social/health factors; and the recognition of the need to
preserve a balance between the needs of present and future generations (Regional
Municipality of Hamilton Wentworth 1998a).
Task Force studies were designed to identify emerging trends and potential
opportunities for diversifying the local economy. From the beginning, Vision 2020
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followed popular definitions of sustainable development in placing its emphasis on the
efficient use of existing resources, collaborative decision-making, and the promotion of
socially and environmentally responsible forms of economic and technological
development. Simultaneously, the local government began reorienting its development
strategy toward the world market, competing with other cities to attract investment from
regional and multi-national capital by offering cheap commercial space and
accommodations on the periphery of the more expensive economic heartland of
Toronto.
The plans recommendations include the identification and protection of natural areas
and corridors; improving water resources; improving air quality; waste reduction and
diversion; the reduction of energy consumption; the promotion of a compact urban
form; ensuring good health and the provision of adequate social services; community
empowerment; support for cultural diversity and the arts; support for local agriculture;
encouraging diversity and innovation within the local economy; and the reduction of
reliance on the private automobile by increasing support for alternative modes of
transportation. Following the publication of the report, discussion and debate of the
different means of implementing the plan began. The Region created a Staff Working
Group on Sustainable Development with the mandate of facilitating the
implementation of the vision statement in the operations of the municipality and also
assisted in establishing Citizens for a Sustainable Community, a volunteer citizens
group charged with encouraging public support for the plan within the wider
community (Regional Municipality of Hamilton Wentworth 1998a).
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Vision 2020 drew upon a number of sources of inspiration and energy. In addition to
the Brundtland Report and the proliferation of sustainable development discourse at an
international level, ecosystem-based planning had been popularized at the national level
by Canadas 1990 Green Plan and at the local level by the development of a multi-
stakeholder Remedial Action Plan for the rehabilitation of the Hamilton Harbour. This
later effort, which began in 1986, generated considerable enthusiasm for collaborative
environmental governance and the possibilities for tackling the significant levels of
pollution within the Harbour (Sproule-Jones 1999). At a regional scale, these same
principles of collaborative ecosystem planning were promoted by the Royal
Commission on the Future of Torontos Waterfront (RCFTW), a joint federal-provincial
effort that created recommendations for the regeneration of the waterfront: the
development of other Remedial Action Plans; the protection of environmentally
sensitive areas; improved public access; and the establishment of a waterfront trail from
Niagara to the eastern fringes of the Greater Toronto Area (RCFTW 1991; 1992). The
designation of the Niagara Escarpment as a world biosphere reserve by the United
Nations in 1990 drew further attention to the ecological significance of natural areas
linked to this massive land formation, including the Red Hill Valley, and helped support
the efforts of community groups working to protect the escarpment from the impacts of
encroaching development.13
13
The most prominent of these groups is the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment (CONE),formed in 1978 in response to the encroachment of aggregate industries and housingdevelopments on escarpment lands. CONE was involved in the creation of the NiagaraEscarpment Plan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The coalition is composed of hundreds ofindividual members and over 20 environmental organizations, including the Hamilton
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The successes of the Vision 2020 process, particularly its comprehensiveness and
depth of public participation, were celebrated by the International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), which selected Hamilton to participate in the United
Nations Local Agenda 21 Model Community programme in 1993. Other awards from
Environment Canada and the Recycling Council of Ontario soon followed. A number of
recommendations based on the Vision 2020 plan were formally integrated into the
Regions new Official Plan in 1994 and implementation programs for transportation and
pollution prevention were initiated. A sustainable decision-making guide was
established, requiring staff to consider all decisions in relation to the principles of the
Vision 2020 plan, along with a Staff Working Group on Sustainable Development
charged with integrating those principles into departmental work programs. Spin-off
projects included the establishment of the Hamilton Air Quality Initiative, a multi-
stakeholder initiative involving researchers and various levels of government. Through
further public consultations, an annual report of Sustainable Community Indicators
was developed to monitor progress towards the goals of the Vision and convey this
information to the public. Modest goals were achieved over the remainder of the 1990s,
particularly with respect to waste reduction, and the indicators report helped to sustain
public interest in the plan, locally and internationally. Nevertheless, the plan was not
widely understood or accepted within the halls of municipal government and in the
wider community, due to both a general lack of understanding of sustainability and to
active political resistance to policy changes considered radical or impractical.14
Naturalists Club and the Conserver Society of Hamilton and District.14
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Under the pressures of funding cuts, population growth, aging infrastructure and the
perceived need to market the city to global capital, the improvement of environmental
quality and the strategic use of local skills and resources increasingly came to be seen
by many local politicians, planners and entrepreneurs as the key to economic success.
