By Anne Finlay-Stewart
My response to this release: http://www.oschamber.com/news.cfm?newsid=74
In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates a reaction without itself being changed.
Trent Gow, commissioned by the local chamber of commerce to analyze five years' worth of engineering reports about the Owen Sound harbour, uses the term to describe its role in both our historical and future prosperity. His overview anticipates considerable change in the "catalyst" itself.
From the 19th to the mid-20th Century, Owen Sound's economy was driven by manufacturing and the transportation link between water and rail. Highway development, the St. Lawrence Seaway and growth of off-shore industries put paid to all that. Locals can recall the last trains leaving the city, the closing and demolition of familiar factories, and the changing waterfront over the past half century.
While it may have been happening simultaneously, Gow's assertion in the Chamber's document that Owen Sound's economic prosperity has suffered "as a direct consequence" of harbour decline might be difficult to prove.
The federal government has been undertaking the divestment of ports and harbours since the mid-90s. Its stated rationale is as follows:Port divestiture improves the efficiency of Canadian marine transportation by rationalizing the port system and placing decision making and operations in the hands of users and local interests. This allows communities to own and control the use of their facilities and determine service and maintenance levels appropriate to their circumstances.
Whether the policy is philosophically driven or a long-term cost-saving measure, expense is clearly standing between the feds and either a municipal or private deal. Each in their turn, the city of Owen Sound and Parrish and Heimbecker, the Winnipeg-based corporation that operates the elevators on our harbour, left divestment talks when no agreement could be reached on dredging. Since 2008, both provincial and federal departments have studied the implications of harbour dredging, and their contractor Dillon Consulting has recommended "monitored natural recovery" to avoid disturbing contaminants. In short, no dredging.
Of course, they appear to be assuming no change in current use of the harbour, and both the Chamber and city are looking for growth in the number and type of users of what they see as a huge local asset. If that happens, the consultants say much more study will be required to determine the safe and effective options for maintaining a multi-use harbour.
Community consensus on what a multi-use harbour might look like has certainly not been reached. The 2001 Harbour and Downtown Master Plan put a high priority on connecting the downtown with the city's waterfront more effectively for residents and visitors. Ideas from community members in a design process in 2011 followed that vision. The LEED-certified Public Health building and Medical Centre on the east and west harbours respectively have not been without their detractors, but they both cleaned up brownfield land and generated activity at the waterfront. The Sydenham condos and Waterfront Heritage Centre (former Marine Rail Museum) are more indicators of waterfront interest.
Commercial and industrial growth on the Owen Sound harbour is much less specific. Georgian College sees the harbour as essential to its case for landing the new Marine Emergency Duties training facility which in turn is crucial to its sustainability in Owen Sound. The city itself understands the importance of the College to its own ability to build its tax base. But the facility itself is planned for the existing campus site, with waterfront training limited to lifeboats on the harbour wall.
Last fall, a local firm sought a zoning change from the city for a site between the Public Health building and the Inn on the Bay, to allow open bulk storage of more than 250 truckloads a week of gravel driven down unspecified city roads to the harbour from May to August. The proposal met with considerable public opposition and has not re-emerged since the election.
MP Larry Miller is committed to the dredging of Owen Sound harbour, although to date he has not brought any support from his own government. He cites figures such as $35-billion and 227,000 jobs created in Canada's deep-draft navigation system, but no one seems to have local numbers of direct or indirect benefit. The Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce's only member with a direct connection to marine industries is the Owen Sound Transportation Company, operators of the Chi-chemaun which winters in our harbour.
So while Trent Gow may be speaking for the Chamber when he states that the "heart of this vision [of future prosperity] is a born-again multi-use harbour", the evidence of such a causal relationship is still a little light. If a dredged harbour is the route to economic health, the overview of the reports should not leave us holding our collective breaths.
Mr. Gow acknowledges his own limitations as his background is in policy development and he is neither an engineer nor a chemist. An appended disclaimer speaks of the technical complexity of the engineering reports as a reason why the overview "may misinterpret or misreport some of the facts and findings." The author also insists that it is "incumbent on decision makers to engage the advice of professional consultants with skills similar to Dillon professionals."
Not only are there no quick fixes and no cheap locations for disposal of the material dredged from the harbour, but it will be an expensive process even to determine the scope of the project.
When the Port of Sarnia was divested to that municipality, the city received $8.5 -million for ongoing operating expenses from the Federal government after negotiating up from the original offer of almost 70 percent less. Whether or not this will ultimately be adequate for their needs remains to be seen.
The Chamber's overview is another piece of the conversation about the Owen Sound harbour, but it is by no means the last word.
Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of www.owensoundhub.org.
