Two starkly different visions of Hamilton’s future clashed last week at the Ontario Municipal Board hearings into the controversial airport-area urban boundary expansion sought by the city. 

Protests are planned this week as new evidence emerges that Enbridge Inc plans to export diluted bitumen through Ontario from Alberta’s tar sands to markets in the US and China. 

After four days last week, the Ontario Municipal Board hearings on the aerotropolis urban boundary expansion have reached at least the halfway mark. 

Projections for growth at Hamilton’s airport are “highly questionable” and can’t provide a reasonable basis for the aerotropolis plans says a witness at the Ontario Municipal Board hearings opening next week.

The consultant defending the city’s aerotropolis plans at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has reduced the amount of land that he believes is defensible. 

We are deeply saddened at the passing of Joan Roberts, a founding member of CATCH who has been active through our entire nine-year history. 

Council has deemed a previously approved small increase in development charges too threatening to Hamilton’s economic development prospects, so the foregone growth fees will instead have to be paid by taxpayers or added to water bills.