Student divestment group urges McMaster to halt the installation plans for four new natural gas-powered generators at Cootes Drive
MacDivest is a student-run advocacy group whose mission is to end McMaster University’s $40 million in fossil fuel investments. Some of MacDivest’s most notable advocacy work includes their “Canada Is On Fire” protest at Hamilton City Hall in Sept. 2021 and their school-wide walk-out and rally in March 2022.
On Dec. 1, the student divestment group conducted an on-campus Keep Cootes Green rally, protesting the installment of new natural gas-powered generators next to Cootes Drive. This installation is being carried out as a part of Ontario’s Industrial Conservation Initiative, which aims to reduce the university’s overall energy costs.
MacDivest called out this initiative as counterintuitive and rallied for an alternative, greener solution. Cordelia McConnell is a Network Weaver for MacDivest, whose role involves connecting with other organizations. While speaking with The Silhouette, McConnell shared the importance and urgency of MacDivest’s advocacy for climate action.
“It's really key that we take action against this kind of thing. The numbers [McMaster] is releasing on the gas generators say they're going to produce 415 tonnes of carbon emissions every 60 hours operating on Cootes Drive,” said McConnell.
It's really key that we take action against this kind of thing. The numbers [McMaster] is releasing on the gas generators say they're going to produce 415 tonnes of carbon emissions every 60 hours operating on Cootes Drive.
Cordelia McConnell, a Network Weaver for MacDivest
In their Net Zero Carbon Roadmap, McMaster shared that the generators would be utilized to reduce demand on the provincial electrical grid, reduce the university’s electrical costs and ultimately improve energy security by lowering reliance on the grid.
McConnell shared that McMaster’s plans to move towards a net zero in climate disruption will not be effective in the current climate emergency and the damage already done can no longer be offset.
“There's not enough time for this planet if we're going to keep below the two-degree threshold to be continuing to invest in fossil fuels and these harmful methods of energy creation, just so [McMaster] can move towards being better. It's like we're taking three steps back so that we might take three steps forward. It makes no sense and it's just too late,” said McConnell.
There's not enough time for this planet if we're going to keep below the two-degree threshold to be continuing to invest in fossil fuels and these harmful methods of energy creation, just so [McMaster] can move towards being better. It's like we're taking three steps back so that we might take three steps forward. It makes no sense and it's just too late.
Cordelia McConnell, a Network Weaver for MacDivest
Leading up to the Keep Cootes Green rally, MacDivest has shared informational posts on their Instagram and hosted an Art Build for protestors to prepare signage. MacDivest also shared a letter they recently sent to the McMaster Board of Governors regarding the natural gas-powered generators, urging them to pull away from the project and opt for a green solution.
In their letter, MacDivest explained that the deadline to combat climate change is fast approaching. They shared that the time to start implementing sustainable energy solutions is now, and it should begin with halting the construction of the generators.
“It's very ironic for a university that markets based on being a school that is so close to these natural spaces, where you can always go for a hike in Cootes whenever you want, and then simultaneously be destroying the very earth that they claim to be supporters of,” said McConnell.
It's very ironic for a university that markets based on being a school that is so close to these natural spaces, where you can always go for a hike in Cootes whenever you want, and then simultaneously be destroying the very earth that they claim to be supporters of.
Cordelia McConnell, a Network Weaver for MacDivest
MacDivest looks to continue to hold McMaster accountable and advocate for sustainable, climate conscious and energy efficient solution.
City to request a one-year extension from ministry after failing to negotiate with the Haudenosaunee
The city’s efforts to dredge Chedoke Creek following a 24-billion-litre sewage spill have been temporarily paused, following conflicts with the Haudenosaunee Development Institute. As a result, the city has requested the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to extend their Dec. 31, 2022 deadline to Dec. 31, 2023 and to order the HDI to allow the city to resume work.
The Chedoke Creek cleanup efforts are based on the discovery of an open sewer overflow tank gate from 2014 to 2018. The gate was found to have released 24 billion litres of untreated sewage and stormwater, including 4,200 tonnes of pollutants, into Chedoke Creek and Cootes Paradise. Details of the extent of damage were kept from the public until the Spectator published confidential files in Nov. 2019 outlining the city’s efforts to keep the incident from the public, dubbing it “sewergate”.
After apologies from the mayor and council, the city immediately received orders from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to evaluate and address the damage. The ministry also pressed charges against the city for violating statutes in the Environmental Protection Act.