Alliances between non-state actors and local government and the creation of
collaborative strategies for economic development that will mobilize local resources are
crucial to this post-Fordist strategy (Mayer 1993), and the participatory processes of
Vision 2020 can be understood as an attempt to build these kind of bridges. Considered
in this strategic economic frame, sustainability is understood as an alternative approach
to development that considers the social, environmental and economic costs, benefits
and risks, for the present and future generations, of any given program, policy or
project (City of Hamilton 2003c: 1). Incremental improvements in environmental
management and resource efficiency, and the sharing of environmental responsibility
between citizens, government and business, are identified as the principle means of
achieving a sustainable community (ibid: 1). What remained unexamined in this
approach, however, were the very different understandings of sustainability and
development that different participants brought to the table (Oddie 2003).
Probably the most significant barrier to this initiative and one which maybe we should havespent more time on before starting the Task Force has been community awareness andunderstanding. Although the efforts of the last seven years has increased the proportion ofpeople in the community who are aware of sustainable development to between 10 to 15percent, when the initiative started it was extremely low. The final products of the Task Forcemay have been stronger and had better community support if a larger proportion of thepopulation understood the purpose of the initiative and its importance (Region of HamiltonWentworth 1997: 41).
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Roadblock: Money, Trees and the NDP
Sustainability discourse, largely within an ecological modernization frame focused on
collaborative governance, technological innovation and economic renewal, also figured
prominently in the election platform of the Ontario NDP. In 1990, they gained power for
the first time in Ontarios history under the leadership of Bob Rae. The NDP had
traditionally faired well in Hamilton, with its long history of labour politics, and in this
election, all six of the local provincial ridings went to the NDP. Rumours quickly began
circulating that the NDP was considering withdrawing provincial funding for the Red
Hill Creek Expressway in response to both public concern and a perceived
incompatibility with their platform focus on sustainability (Hamilton Spectator,
November 16, 1990). Nevertheless, the Region continued ahead with preliminary
construction work, including the tendering of a contract for the removal of trees along
the pathway of the highway. In December, 1990, the Province asked the Region to
postpone the tendering of the contract to allow for three weeks of deliberation, but this
request was rejected by Regional Chairman Reg Whynott. In response, the NDP soon
announced that provincial funding for the project was cancelled, citing the concerns
raised in Michael Jeffreys dissenting joint-board hearing report and arguing that the
Red Hill Creek valley is irreplaceable, it is a natural asset that Hamilton must not lose
(Hamilton Spectator, December 17, 1990).
Reaction to this decision was swift and predictable. Local environmentalists
applauded the decision, while business groups reacted with astonishment and anger. The
most prominent and vocal groups still included the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce,
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the Hamilton-Halton Homebuilders, the Hamilton Construction Association and the
Hamilton Automobile Club (Hamilton Spectator, December 19, 1990). In the weeks
following the cancellation, the Spectator published numerous letters and articles on the
debate, along with editorials that decried the governments decision and called for the
reinstatement of funding. Again, familiar arguments were utilized, including estimations
of the millions of dollars in lost business and thousands of lost jobs caused by the
cancellation (ibid, April 15, 1991), predictions of an imminent traffic crisis (ibid,
December 19, 1990), and the depiction of the valley as a garbage dump no longer
worthy of preservation (Hamilton Spectatoreditorial, December 18, 1990).15Proponents
sought to represent the NDP decision as anti-democratic, arguing that the expressway
project was the product of the democratic political process and methodological, long-
term planning (ibid,December 21, 1990), representing the will of the majority in
contrast to the special interest groups that had allegedly influenced the NDP (Tom
Buck quoted inHamilton Spectator, February 2, 1991).
