Environment committee  Mr. Chair, in Hamilton, in light of our environmental legacy and our history, we have a very active environmental community. The days of our being able to, not remove wetlands, but encroach on wetlands are essentially over. Wetlands are almost non-negotiable now. We have provinci

Environment committee  No, no.

Environment committee  We're looking at a couple of different technologies so we're not curtailing the market here. There are two technology streams, one of which is to turn the material into pellets to effectively create fertilizers. There is a revenue stream that does come from that. I mean, the land

Environment committee  We haven't, just to be blunt. I think we've enjoyed commitments by both the federal and provincial governments in the last 5 to 10 years that we really have little to complain about.

Environment committee  Commercialization.... This is an RFP that's going to go out the door in the next, I think, four to five months from our shop. We've been working hand-in-hand with the federal government for over a year now. It's passed all the federal government requirements and we're basically r

Environment committee  Yes. The one thing that strikes me about this proliferation of stormwater ponds, whether they be for detention or for quality purposes, is not so much the building of them, it's the maintenance of them. I know the City of Hamilton has a number of C of As attached to much of the s

Environment committee  If I can, I'm going to ask John, through the chair, to respond, because he has been most closely associated with them over the last several decades.

Environment committee  None has, Mr. Chairman, that I am aware of.

Environment committee  In terms of the objectives in the Hamilton harbour RAP, which of course John can speak to, I think we're about 50% towards where we want to be. We know that the major investments that are going to be made, starting in 2015 and ending in 2019, at both the Hamilton and the Halton

Environment committee  That's right.

Environment committee  In our case the community contribution is from Halton region, the city of Burlington, the city of Hamilton, as well as U.S. Steel. U.S. Steel is contributing some of the metalworks that are associated with this construction project as well as a small amount of cash. Our total con

Environment committee  That was, as you can imagine, a very sensitive topic. There has been a number of different owners of that steel-producing plant so where we were able to make progress was agreeing that some contribution would have to be made. In terms of any ongoing liability for any contaminatio

Environment committee  I think in fairness to the steel producers in Hamilton harbour, I would say certainly since 1990 to 2010, a lot of that $1.2 billion that has been invested in Hamilton harbour has come from not just local government but the industries themselves and retrofitting their operations

Environment committee  You're absolutely right, the funding of that $140-million project is split between the federal and provincial governments and the community equally. Basically, what we have is a coal tar deposit that is equivalent to what we believe is in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and it is a containm

Environment committee  Yes. I think the image of most people...and I'm originally from New Brunswick, so my stereotypical understanding of Hamilton before I moved there was that of the industry and the harbour and the pollution. The truth is that we are more than 50% rural, agricultural. Our urbanized