Preparation for targeted dredging of the Chedoke Creek sewage spill started in late-August but was halted several times after disagreements over the HDI’s requests for the City to have their consent and approval, based on treaty rights.
Matthew Grant, city spokesperson, described the conflict as unresolvable by municipal legislation.
“And I know, legally speaking, the Crown has a duty to consult. There's no duty to seek consent. We have been engaging with [the HDI] with consultation. The desire to have them as the governing authority seeking consent on the project would require a change in provincial law. And that's not a law that we can change,” said Grant.
Aaron Detlor, delegate and general counsel for the HDI, referred to the Supreme Court ruling of Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia in 2014, that the government has a duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous groups, or ask for consent, to avoid infringement on Indigenous titles. He claims that the city has not adequately consulted with the HDI and has not accommodated for the HDI’s independent reviews of the dredging plan by providing funds.
The city attempted to resume work in mid-September but was faced with obstructions on the construction site by members claiming to be affiliated with the HDI, according to Grant.
Nick Winters, director of Hamilton Water, described the various disruptions that workers have faced during the project, in a media conference. Issues such as blocking access to the site, refusing to comply with health and safety processes and an incident involving stolen equipment and tools from a dredging machine have prevented workers from continuing the project.
Detlor argued individuals associated with the HDI have been present at the site, but have not been unlawful, created a nuisance or blocked or stolen equipment. He claimed the city was wrongly attributing such events to the HDI.
“We talked to the contractor and they realized that [the stolen equipment] wasn't us whatsoever. We had nothing to do with that. And the fact that the city tried to slander us by including us in that allegation, it's not honourable. It's not reasonable. It's not appropriate . . . This is really the city trying to criminalize Indigenous people for exercising rights because the city knows that it messed up,” said Detlor.
City staff have consulted with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat Nation, the Six Nations of the Grand River and the HDI on hiring Indigenous Environmental Monitors from each nation that attend the work site for the duration of the project, with a pay cap of $40,000. Currently, the HDI has requested their monitors to be compensated $350,000, said Winters.
“[The request] is far above and beyond what this one has been requested by the other Indigenous nations. And it's also beyond any authority that city staff have, to provide that type of funding to one of the Indigenous nations as part of this project,” said Winters.
Detlor stated that the extra costs were for independent reviews of city reports and consultations, internal communication with members of Six Nations, information dissemination to Indigenous communities and engagements with the city.
“The reason that we're here is because we fervently believe that we have an obligation to the environment. We have an obligation to Mother Earth. And we're doing this not because of money, any type of publicity or issues. We just want to see a real cleanup done that puts this creek back in the shape it was or better than it was before the spill,” said Detlor.
Detlor also stated that the HDI will continue to exercise treaty rights regardless of the outcomes of the city’s request to the MECP.
The delays as of Oct. 3 have added $466,000 to the original project quote of 6 million dollars. The city has stated that costs will increase by $10,000-$15,000 daily while the city contractor is on standby.
Winters described factors such as permit extensions and demobilizing and remobilizing contractors as factors that can add additional costs to the project. Moreover, Winters highlighted the potential for the high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus in the sediment to leach into the water which can create algae blooms.
With the upcoming municipal elections looming on the horizon, mayoral candidates Keanin Loomis, Andrea Horwath and Bob Bratina have advocated for increased transparency and better leadership for the project if elected.
By Donna Nadeem, Contributor
Cootes Paradise surrounds McMaster University’s campus, creating a warm, natural environment at Mac. At the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King St. West) and within the heart of the Jean and Ross Fischer Gallery, a collection of various works comes together to express the impact that Cootes has had on Hamilton — spanning the past, present and (hopefully) the future.
From paintings of the beautiful landscape contained in Cootes Paradise, to photographs of the life that resides within and maps documenting the area, “Cootes Paradise: A Place Above All Others” reveals the importance of this wetland. The works emphasize that if we don’t take care of Cootes, then we are going to lose it.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Royal Botanical Gardens, Dundas Museum and Archives, Hamilton Public Library and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. It celebrates the centennial of the Hamilton Naturalists Club, discusses sustainability within Cootes Paradise and reflects on stewardship of the land. There is a focus on the human connection to the land and biodiversity.
Cootes Paradise has had a long past. Its usage claims were constantly debated in where a by developers and entrepreneurs. However, local bird watchers saw the threat looming. They began fundraising to preserve the wetlands as a natural habitat.
