Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses.
Way back in 1995, when I was first elected, the City of Hamilton took ownership of Transport Canada lands around the John C. Munro airport. It wasn't until about 2011 that we found off-site migration of PFAS materials on neighbouring properties. We traced it back to a firefighter training facility on airport lands.
I have to tell you that, from my experience, it was not an enjoyable process to deal with either the former government or the current government in terms of receiving compensation for the contaminants that were found. In the end, government officials paid for the off-site cleanup on lands that surrounded the airport, but the private operator that operated the airport on the municipality's behalf was stuck with the bill to pay for the contaminants that were found on the airport property.
I'm thinking of a scenario right now where our affordable housing strategy and national housing strategy will use Department of National Defence lands and transfer those properties to non-profit service providers. From a municipal perspective, we had enough resources to deal with the federal lawyers and all the ministry officials to defend our rights as landowners and seek compensation. I can't imagine a scenario where a non-profit housing provider would have the same types of resources if they found contaminants on their properties years later.
I'd like to ask you a question in terms of the current scenario. I'll use the example in Hamilton. I've given you the bare-bones version of what happened. It certainly left a bad taste in our ratepayers' mouths. Municipal council certainly could have some very colourful language to use in terms of how we dealt with that situation. How do we avoid those scenarios in terms of knowing that non-profit housing providers are going to use former DND lands? If they find surprises in the future, they don't have deep pockets.
I'm looking for your recommendations to the committee so that we can improve the legislation we have right now and ensure that this doesn't happen to someone who doesn't have the resources to fight the federal government.