Raise the Hammer

Seriously, lets take your suggestion seriously for a moment. One trader i respect suggested that Hamilton would not hit bottom until the entire waterfront was deindustrialized. Mainly, that's steel and i guess the margerine facility. Maybe leave a little at the very bottom around the sewage plant? In fact, either its all gotta go or getting rid of one item only makes our brownfield/ tax situation worse without really upgrading the waterfront. Change without improvement. All or nothing is a good way to think about it as it forces one to confront the issue you raise - 1. is the old economy dead and 2 is the new economy ready for prime time and 3 is Hamilton/Canada ready for the new economy?

I say, no, no and no although i'd waffle on all three as nothing is absolute. Therefore, i'd be cautious about throwing out a workable beer making asset. Even if you consider it swill. As long as customers can be found, who cares?

If you want to be arrogant about it, i hope you're rich enough to take over what's left and do something with it. It'd be nice too if you looked after the workers, even if BeReal thinks they're uneducated. Who did you expect to be making consumer level beer?

I have no idea whether the plant could be resurrected but here is my historical review fwiw. Plant started by offshore interests making premium beer? I can't remember. Failed, more or less. Got taken over by entrepreneur Teresa. She tarted it up into an income trust, probably quadrupling its price. Good for her. Labatt paid 200 million which means before the trust thing, it was worth say 50 million. Jim Flathead pulled the rug from under trusts and by extension, non-salaried pensioners who depended on their RRSPs. Asshole. Which means that the plant value declined again to say 50 million. Labatts lost their export market making the plant redundant. Stung twice. So now their only benefit from this huge expense is to squash competition by removing some assets. Please correct this history if i got it wrong. Can someone tell us if there is overcapacity in this sector?

Be that as it may. There may be hope, but only if Hamiltonians are willing to actively struggle.