“Everyone had a different notion of what they wanted to do with this area, they wanted to live in it, hunt in it, they wanted to commercially develop it and this has been its fate,” said Tor Lukasik-Foss, director of programs and education at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Robert Ross is one of the artists who has contributed to this exhibition. Ross has been viewed has one of Hamilton’s most successful artists and considered a master of realism painting. The artist has focused much of his work on Cootes and Dundas Valley, detailing how the land has changed throughout time. This artwork, combined with maps and aerial photography provided by the Hamilton Public Library, effectively helps viewers understand how history has taken its toll on Cootes Paradise.
The Hamilton Naturalists Club asked its members to share their photos of the area, specifically of the birds that live and dwell within the trees. Reaching out to amateur photographers within their membership, they curated 40 photos of Cootes’ long-term residents.
The Hamilton Naturalists Club have been at the forefront of annual bird counts and record-keeping for bird activity in the area since 1927. Thanks to this, they have the most complete record of bird activity anywhere in North America.
“Even though we look at nature and think that this is a place where humans don’t reside, it's not really true, we are there whether nature wants us there or not, for the sake of its continuance we have to be there, so there’s this rich human culture that abounds beyond,” said Lukasik-Foss.
Naturally, as McMaster University overlooks the grounds of Cootes Paradise, a new course was created to explore the area. “Designing Paradise” will run during the Winter 2020 term. It will explore eco-concepts and re-define McMaster’s campus as an environmentally sustainable space. The course will be led by professors Judy Major-Giradin and Daniel Coleman.
“I love that through this course we can engage with the historical and political elements that still reside in the Hamilton landscape, but also have the chance to artistically explore the natural environment and reimagine west campus as the diverse ecosystem that it once was,” said Mariana Quinn, a 3rd year Studio Arts student who is enrolled in the ART 3DP3 Designing Paradise course.
Both Major-Giradin and Coleman are focused on sustainability. Major-Girardin is a Studio Arts professor that actively seeks methods in her studio practice that can provide and offer more environmentally responsible approaches. Coleman is an English professor who recently published a book called Yardwork in 2017 that analyzes Hamilton through ecological, cultural and political stories as well as builds awareness for the sacred land where he resides.
“These spaces, they are not untouched by humans, they are massively touched by humans, in fact, the only way that they live now is because of human advocacy and human action, so they are as talked about and combed over as any other urban space in a lot of ways,” said Lukasik-Foss.
“Cootes Paradise: A Place Above All Others” is a tremendous effort by members of the city to teach it’s residents that even though we live in a densely populated city, we have beautifully vibrant natural spaces. With these spaces; however, comes environmental issues that we need to get behind in to preserve our nature.
“Cootes Paradise: A Place Above All Others” is on display until Dec. 1 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King St. West). The exhibition is free to all McMaster students with a valid student card.
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By: Abeera Shahid
A painter’s lens can provide new insight into familiar landscapes, even if that landscape is your own backyard.
On Oct. 14, James Gummerson debuted his Cootes collection at the Focus Gallery in downtown Hamilton. The intimate venue featured paintings that highlighted the various aspects of Cootes Paradise, the famed nature sanctuary adjacent to McMaster University and a key part of the Hamilton ecosystem.
Gummerson has been a professional painter for over 20 years and creates pieces that are detailed and representational; in previous work, he has spent six to 12 months on one painting. However, this time Gummerson took a new approach.
“I needed a way to paint faster and express myself faster, almost like a thought,” said Gummerson. “Instead of one major thought, it’s small little thoughts and the whole painting is one moment. The paintings are done relatively quickly, that means around a day or two to do a piece,” he said.
As part of the Hamilton community and connected to McMaster, many students have visited Cootes and experienced its beauty, but Gummerson provides a unique interpretation.
“I tried to embody what Cootes really is as opposed to the romanticized version of it: this beautiful nature beside the city. Although it is that, it is also many other things. It has a past. Over the years it has gone through a lot of changes, pollution. There is rejuvenation but also struggle,” explained Gummerson.
One of Gummerson’s paintings reflects this struggle by showing a wired fence next to a marsh. He brings in elements of the urban life that is situated around Cootes to provoke reflection on the landscape’s interactions with human structures. Since he spent significant time painting Cootes, he noticed a broadening of his view over the painting process.
