* The City's desired tenants for the HCBP's first phase are firms in the biotechnology, agri-science, nanotechnology and associated fields. Of the estimated 2,000 workers laid off from manufacturing jobs in Guelph in 2008, it is unlikely any would be hired as researchers in these offices. The industrial section of the HCBP would not be built up for years, if ever. The HCBP is not a solution for working class families.
* The City's Brownfields Strategy says Guelph has 175 brownfields – former industrial/commercial sites that may be toxified. In 2007 at a Guelph Real Estate Pulse Conference, Mayor Farbridge said, "We will give industrial, infill and brownfield development approvals priority at City Hall...." Yet by supporting the HCBP, she insists on ruining an existing ecosystem to create new employment lands.
* Developers see brownfields as a financial risk, even though municipal, provincial, and federal incentives exist to develop these. Tragically, developers find it easier and more profitable to develop on a ‘greenfield.’ Alternatives to the HCBP exist.
* The City says the HCBP is essential for new jobs, but the city’s Employment Lands Strategy shows the HCBP makes up only 22% of vacant employable lands. Other sites exist that are zoned and graded for industrial/commercial development; some have sat vacant for years.
* The City says they must maintain a 5-year surplus supply of employment lands, in order to keep growing in perpetuity. The HCBP is said to be essential to this goal. But a January 2009 article from tri-city business journal Rex Magazine reports that a 5-year supply of industrial space will become vacant in the tri-city area this year. Prices for industrial properties have fallen up to 50%. The HCBP is not necessary for new employment lands, nor for remaining competitive with surrounding areas.
* Numerous developments around the city sit vacant due to the current economic climate. Economic and political leaders say hard times are just beginning. It's not possible for the City to guarantee the HCBP will ultimately be filled and put to use.
"We will give industrial, infill and brownfield development approvals priority at City Hall....
"Strategically, our city must increase its industrial base. We must increase the number
of infill and brownfield projects.
"We know there is more we can do to improve your experience of working with City
Hall – like... mediation services to assist with tricky infill projects and incentive programs to encourage brownfield development and investment in the downtown."
- Mayor Karen Farbridge presenting at the Guelph Real Estate Pulse Conference, January 10, 2007
Connected to the issue of jobs is the large number of toxified brownfields in Guelph. Brownfields are vacant former industrial or commercial sites that may be toxified. From the City of Guelph’s Brownfields Strategy, from May 2002,
"These properties are often strategically located and their redevelopment or reuse would provide the following benefits:
- Revitalization of the downtown core and surrounding neighborhoods;
- more effective use of existing municipal infrastructure;
- reduction in pressure for suburban expansion;
- clean-up of environmentally contaminated sites; and
- increased tax revenue and job creation."
The Brownfields Strategy says there are 175 brownfields in Guelph. The nearby cities of Brantford, Cambridge, Windsor and Hamilton have all implemented local programs to facilitate brownfield redevelopment, but in many ways, Guelph lags behind. Local real estate agents report dismay at the lack of assistance the City offers for brownfield redevelopment. In times of economic decline where people are looking more and more to growing the majority of their food close to home, having this many abandoned toxic sites makes the lives of future generations that much more difficult. To not only neglect them, but to continue building industrial projects around old growth forests and wetlands is a practice that is undeserving of Guelph's 'environmentalist' reputation.
In a conversation with Economic Development head Peter Cartwright, we learned that the lack of focus on brownfields basically comes down to the will of City staff and developers. "The technology is there to do it (clean up toxified sites). That’s the easy part," Peter Cartwright told us.
When asked about the option of re-developing brownfields, Peter responded, "There’s no doubt it is an option... it's probably something that we're going to have to look at more carefully and more seriously. The issues have been risk, who’s going to take over environmental risks on old sites." The risks he speaks of are not direct physical risks to human life, but financial risks to the developers, because a developer is sometimes unable to know what kind of cleanup would be required, or what kind of legal obligations would come with the sale.
We were told that the mitigation of brownfields is costly – yet the city put more than $30 million into land purchases for the HCBP, and millions more into hiring consultants and others for plan the development.
We were told brownfield re-development is a very complex program to go through – yet planning for the HCBP has been in the works since 1993, and has been significantly delayed due to the complexity of putting an industrial project on a Provincially Significant Wetland.