The City of Hamilton has finally explained why the Ministry of Labour issued a stop work order on the Barton / Tiffany tiny shelters site.
“The challenge here was we had both a security contractor as well as the fencing contractor on site,” said Cynthia Graham, Director of Environment Services. “When the Ministry of Labour showed up, their interpretation was that there were multiple contractors and, therefore, the city was the constructor. It wasn’t our intention to be the constructor. So we stopped work and were re-evaluating and putting into place the proper contractor that can take over that role.”
Today’s explanation came during a press conference arranged by Mayor Andrea Horwath and follows events on Friday.
On Friday, the City Manager’s Office issued a statement at 2:00 p.m. announcing a December 20 opening date, and then sometimes afterwards – without issuing any notification – uploaded the Ministry of Labour orders to a relatively obscure portion of the City website before everyone went home for the weekend.
Today, Mayor Horwath stated she is optimistic the site will open in a timely manner.
“My expectation is that we are going to have that site open, I said before the snow flies, but that’ll be up to Mother Nature in terms of when the snow is coming. But we’re moving ahead with all aspects of the project.”
General Manager of Public Works Carlyle Khan says staff needed time to review the order last week before the City made it public.
“When a Ministry Order happens, you take the time to make sure that we understand the pieces of the order,” he said the City needs to “understand what our compliance requirements are and how to have a plan going forward to be able to action it.”
“So that does take a little bit of time to be able to to complete those requirements.”
Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch says the Ministry of Labour’s orders have already been satisfied, and the City is “on track” to fulfilling the one outstanding order.
“I’m hopeful that it’ll still be on plan for December 20th.”
Order to Provide List of Contaminants on the Former Industrial Site
The one outstanding order of the four requires the City to provide a list of designated contaminants on the site.
The City must confirm if any of the following substances are present on the site: acrylonitrile, arsenic, asbestos, benzene, coke oven emissions, ethylene oxide, isocyanates, lead, mercury, silica and vinyl chloride.
The City states it is sending the Ministry previous soil sampling reports from past planning projects (the stadium) on the site.
Ward 9 Councillor Brad Clark says what is “interesting in the order was the list of substances that must be provided.”
“Not only should the city be ensuring mitigation of any contaminated lands, in other words, preventing people from coming in contact with soil that may be contaminated.”
The City must also provide “a listing for public notice.”
“It’s important that the city continue to act transparently. And that means complying with the ministry’s order and providing a list of the substances that were found to be on that land.”
City Commits to Transparency
General Manager of Healthy and Safe Communities Grace Mater and GM Khan stated the City will provide updates going forward as they comply with the final order and resume work on the site.
Production Details v. 1.0.1 Published: November 25, 2024 Last updated: November 28, 2024 Author: Joey Coleman Update Record v. 1.0.0 original version v. 1.0.1 fixed grammar.