Hamilton City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to refuse to pay the Haudenosaunee Development Institute $95,357 that the group is seeking, above the $50,000 the city agreed to pay them for environmental monitoring during the Chedoke Creek cleanup.
Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks ordered the City of Hamilton to dredge the creek following the leakage of over 24 billion litres of combined wastewater from the city’s sewage system.
In 2022, the HDI blocked clean-up work of Chedoke Creek, delaying it by a year, until the City of Hamilton agreed to pay $50,000.The HDI had sought $400,000.
Clean-up was completed in 2023, and the HDI invoiced the City for an additional $95,357 behind the agreed amount.
Council also unanimously voted not to enter into any new agreements with the HDI to monitor remaining remedial work and post-dredging monitoring activity.
The vote sets the stage for a confrontation with the HDI, the administrative arm of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council.
Indigenous newspaper The Two Row Times extensively covers the controversies involving the HDI.
City still hasn’t released how, why, and who left that valve open. When that is done perhaps they could consider not financing monitoring.
The greatest pollution incidence in the history of the Province and the City is still sitting on information that should be public.
Trust no one.