Raise the Hammer

@ John Neary

"And there's nothing free-market about the Linc and RHVP. At least the HSR recovers some of its expenses through user fees."

This is a tired argument John. Please, enough with this stupid talk. I expect something like this from Jason. Don't I pay gasoline taxes and vehicle registration taxes?

"So far the Red Hill has attracted one employer, 300 jobs."

Many of the businesses that have located in the Mountain industrial park have done so b/c of RHVP. The North Glanbrooke industrial park is currently being serviced as shovel ready. Once that is complete more businesses will locate in that park.

Canada Bread chose to locate there b/c of the land availablity and the proximity to an expressway. They did NOT choose to locate dt because there is transit. They don't care about transit because they need to get their products out on big trucks not in the back of buses!

Canada Bread (and many other businesses) did not locate on brownfields land because:
- They are in the food processing industry, it is unsanitary to be located in proximity to polluting industries such as Stelco.
- The costs of remediating land are very very expensive and would delay the completion of the plant by two years or more (as compared to being located on greenfield site). Thus Canada Bread would have lost two years of profits (known as an opportunity cost). This would harm employees, investors and would hamr Canada Bread's competitiveness.
- Many of the brownfield land parcels are small in size and do not meet the requirements of modern plants.

These are the facts. Locating in greenfields sites is the reality. Hamilton lost many business because of a lack of shovel-ready employment land. Want to see an successful emerging business park? Go for a drive through the Ancaster Business Park. It is teaming with new diverse businesses. It is located near the 403 and there is not an HSR bus in site.

But appearently you know more about business than the people who actually make decisions and have their own money at stake.

I support RHVP, more serviced industrial land and converting Main and King to two way (among some other major dt roads). However, the situation as it stands now should not deter people who really want to walk from doing so. And using taxpayer funded studies to push somebody's political agenda should be stopped.