Those opposed to the project continued to be represented as environmentalists who
were privileging trees and wildlife preservation over the progress of our
technological, urbanized society (ibid) (Figure 4.4). Letters to the editor repeated the
familiar argument that the destruction of greenspace was the price of progress and
framed the debate as a choice between progress or environment (ibid, February 18,
15
The Region announced that development in the upper Stoney Creek area would have to belimited to a population of 15,000 people due to the cancellation of the expressway, but soonlifted this cap to 16,500 in 1993 under pressure from local developers. Proposals for furtherresidential developments raised this cap again to 21,000 in 1996 (Friends of Red Hill Valleynewsletter, January 1998).
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1991), between reason and dogma (Larry DiIanni, quoted inHamilton Spectator,
January 11, 1991), between creating jobs or saving trees (Hamilton Spectator,
December 24, 1990). A serious economic recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
amplifying local concerns over unemployment and investment, bolstered these
arguments. The Region presented a more nuanced version of the economic progress
versus environmental protection frame that drew upon the language of ecological
modernization. They claimed that the expressway project reflects a broader
appreciation of the environment which includes not only the natural environment, but
also consideration of people and the economic well-being of the community, and
represented critics of the project as narrowly focused upon the protection of flora and
fauna (ibid, December 22, 1990).
Figure 4.4: Tree Crossing (Hamilton Spectator, January 5, 1991)
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Shortly after the NDPs announcement, Stoney Creek councillor Larry DiIanni told
the Spectator, We have to make the government hear rational voices We have to
organize like the groups that got the government to make this decision in the first place
(Hamilton Spectator, January 11, 1991). Expressway supporters quickly did just that.
Members of the Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton Construction Association, Hamilton
Real Estate Board, the Automobile Club and the Centennial Ratepayers Group created
the Citizens Expressway Committee (CEC) to lobby the provincial government and
drum up local support. This group helped to organize a number of public meetings and
rallies for local business interests in support of the highway, including a visit from
provincial Progressive Conservative leader Mike Harris, who indicated that his party
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would restore funding if elected (ibid, February 8, 1991). The Liberal party also soon
indicated their support (ibid, October 1, 1991). The CEC organized a number of protests
against the provincial NDP, including a rally of 600 people at Queens Park (ibid, May
15, 1991) (Figure 4.5) and disruption of the NDP party convention (ibid, June 20,
1992). The Spectatorprovided a great deal of coverage of the CECs actions and
published a number of advertisements for the group, including a sixteen-page
supplement in the newspaper in advance of the Queens Park rally (ibid, May 9, 1991).16
Figure 4.5: Pro-Expressway Rally at Queens Park (Hamilton Spectator, May 16,
1991)
16
This advertisement provoked a letter of concern from Dana Robbins of the Southern OntarioNewspaper Guild Local 87 (Hamilton Spectator, May 8, 1991). Curiously, Robbins would latergo on to become the papers Editor-in-Chief.
