LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

From Business to Drive-Thrus: Everything is Connected

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted November 17, 2008)

The Planning and Economic Development committee announced the other day that Tim Horton’s has purchased a parcel of land in Ancaster’s Industrial Park. The Committee, according to news reports, “instructed” the Mayor and the General Manager of Planning and Ec. Dev. to attend to this initiative as a top priority.

This is good news for the city. Without giving too much away, Councillor Lloyd Ferguson indicated that, other than some servicing issues, the deal was done. This can only mean that a major production business, with all of its jobs, is coming to the city courtesy of Tim Horton’s, which has its roots in the community. Years ago, another major Tim’s operation moved to Brantford because appropriate land could not be found locally. As well, the operation’s head office is in Oakville. A new presence not only means jobs for the city, but it also partially redresses the historic departure from Tim’s home community.

I found it a bit strange that the committee had to ‘instruct’ the mayor to make this initiative a top priority. Why wouldn’t he want to do that without being instructed? Ec. Dev. was a passion of mine, when Mayor, and I certainly would have asked questions if a committee publicly ‘instructed’ my office! Be that as it may, I’m sure Mayor Fred will do what he can to seal the deal on this venture.

I thought about this good news and connected some dots related to this, and other, recent developments. It is not a surprise that across the province, Tim Horton’s has been leading the charge against drive-through bans being imposed by municipalities. Tim’s has challenged and won fights in London, is involved in a struggle over some environmental issues in Toronto, and is probably going to challenge Oakville’s decision to ban new drive-through arrangements in that municipality.

Hamilton also looked at the issue, but decided to back off restrictive plans. In fact, the only supporter of a ban on Council when it was looked at a few months ago was Councillor Brian McHattie, egged on by CATCH, the notorious anti-business City Hall lobby group. McHattie was quoted at the time as saying,

““Drive-thrus are unnecessary,” McHattie told the planning committee, “and at some point we’ve got to come to grips with the idling concerns that are associated with drive-thrus, the waste of fuel at a time when fuel is tremendously expensive, and the climate change concerns associated with that.”

Never mind that gas prices have temporarily been lowered. McHattie makes a good point. Wasting fuel is never a good idea. And idling does cause emissions to occur thereby adding to the poor air quality in too many of our neighbourhoods. Ironically, I didn’t hear McHattie champion the contentious carbon tax plan introduced by the Liberals in the last election. In fact he supported another party whose plan wasn’t as aggressive in dealing with emission issues. Some might conclude that the Councillor isn’t speaking consistently on his emission concerns. His logic seems to be very much situational rather than fundamental.

Be that as it may, what the Councillor and CATCH also don’t take into consideration with their one-sided demands, are any economic considerations to their mandates.

In the case of drive-throughs, it is the harm that may be done to Tim Horton’s operators and the jobs they provide. In the case of this new plant that seems to be going up in Hamilton, it might be the quid-pro-quo that might have ensued if drive-throughs had been banned. Would Time Horton’s have sought land in another, more business-friendly municipality? We will never know for sure, but a huge hint was given by the General Manager of Planning and Economic Development when he let that possibility slip in a statement made before the committee at an unrelated meeting.

I am referring to the tempest in a teapot that was created when the issue of banning drive-throughs was removed from the Committee’s to-do list. The General Manager stated that staff would not voluntarily recommend such a ban lest the city’s penchant for discouraging businesses be reinforced. Councillors jumped all over this GM for daring to mouth such an honest statement.

I have no certain idea about this, but I’m wondering if the GM in question had this new Tim Horton’s venture in mind when he made his statement.

In these hard economic times, when jobs are disappearing at a record pace, all of us should do whatever is possible to encourage companies to locate in our municipality. None of us should be ‘instructed’ to make economic development a priority. And, as our Vision 2020 document shows, the environment, social issues and economic issues should be balanced carefully whenever we undertake any Council directive.

Everything IS connected!

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