Hoping to breathe new life into the post-industrial town of Hamilton, Ontario, councilors recently voted to launch a new economic development office focused on investing in and marketing brownfield sites.

The office is part of the city’s brownfield incentives program, Environmental Remediation and Site Enhancement (ERASE), which began in 2005. So far, ERASE has fielded about a dozen applications in the last 18 months. The two-person department will be headed by Carolynn Reid, Hamilton’s brownfield coordinator. The second appointee will be named after the budget is approved. Eighty-thousand dollars in resources would be allocated to promote the city’s offer.

“This program can be used by the entire city,” says Councilor Brian McHattie, one of two members who lead the initiative.

“This is taking another step in the right direction by declaring brownfields a strategic priority.”  

Councilor Terry Whitehead is skeptical; he recently told the Hamilton Spectator that close monitoring would be necessary to ensure money is being well spent.

Hamilton, formerly home to several steel plants and manufacturing companies, including Proctor & Gamble and Camco, suffered a major economic blow in the big industry exodus. While the city has a low unemployment rate, the quality of employment has decreased, leaving some residents to take lower-wage jobs.

“Back in the day, workers would make $20 an hour and be able to support their families,” says McHattie. “Now they’re trying to support their families on $8 an hour.” Twenty percent of the city’s residents are below the low income cutoff. With a renewed focus on redeveloping the town’s shuttered properties, McHattie hopes the move will bring Hamilton’s economy back to life.

According to the ERASE program guide, there are over 200 brownfields scattered across the city, a quarter of them abandoned waste disposal sites. Most have been shuttered for 25 years, languishing in arrears.

McHattie says that some sites are not easily redeveloped because potential investors were scared away by time and cost. The new office will work to smooth out the process and remove bureaucratic roadblocks.