Fred Eisenberger

Tuesday January 7, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 7, 2020

Maybe Sewergate is a turning point for Cootes Paradise

December 7, 2019

On Nov. 21, Royal Botanical Gardens hosted our second open house to inform the public of progress made in our 25-year master plan and to obtain valuable feedback from the community that will help RBG develop a bold new direction through 2045 and beyond.

Our plan aims to address environmental pressures while transforming the Gardens into a world-class tourist destination and leader in conservation and environmental education. The scope of this project will effectpositive societal change for future generations and have significant economic and environmental impacts within southern Ontario and beyond. Naturally, we were very excited to spread the news of our plans at the open house.

September 8, 2018

With coffee in hand, I started that morning with great anticipation, but as I opened The Hamilton Spectator, I was dismayed to read (a now infamous story) that 24 billion litres of sewage and stormwater run-off had leaked into Chedoke Creek.

The focus in the news was on Chedoke Creek. Many people do not realize that Chedoke Creek discharges directly into the eastern corner of Cootes Paradise on its way out to Hamilton Harbour. Many people also do not realize that Cootes Paradise is part of Royal Botanical Gardens lands and that we are the stewards of this incredible area that is part of the Great Lakes System of North America.

January 8, 2008

I was both upset and optimistic with this news, as was Drew Wensley, CEO of MT Planners Ltd. I was upset that the positive news of our master plan would be overshadowed by the news of the spill, yet both of us were optimistic that perhaps now, RBG and Cootes Paradise would finally get the attention they need and, more importantly, deserve.

For almost eight decades, we have been working on improving the water quality of Cootes Paradise to enable the aquatic plants to return, creating a better ecosystem where flora and fauna will thrive. For 25 years, we have been involved in one of the largest fresh-water marsh restoration projects in North America — “Project Paradise” — and as of 2015, we had restored about 50 per cent of the marsh’s vegetation. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday December 21, 2019

December 21, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 21, 2019

Auditor general is looking into cost estimates for Hamilton LRT

Ontario’s auditor general says she’ll look at how reasonable the province’s cost estimates were for Hamilton light-rail transit (LRT) as part of an upcoming audit of Metrolinx.

December 17, 2019

A key construction union is also investigating the government’s numbers, and says its preliminary investigation shows the province has been misled.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk said in a letter to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath Thursday that she already started a value-for-money audit of Metrolinx governance and operations earlier this month.

“As part of this audit, we will be looking at the reasonableness of the cost estimates for rapid transit projects, including the Hamilton LRT,” she said.

Lysyk was responding to a request from Horwath, who represents Hamilton Centre. The province cancelled an LRT project earlier this week that runs 14 kilometres through three NDP ridings, including Horwath’s. The province will still invest $1 billion in Hamilton, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said, but a task force will decide how it’s spent.

Horwath wrote Lysyk on Wednesday asking her to look into the Ministry of Transportation estimate that Hamilton LRT would cost $5.5 billion in capital, operating and maintenance over 30 years.

December 18, 2019

Mulroney said the estimate was the reason her government cancelled LRT. The ministry hired a third-party consultant, she said, after “proponents in the market” alerted her that the Hamilton project was over budget.

Horwath wants Lysyk to investigate why the cost-per-kilometre is higher for Hamilton’s LRT than the Hurontario and Finch West lines.

“The minister is refusing to disclose the third-party consultant’s report that the premier cites as validation for his figures,” Horwath told Lysyk, “so the public has no way of independently assessing them.”

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) announced earlier this week its investment arm would do its own review of the numbers. The union said in a statement Friday that preliminary figures show the province’s numbers were inflated. (CBC)



 

Tuesday December 17, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 17, 2019

A ‘betrayal’ of the City of Hamilton — Ontario pulls out of LRT

Doug Ford’s Tory government abruptly cancelled Hamilton’s LRT project Monday blaming billions of dollars in budget overruns — then teased $1 billion in transportation makeup cash, instead.

Hamilton LRT Gallery

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney gave up on a public announcement of the bombshell news after a crowd of residents and council members — including Mayor Fred Eisenberger — crashed a downtown Hamilton press briefing.

A visibly upset Eisenberger then took over proceedings and told the crowd the Tory government had killed the long-planned project in a “betrayal of the City of Hamilton.”

The mayor pointed out Premier Doug Ford publicly committed to the project — with the memorable quote “he wants an LRT, he’s going to get an LRT” — just weeks after the pro-light rail mayor won a convincing municipal election victory in late 2018.

“That was a lie and they’ve been angling to cut this project ever since,” Eisenberger said.

In a phone call Monday, Mulroney said she understood she was delivering “difficult news,” but emphasized the province cannot forge ahead with a project it now believes will cost $5.5 billion over 30 years.

The minister also reiterated the province’s $1-billion commitment to transportation in the city remains — but details are so far scarce on what the money could be spent on and who makes the decision.

December 7, 2019

Mulroney acknowledged the “anger and frustration” of residents who only nine months ago heard former Tory transportation minister Jeff Yurek announce the $1-billion LRT was “good to go forward” after a funding freeze described as a delay to study project viability.

Hamilton Chamber of Commerce head Keanin Loomis said he gave the Tory government “so much credit” for publicly sticking with the Liberal-approved project back in March. “I don’t know now if they knew at that point that they were going to do a bait-and-switch, but regardless, it is devastating for the economy in Hamilton,” he said.

Developer and union vice-president Joe Mancinelli said the project meant “thousands of jobs” to local construction workers and spurred LIUNA to start building two different towers along the route. “These are decisions that were (based) on a commitment that was made by the provincial government,” he said.