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At the same time, anti-expressway forces were gathering strength for a new wave of
activism, taking advantage of the political opportunities presented by the funding
cancellation, the increase in public concern about environmental issues and an emergent
popular discourse of urban sustainability. The energies of Save the Valley and other
opposition groups had dissipated at this point, exhausted by the failure of the joint-
board process. Friends of Red Hill Valley was formed in 1991 and would go on to
distinguish itself from previous waves of opposition through the diverse strategies they
employed, the broad coalitions they helped support, and their ability to adapt quickly
and effectively to changing circumstances and political opportunities. Like previous
opposition groups, Friends initially focused on promoting the value of the valley as a
recreational and ecological resource but soon began placing a particular emphasis on
public education and public engagement in the valley, gradually developing a diverse
program of active stewardship that included guided walks, ecological monitoring
programs, community clean-up days, and other public events such as the annual Good
Friday hike. Early newsletters also celebrated the rich human history of the valley,
before and after colonization. Friends adopted a shotgun approach, looking at the
issue from multiple angles and circulating multiple arguments against the expressway
through their newsletter, letter-writing campaigns, media articles and community events
(Don McLean, February 18, 2007). Operated by a small core group with experience in
both academia and activism, the organization quickly broadened its informal
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membership through networking with other environmental groups around Southern
Ontario.17
Following the funding cancellation, the Region had shifted their attention to the east-
west mountain expressway. The province pushed for the reconsideration of alternative
north-south routes such as Highway 20 and Fruitland Road, while the Hamilton
Conservation Authority offered to take over management of the valley. The Region
rejected these options and announced that it was now considering the possibility of
funding the Red Hill route by itself (Hamilton Spectator, July 2, 1991). Friends and
other local groups began lobbying the provincial government to designate the valley as
a provincial park, pointing to a recent biological inventory by the Hamilton Naturalists
Club that demonstrated the diversity of wildlife and plant species in the valley (ibid,
September 24, 1993).
At the end of 1992, the Conservation Authority offered to broker a deal with the
province for an alternative route (Hamilton Spectator, December 2, 1992) and the
Province eventually responded by appointing David Crombie, former Toronto mayor
and a former federal cabinet minister, to try and negotiate a compromise with the
Region (ibid, October 9, 1993). Crombie had recently chaired the Royal Commission on
the Future of Torontos Waterfront and his appointment generated optimism among
those opposed to the expressway. In particular, Friends noted the Royal Commissions
promotion of greenways: corridors of protected greenspace, throughout the cities and
17 For example, I first encountered representatives of the Friends of Red Hill Valley and learned about theexpressway debate through an activist workshop organized by the Ontario Public Interest Research Groupat Brock University.
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beyond, into the countryside (quoted in Friends of Red Hill Valley newsletter,
December 1993). Their optimism was surely tempered by the rigid position of many
local politicians, exemplified by Mayor Bob Morrows declaration: If [Mr. Crombie]
recommends something other than Red Hill for the expressway, then we will wait for a
change in government to build this (Hamilton Spectator, October 15, 1993).
Other avenues of possible resistance to the expressway were also appearing at this
point. Under a newly elected Liberal government, local politician and expressway
opponent Sheila Copps had been appointed as federal Minister of the Environment,
declaring her support for environmentally friendly infrastructure and the privileging
of mass transit over roadways. The valley itself had revealed new questions and
concerns when a local artist painting near the Red Hill Creek uncovered various Native
artefacts, dating back to around 2200 to 1800 B.C (Hamilton Spectator, June 18, 1993).
This discovery prompted McMaster University archaeologist William Noble to suggest
a full archaeological survey and offer his services to the Region. That same year,
migrating salmon were sighted in the Creek for the first time in over one hundred years
(Friends of Red Hill Valley newsletter, July 1993). The salmon and other fish
encountered great difficulty as a result of the concrete channelization of the creek that
had taken place during preliminary construction work near the northern end of the
valley, and local citizens began the practice of catching and carrying salmon over this
obstruction.
The flourishing of local sustainability initiatives, ecological restoration efforts and
green businesses such as recycling and other environmental services during this
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period fuelled optimism about Hamiltons potential to recast its image and economy
around the principles of sustainable development. Restoration efforts in and around
Hamilton Harbour had now extended further west into Cootes Paradise and a new
harbour front public park and trail system had opened just north of the downtown core
on former industrial land (Wakefield 2006), while local companies such as Philip
Environmental and Zenon Environmental Inc. were gaining international notoriety for
their respective forays into renewable waste management and water purification
(Kendrick and Moore 1995). The economic benefits of ecological modernization were
spelled out in a federal report on rehabilitation of the harbour, linking these efforts to
the potential of improving quality of life in the Hamilton area, encouraging urban
intensification and attracting and retaining new industries specializing in environmental
products services, communications and electronics manufacturing. This emphasis on
green business was front and centre in the Vision 2020 plan as well as the final report
of the Renaissance Project, a parallel commit