LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

The Sad Saga of Lost Opportunities: How We Lost the Maple Leaf Pork Processing Plant

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted April 17, 2008)

Tyler McLeod, the photogenic and bright president of Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce, recently lamented in a letter to the city that ‘loose lips’ or leaks are losing Hamilton business opportunities. He cited in particular the loss of the Maple Leaf Pork Processing facility as an example of this unfortunate Hamilton habit, and cites numerous anecdotal examples of business finding Hamilton a ‘poor place to do business’.

Tyler is partially right, but perhaps the Maple Leaf deal isn’t a good example to have cited. He is right in that businesses lament regularly about Hamilton’s difficult culture. It is why, when I was Mayor, I structured a one-stop business-friendly process we called “Invest in Hamilton”. It was headed up by Tim McCabe who today is in charge of planning and Economic Development. It was supported by Neil Everson who heads up our EcDev division. It is why Mayor Fred has reached out to Mark Chamberlain and Tim Dobbie of the Civic Coalition to assist Hamilton with Economic Development strategies; and to dispel this notion that we are business-averse as a community. I hope that Tyler McLeod and the Chamber get behind this push to free Hamilton from the awful stereotype that it pushes business away.

Having said this, I just want to return to the Maple Leaf saga and see if we can learn some lessons from that fractured effort to attract business.

First of all, it should be pointed out that Council supported the Maple Leaf deal. By a majority vote, not a unanimous vote, most Councillors were quite happy to see the plant move from its Burlington location to locate in our Glanbrook Industrial Park. We were also quite happy to sell our land to Maple Leaf, at better than market value, so that the factory could be established.

I will remind readers also, that my office was extremely busy in putting together a comprehensive deal that included the Province, the Federal government, Maple Leaf, our water treatment facility, harbour clean up and industrial park servicing.

Quite simply put, Hamilton was looking for Federal and Provincial money to improve our treatment plant which would have helped with harbour clean up, as well as money to service the Industrial park so it could attract business, Maple Leaf being only the first. I and senior staff met with federal and provincial counterparts at the political and staff levels to ensure the deal would go through. My office dealt with the politics; and staff dealt with the bureaucracy. We were very successful in receiving, I believe, upwards of $35-40M to do both the purification upgrades and the servicing at Glanbrook.

The negotiations were pointed and persistent. The province was more forthcoming than the federal bureaucracy. We were being told something privately, but public announcements were not forthcoming until the story broke in the local paper. Then, everyone lined up. A great success story, I thought. Money for the water infrastructure; money for the long-neglected Glanbrook Park; jobs for Hamiltonians and needed assessment dollars for our coffers. What could be better than that?

My sense of joy was short lived because as soon as the deal was announced, the opposition began mounting a counter offensive. Elements from the CATCH group, citizen-bellyachers who opposed just about everything the city did, Hamiltonians for Progressive Development, headed by a Burlington businessman who dislikes the airport plans and has close ties to CATCH individuals, and most disappointingly members of Council for whom, in my view anyway, the need to see me lose a political fight was stronger than their sense of what was good for the city, all banded together and animated legitimate citizen concerns about the impact of the facility in our community. Ultimately, this group did not win the war to intimidate Council into abandoning its plans. Council, by majority vote, stood firm. However, this group and its vitriol aimed at a legitimate company, created so much noise that Maple Leaf rethought not only its operation in our city, but corporately. MLF walked from the deal, much to my chagrin. Once again, it seems, politics trumped good policy. I take my full share of responsibility in having lost this opportunity, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Other local politicians (and I won’t name names, although I could) have to look in the mirror and ask if they did the right thing. The positive that came out of this is that we received a fair chunk of cash from the Federal and Provincial governments to assist Hamilton with its needed infrastructure. The wastewater upgrades have, to my knowledge, been done. The Industrial Park upgrades are still in limbo, for some reason, even though Hamilton has cashed the $20M cheque from the province. Perhaps, that issue will be explored in another column.

So, in answer to Tyler McLeod’s concern: ‘loose lips’ do cost us opportunities, but in the Maple Leaf example, it was a case of Council’s good intentions being overtaken by the cold crass politics of fear and partisanship in its quest to do the right thing.

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