Mulroney said the incoming PC government was indeed concerned about the LRT budget from the get-go in 2018, but opted to get an independent cost estimate “to see if we could (still) deliver the project.”

Provincial officials forwarded to journalists a summarized page of “expert third-party” cost estimates that suggest the “total costs of the LRT” — including construction, financing and 30 years of operations and maintenance — had ballooned to $5.5 billion. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday December 7, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 7, 2019

With Sewergate, too many Hamilton councillors still don’t get it

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

That line, borrowed from the classic 1967 Paul Newman movie “Cool Hand Luke,” can actually be applied to the situation that continues to fester in Hamilton. Yes, we’re talking about Sewergate.

November 26, 2019

Another way to put it would be that we have a fundamental disconnect. And another: They just don’t get it.

We’re referring to the gulf that now exists between most members of Hamilton city council and the constituents who elected them. Those same constituents who are still talking and writing about Sewergate. In barbershops and salons, in coffee shops and bars. Chances are, if you go to a place where people congregate and talk, this is one of the things they’ll be talking about.

The number of published letters to the editor is now officially a record in modern memory. And those are just the ones suitable for print. Many others were not, for reasons of length, language or extreme viewpoints. And they keep coming, although they’ve slowed now to a handful each day. We will continue to print them where appropriate, but they’ll be mixed with letters on other subjects to reflect a fair balance of what readers are saying.

The point is, Hamilton citizens, in record numbers, show no interest in getting over this. They are, by and large, unsatisfied. They want to see some action. They want to see consequences. Like what? Spectator city columnist Andrew Dreschel will explore that question in a column coming Monday.

November 23, 2019

At any rate, that’s the citizen/taxpayer/constituent side of the equation. Far on the other side of that perception gulf are the members of council who apparently still don’t see what all the fuss is about. They are content to stick with their original defence: They had legal advice that said they would be putting taxpayers at more risk by disclosing the 24-billion litre sewage leak into Chedoke Creek and Cootes Paradise. Armed with that advice, they decided, repeatedly, that they should not inform the public about the spill. Not that it was much larger than originally reported. Not that the contamination took place over four and a half years.

Not that at one point E. coli levels in Chedoke Creek spiked to 900 times higher than safe levels for paddling. That’s 9,000 times higher than the threshold for safe swimming.

They say they intended to report to the public once the provincial investigation into the leak was complete. When would that have been? No one knows. The Spectator reported on the leak two weeks ago, but this council knew about it for nine months before that. How much longer would Sewergate have remained secret had The Spec not reported on it?

November 27, 2019

Here is what many city councillors just don’t get. They are sorry, they say, that the leak happened. Good for them. We’re all sorry. Probably the people involved with the original mistake are sorry. Everyone and their dog is sorry the accident happened, and was not detected for a ridiculous period of time.

But that’s not what most people are most angry about. It’s the failure to disclose that’s driving people nuts. Too many councillors don’t seem to get that secrecy has justifiably rattled peoples’ trust in city hall. Yes, because of the spill. But more so because if something like this happens again, how can citizens feel confident they will get appropriate disclosure?

Some councillors say Sewergate is a media-generated event. Fair enough. We’re not going to dignify that with a response. But we would recommend that at minimum, these councillors, who seem increasingly insulated from public opinion, take some time and find out how people are really feeling. They might want to start trying to bridge that perception gulf. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday November 29, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 29, 2019

‘We can’t take that back’: Eisenberger on keeping Hamilton sewage spill details secret

March 28, 2009

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is standing by Hamilton city council’s decision not to disclose publicly the full magnitude of a massive sewage spill for nearly a year.

“The incident happened already,” Eisenberger said Tuesday. “The material, whatever was there, had already gone into the system. We couldn’t get it back.”

The mayor spoke to The Spectator for the first time about the estimated 24-billion-litre sewage leak into Chedoke Creek, which flows into Cootes Paradise, after returning home from an economic development trip in India.

Last week, The Spectator reported that city officials had kept secret not only the volume of the raw sewage spill, but also its four-and-a-half-year duration.

July 16, 2014

Leaked confidential reports from January and September show the spill was attributed to a holding tank gate left partly open from January 2014 to July 2018. The reports also pointed to a second gate failure on the same tank.

Outside legal advice recommended city officials keep the information secret due to potential regulatory fines amid a provincial investigation.

On Tuesday, Eisenberger, who noted his plane landed at 5:30 a.m., defended the approach, saying public health informed residents of a sewage spill at Chedoke Creek in July 2018.

February 21, 2007

Floatable material was sucked up, warning signs were posted, and E. coli levels eventually returned to what they were before the sewage leak, he said.

But the volume of the contamination and duration of the leak weren’t shared with the public, Eisenberger acknowledged.

“Because it was still under investigation. The legal advice that we received at the time was, ‘Do not disclose the full amount; there are potential legal issues that come out of that; there are potential other claims that could be made.’”

Public works spokesperson Jasmine Graham said Tuesday the city has paid environmental lawyer Rosalind Cooper $67,393.55 for her services as of October.

September 19, 2018

Eisenberger said the advice of the Toronto-based lawyer, who has many years of experience in the field, is still worth following.

“I’m not prepared to second guess it,” he said. “I understand the furor that’s out there. I get it. There’s always that tug between full disclosure and legal ramifications, and we have that happen in many instances that we deal with.”

Though the city conducted an initial surface water cleanup in July 2018 — at a cost of about $56,000 — material would have sunk to the bottom. The confidential reports noted dredging could cost $2 million. (Hamilton Spectator)