“Over that period of painting, the paintings got a little brighter and tended to have a more playful mood… There is a lot of muted, deep tones, grays and I saw all the dead branches [in the beginning] and by the end of it I saw a lot more colour. I saw it more beautiful than when I started.”
A brighter painting featured in the collection was captioned “The House That Cootes Built” and displays a lilac tree around a house. The colours consisted of a lighter palette, with various shades of pink and purple.
He touches on elements from the seasons throughout his collection and shared his insight on how he sees the current fall scenery.
“I don’t like fall because of just the reds, oranges and trees. I like fall because of the deep tones and contrast that you get. I wouldn’t say I love dead things but I love the interesting sort of patterns it creates when things are in a decay period,” said Gummerson.
The sight of a landscape is only one factor that influences an artist’s interpretation. Gummerson addressed how his work is influenced by other senses, specifically sound. Another one of his paintings is titled “The crunching beneath my feet was the only sound I heard” and showcases the marsh’s ground in the winter, with plant life fighting its way through the snow.
The paintings in the Cootes collection connect and demonstrate nature’s interaction with Hamilton. However, appreciating the depth of his work is only possible by seeing it for oneself. The Cootes display will be on at the Focus Gallery until Nov. 12.
By: Andrew Case
We’re lucky that our campus borders on Cootes Paradise. Sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly stressed, or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people who feel the need to walk, talk, eat, play, and do other human activities which slowly drain my last (introverted) reserves of energy, I will escape to Cootes for a half hour. The Dundas Valley Conservation area, Bruce trail, and Mac Woodlot, all nearby, make for similarly pleasant retreats.
Evidently, I get a lot of utility out of the natural spaces near McMaster. Along with many other students, I like to think of myself as an environmentally aware person. That being said, I have some problems with how we approach environmental education and awareness.
The two main arguments which I hear being made for environmentalism are these: “the human race will go extinct,” and “it is immoral to pollute/litter/other heinous crimes against the environment.” I’m going to totally ignore the former in this article. But I have a qualm with the latter, the “moral argument”. It is all too often followed up with “think of your children’s children”, or some iteration, the gist of which is that I have a moral responsibility to future human beings. That is, actions which harm the environment are immoral because they make the plight of future generations worse than our own; because they harm other people. Fine. True enough.
I think those arguments are fine, but they leave me feeling a bit detached. I don’t want to be the cause of a future collapse of homo sapiens, and I don’t want to totally screw over my great-great-great-grandchildren, but those problems just don’t feel very immediate when I’m contemplating whether I want to drive someplace or make the ten minute walk. The utility of driving outweighs the disutility caused by the environmental harm.
Still, in this situation, I usually walk. The argument that convinces me is this: “nature is good. To harm it wantonly, therefore, is wrong.”
We feel the need to make every academic argument either scientific or, if we can’t manage that, at least humanist. I think environmentalism can have a strong scientific or humanist basis, and not lose face because it affirms the worth of nature to the human spirit.
One of my very favourite things is going on canoe trips with my dad. I spent six weeks of my summer on the Newfoundland coast, hiking and sailing. I like to saunter through Cootes. In short, nature is a great friend to me. And I try, where I can, to be a decent friend in return.
Environmentalism, when it’s at its best, is based on a good relationship between individuals and the landscape around them. Environmental education, then, should focus on fostering friendship between individuals and the places they live. Environmentalism should be about getting more out of the places we live while taking less.
Aurora Coltman
Silhouette Intern
McMaster University will soon be exploring the method of conservation corridors in its own backyard.
Conservation corridors are plots of land conserved or restored that acts as a bridge to connect multiple plots of larger land. This connection promotes animal movement and migration, potentially bettering living conditions for wildlife.
McMaster professors Susan Dudley and Chad Harvey have organized a group of student volunteers who are working to help create a conservation corridor. The corridor is situated between the Dundas Valley Conservation Area and Cootes Paradise, off Lower Lions Club Road near Wilson Street.
“McMaster has the good fortune, and it looks like kind of by accident almost, of holding a really nice piece of property that has tremendous ecological diversity on it,” said Dudley, referring to the plot, which was purchased by the university in the 1960s for $1.
However, the plan for the land does not end at transforming it into a conservation corridor –the project will also transform the land into the McMaster Conservation Corridor Teaching and Research Facility. The 48 hectares of land will serve primarily as a research facility for science students, but the space will not be closed off to the public.
