Brian McHattie, one of the founders of Environment Hamilton a decade ago, ranks the adoption of an environmental justice approach as its major achievement.
Environmental groups working in the city 10 years ago, “tended to be fairly low key. They weren’t as in your face as might be required.
A justice approach, “made the link that a lot of bad air quality, bad water, existed in areas of the city where there were also poverty and low income issues, areas where people didn’t have the same tools to fight Stelco and Dofasco. “It was giving these people the tools to record what they wee seeing and then gauge the legal process through the ministry of the environment to seek charge,” the Ward One councillor said.
“To be frank, we needed an organization that would call a spade a spade and say that the air and water pollution that was occurring was unacceptable . . . Environment Hamilton took a bit more of a combative role. To me, that was the departure point from other environmental groups in town.”
He also recalls the Red Hill Expressway as a pivotal turning point. The work of environmental groups meant the highway was, “the most environmentally friendly road you could have got,” citing ecological monitoring, tree planting and natural stream channel design. “They spent many more millions of dollars on it than they otherwise would have.”
As Environment Hamilton enters its second decade, longstanding problems remain with some having the potential to become more acute. ‘A lot of the pollution issues are still there, the kind of stuff that’s been worked on for many decades. Lynda and EH are still having challenges with Dofasco, for example. There are various emissions they’re still not dealing with.
“On the land use side, there’s the urban boundary extension and potential loss of farmland.
“The other issue I think is important is biodiversity, the loss of species in the Hamilton area due to the loss of habitat, largely, or the quality of habitat. It’s an incremental loss, but nobody’s really doing a cumulative assessment on that . . . There is loss related to habitat, climate change, and air and water quality.
“I think we need to develop a big picture strategy on that. From a strategic perspective, we need to decide who plays what role on the activist side, the NGO side, and how do you get the city to raise its game and the Conservation Authority to do something a bit more activist than they are.
“For example, we’re going to build a housing development and there is a 15-metre buffer to the forest. Is that adequate? I would suggest definitely not, but that tends to be the standard comment of conservation authorities. How do you get them to take a more scientific examination on what that buffer should be?
McHattie believes the future will see continued expansion of grassroots citizen environmental involvement. “There’s increased awareness amongst the population. The children going through school are much ore aware of these issues, but it’s not a given that governments will be more responsive.
“Here, we will do stuff that’s easy to do, like energy conservation because there’s a financial benefit. But questions like the housing buffer issue, for example, are the real tests. Are we really serious about this stuff? I think we have a long way to go.
“I’m clearly in the minority on council. For whatever reason, progressive people or environmentalists, whatever you want to call them, aren’t running for council and if they are, they aren’t being effective. That’s my frustration as one of 16 members of council.”
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