Lister deal still shrowded in secrecy
September 26, 2006

The agenda was released this morning for the special committee of the whole (COW) meeting on the Lister Block scheduled for tomorrow at 5 pm, but it reveals little about the proposals for the future of the heritage building. The agenda has just three items but says all of them are still “to be distributed”.

Most meeting agendas include a copies of reports, so that councillors and interested citizens can review any proposals in advance of a decision. The city's procedural bylaw requires the clerk to “distribute the regular agendas of Council and Committee meetings to members of Council and Corporate Management Team at least 5 days prior to the scheduled meetings” and to make those agendas available to the public and the media three days in advance of the meeting.

The three items on tomorrow's COW agenda are a presentation by provincial mediator Alan Wells, a report of the Lister Block working group and a “Presentation by the City of Hamilton”.

The holding of the meeting was announced last Friday. On the same day, ward one councillor Brian McHattie issued a media release asking that Wells's presentation and the working group report be released to both councillors and the public at least 36 hours before tomorrow's meeting because it is expected that council will make decisions at that time. He also once again sought the release of the Ontario Heritage Foundation's assessment of the significance of the Lister building.

“Rendering a decision on the fate of the Lister Block without this disclosure would be undemocratic and would exacerbate public concerns that decisions surrounding the Lister Block are not being made on the merits of the provincial importance of the building, but on the basis of political or other motivations,” stated McHattie.

Negotiations with the Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA) over the fate of the Lister Block began in secret, apparently initiated by Mayor Di Ianni, either in the fall of 2004 or early 2005.

There was a media leak of limited information in April 2005 that said a “win-win” proposal was in the works that would make heroes of any councillor who supported it. The staff report on the deal was completed on April 25 but was not released to the public until May 9 – immediately after council held a closed door meeting to accept a $32.6 million agreement to lease 60,000 square feet of a modified Lister Block for a 15-year period.

Once revealed, the leasing costs came under criticism as being far above the normal rates paid by the city for office space. A subsequent city staff report pegged the excess as greater than $10 million. Other downtown landlords publicly stated they would provide similar space for far less, but the leasing arrangement was not put out to tender.

Despite the inflated leasing costs, it was assumed at that time that the historic building would at least be preserved. That changed over the following year, when LIUNA failed to meet city requirements for a heritage impact assessment, and applied for a demolition permit. That was strongly criticized by three independent peer reviewers hired by the city.

A staff report in May of this year said the application “could not be considered a sound and rational basis on which to support future planning and heritage decisions with respect to this important development site, the designated building and the other heritage buildings on and adjacent to the site.”

But the same report recommended approval of the demolition permit – an about-face that led the long-time chair of the city's municipal heritage committee (LACAC) to cry foul. Diane Dent told a COW meeting on June 14 that she was “shocked” to discover that a LACAC subcommittee report had been changed by senior city development staff.

“For the first time, I believe, since the inception of LACAC in 1977, the recommendation of a subcommittee to the main LACAC committee was not just ignored. It was altered. At the May meeting of LACAC, members were shocked to read that the recommendation had been totally changed by senior staff.”

At that May meeting, LACAC voted 12-1 to reject the demolition permit, but it quickly became clear that the majority of councillors would overturn this decision and grant the demolition permit to LIUNA. McHattie then asked the provincial minister of culture to protect the Lister Block by designating it provincially significant.

That generated the Ontario Heritage Trust report that has never been released, despite efforts by McHattie and others. A CATCH request for the report under freedom of information legislation was turned down in August.

The minister did intervene – through a conference call to the mayor and the developers an hour before the council decision meeting – resulting in a modification of the demolition permit to delay it for 60 days to allow for more discussions.

The Lister Block working group was appointed to facilitate those discussions. How the membership was selected has never been made clear. The exclusion of the ward councillor Bob Bratina – an opponent of the lease and demolition – and the inclusion of Stoney Creek councillor Maria Pearson generated more controversy. Pearson was the one in that twelve to one LACAC vote, but was appointed to represent the heritage committee. LACAC adopted a motion at its next meeting saying Pearson did not represent them, but that seems to have had no effect.

The first deadline of August 12 was the day after a scheduled council meeting. At that meeting it was revealed that the deadline was being extended to September 13 – another council meeting. And at that meeting, the mayor announced a further extension – to the next council meeting which is taking place tomorrow evening.