Lister subsidy robs inner-city park
July 22, 2006

Bob Bratina wants to know how the city can afford a $10 million subsidy of the LIUNA replacement of the Lister Block, but can't afford to clean up contamination in a downtown park.

Bob Bratina wants to know how the city can afford a $10 million subsidy of the LIUNA replacement of the Lister Block, but can't afford to clean up contamination in a downtown park. The ward two councillor was speaking at a press conference held last night by several community and heritage groups opposed to the demolition of the Lister Block.

While most of the speakers focused on the heritage significance of the downtown landmark, Bratina emphasized the "$10 million that we don't have" - a reference to the premium rate the city expects to pay for a 15-year lease of the majority of a new office tower LIUNA plans to erect after demolishing the Lister Block.

Bratina pointed to a recent city staff decision not to re-locate Dr Davey School because they found soil contamination on the adjacent Beasley Park. The city had planned to swap the two sites - putting the new school on the current park, and redeveloping the park on the school site, but abandoned the idea because of the cost of the park cleanup.

Bratina suggested decisions to have "a brownfield park" would be part of the legacy of the steep cost of the Lister Block deal to the taxpayers. "Here's Beasley Park, the park that kids play in, a contaminated park if we don't go on to find the money to clean it up," he declared. "So if we don't do that, forever and a day, it will be a contaminated park."

Diane Dent, the chair of the city's heritage committee, urged the 80 people attending the press conference to lobby the provincial minister of culture to protect the Lister. She said the Lister Block just missed being declared a national historic site in the mid-1990s because the previous owners refused to allow federal evaluators access to the building.

Barbara Murray spoke on behalf of the Hamilton branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. She told the crowd that the fate of the historic building will be the first real test of the recently amended Ontario Heritage Act that now allows the provincial government to prevent demolition of significant buildings, and she suggested that provincial politicians "do not want to go into the 2007 election wearing an abject failure of the brand new amended Ontario Heritage Act - the first time it got tested."

Murray also charged that the city "has violated its own secondary plan for the downtown" by supporting an office tower on the Lister site. This theme was taken up by Michael Desnoyers, the co-chair of Hamiltonians for Progressive Development, who noted that the 30-year growth plan approved by council in May calls for a large amount of residential intensification in the downtown area.

Desnoyers argued a renovated Lister with a significant housing component would support that objective, and bring people to the downtown around the clock instead of just from 9 to 5. "We'd like to see the people come downtown and stay downtown," he said, "and that will encourage a very strong and vibrant urban community."

The press conference also included presentations from representatives of Hamilton Artists Inc, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Heritage Hamilton Foundation, as well as downtown activist Matt Jelly. Councillors Brian McHattie and Sam Merulla sent messages of support, along with MP Wayne Marston.

The event was held outside the SkyDragon Centre with the rear of the Lister building as a backdrop. The SkyDragon Community Development Cooperative purchased their King William Street building about a year ago and are in the process of restoring it.