LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

Peak Oil and Airport Lands Development in the City of Hamilton

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted December 23, 2008)

When I was Mayor, Council commissioned a study by Dr. Richard Gilbert on economic development strategies for the city of Hamilton in an energy-constrained future. Hamilton was only the second municipality to commission such a study. The term ‘peak-oil’ was often bandied about by opponents of the airport land’s development, arguing that the city, in fact the world, should abandon policies based on a continuous supply and use of cheap carbon fuels. Those on Council who thought that Gilbert’s study would discourage the development of lands around the airport for job-creation were surprised and disappointed that Gilbert came to no such conclusions. Gilbert did caution the city, however, not to see cheap carbon fuels and the reliance on them as the norm for generations to come. Quite the contrary, his message was one of diversification.

His warnings were also prescient. Indeed, the world was stunned as prices soared to record highs for a barrel of crude oil. Consumers were angry around the globe, businesses felt the strain on their bottom line and the current crisis with the automotive sector resulted partly because of the sharp decline in the purchases of gas guzzling cars.

Opponents of the lands around the airport for employment purposes relished all this doom and gloom and used the changing conditions to press their point hard. CATCH, the city Hall anti-business lobby, and supporter of Hamiltonians for Progressive Development, wrote about 20 articles citing the Gilbert report/peak oil phenomenon as justification to turn our economic strategy on its head. Interestingly, I believe the last article written on this topic by this group was nearly a year ago, January 2007. CATCH was not alone in their warnings. Even the Hamilton Spectator wrote a piece on Dr. Gilbert’s study about a year ago, in December of 2007 pointing out the strategies Gilbert had highlighted in his earlier report to Council.

But since the price of oil has been tumbling steadily month after month to all time lows, nary a word has been heard about ‘peak oil’ from CATCH, to my knowledge. Last week, Raise the Hammer, the on-line, interactive magazine did write on peak oil. It was an intelligent piece trying to assess where we are now that prices have plummeted. The article raises some good points and is worth a read. At the very least, RTH which had also been on the anti-airport lands development shtick, had the courage to assess its earlier points with the current situation. RTH hasn’t changed its mind, but the new low-price phenomenon caused this magazine to ponder its hypothesis, and come to the conclusion that the world is in for ‘fluctuations’ in oil pricing. This is a re-working of their earlier position, but not an abandonment of their thoughts. Fair enough for RTH.

But what is an ordinary citizen to make of what is happening with the price of oil and its derivative gasoline, its most used commodity? And more importantly, what should city Council do about its economic development strategy?

I believe that Gilbert’s analysis is absolutely relevant in spite of the fluctuations in oil prices, and the current lower prices for crude. I am not convinced that we have reached ‘peak oil’, especially since, as I was reading, some new finds have just been announced which reportedly contain more oil than is currently known to be available in Saudi Arabia alone. That isn’t the point, however. We do know that carbon fuels are finite. Whether we are at peak or not doesn’t diminish the fact that the rate of consumption isn’t sustainable. As a world we should strive to conserve what we’ve got; but we should also look to alternatives in energy creation.

The airport lands are crucial to our business development as a city. To cite peak oil as an excuse for abandoning this strategic advantage would be to throw in the towel for job creation locally, and to doom Hamilton as the GTA’s bedroom community for the many generations to come. However, to do business as usual is also not a responsible strategy. This is where the Gilbert report and the city’s emphasis on Light Rail and Metrolinx’s assistance can all find common ground.

Gilbert, among other things, advised that we become an electricity-producing city, using waste to create jobs as well as green power. The environmentalists on Council have never spoken kindly of this suggestion by Gilbert, wishing to gloss over the job-creating potential in this strategy. Energy from waste is not a solution that peak oil doomsayers like to ponder. The suggestion merits support. In concert with this energy-from-waste potential, is the need to depart from a roads-only transport strategy, to a multi-modal one using rail and water transport for people, as well as goods. Already there are plans for bus connections to the airport, but there is no reason why light rail cannot extend to the airport as well, in time.

Similarly, there is no reason we can’t barge in goods and waste from across the lake by water. It would be cheaper; and water transport is green transport, making it better for the environment. There is no reason why we can’t have people transported across the lake by commuter ferry, thereby lessening grid-lock on our road systems. I know there is a local group called Reflex Advance Marine Corp. (RAM) which has been promoting commuter ferry transport for the last five years. They have designed a system that merits a closer look.

All of these strategies are needed in the short term, rather than waiting for oil prices to spike again as they surely might.

What is needed, and one hopes that the Obama administration leads the way, is a huge investment in alternative energy production on a grand scale. The concept that intrigues me at the moment is solar energy and the work that an inventor and philanthropist by the name of Ray Kurzweil has done in this field of solar energy. It is truly remarkable work which merits an article on its own.

In short, as we stare into 2009 with its bleak economic forecasts, Hamilton City Council should redouble its efforts in job-creation strategies with our Brownfield redevelopment, but most assuredly with the airport lands process currently in play. Fight for our turn at the jobs-table. Forget what the anti-business lobbies whisper privately to individual Councillors or provincial bureaucrats, and scream to the public at large. We should all be in the business of creating businesses and jobs for our citizens. Our citizens deserve no less. Our future depends on it.

BACK TO LARRY'S CORNER

HOME