Dudley and Harvey hope to be able to employ the Smithsonian Dynamic Forest Plot Technique, in which land is divided into 20 by 20 metre gridlocks. All flora and fauna within each grid will be tagged and placed. As records are updated, it presents an opportunity to show what prospers where, and how to better use the space.
The two professors are able to go forward with their plan after receiving a grant of $5,000 from President Patrick Deane’s Forward with Integrity movement in December 2012, and having the grant matched by the Faculty of Science. Most recently, they received a $140,000 grant from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.
Dudley explained that with the grant money, the group would be able to build the gridlock, resettle the trail on the property, manage the space, and provide maintenance for it. They hope to be able to hold long-term experiments on the property in the future, such as scrutinizing the flow of fauna through the plot, and conducting other observatory experiments involving insects and bees.
“What we’re thinking about is we may start to put in native plants, we may ask schools to grow some special plants that you would have to plant in rather than sow as seeds,” said Dudley.
The group of McMaster students and professors have high hopes for the project, and fully intend to realize those goals.
“We have a chance to learn a lot from this site,” said Dudley.
In using their grants and dedicated volunteers, Harvey and Dudley plan to take full advantage of that chance to have the project move forward and to become a leading resource in forestry.
For many McMaster students, the bridge spanning Cootes Drive is a road seldom travelled. The far west side of campus is currently home to just the Campus Services Building, a few baseball diamonds, and several parking lots. But a group of McMaster professors plans to change that.
Coming from departments ranging from Environmental Science to English, they call their budding project the “MACMarsh.” In 2009, the City of Hamilton tore up part of west campus’ Parking Lot M to install a Combined Sewage Overflow tank, and it has yet to be repaved. The MACMarsh group is encouraging the university to remove the asphalt that remains and let nature reclaim the barren ground. The parking-lot-to-paradise transition would both increase the amount of campus green space and create a valuable teaching and research facility.
Lot M was first created in the early 1970s, when McMaster was facing an impending parking crisis. Projections at the time indicated that the number of motorists would increase dramatically. Fortunately, Mac had purchased 160 acres of wetlands from the Royal Botanical Gardens in 1963, including the Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary. Anticipating a need for much more parking, McMaster cleared the Coldspring Area, rerouted a nearby creek, and built several new parking lots.
Yet the anticipated parking demand never materialized, and a 2011 study found that now just 2,803 of McMaster’s 3,963 parking spaces are needed, even at peak demand.
“Because of increases in bike use and people walking and public transit, there’s been a big decrease in the number of cars on campus,” said Mike Waddington, a professor in the School of Geography and Earth Sciences. Waddington is the Associate Director of the McMaster Centre for Climate Change and one of the professors leading the development of MACMarsh.
“We view it as not so much replacing a parking lot as creating education and research opportunities, as well as being a prettier entrance to the university.”
A greener welcome to Mac is not just a tangential benefit of MACMarsh. It would also help to fulfill McMaster’s long-held goal of minimizing impact on Cootes Paradise, environmentally and aesthetically.
This vision of MACMarsh as a peaceful, pretty place in addition to a research and teaching facility has attracted people from a wide range of faculties. Daniel Coleman, a professor of Canadian literature in the English department, says the project can be an asset to the Humanities as well. One of his projects involves writing extensively about one small part of Cootes Paradise. “I wanted to see how much I could learn from one area,” he said. Coleman also believes that Humanities involvement can benefit the project.
“Human experience and human story and human emotional connection is, in my view, essential to any kind of ecological success… I think humanists have a lot to contribute to projects like this.”
Students, too, have a role to play in the project; in fact, Waddington says that MACMarsh is being developed primarily for them.
“Any time we can get students… out of the classroom, into the field, it’s a good thing. So I view this as student-driven,” he said. “Plus, reclamation research has become very important… Canada is very resource driven. A lot of our students are getting jobs in resource management. So these students, fifteen, twenty years from now will be able to come back and see this facility which they’ve helped develop and see it as it restores back to a natural ecosystem.”
Already, several undergraduate students are involved: Hillary MacDougall, a fourth-year Geography and Earth Sciences student, spent part of her summer working at Lot M.
“You learn about digging wells and stream monitoring, but when you’re actually doing it, it makes so much more sense… I think [MACMarsh] would be a really good opportunity for students to take learning from the classroom and apply it to the outdoors and ‘real-life’ things,” she said.
Waddington added that these kinds of opportunities would extend beyond the Faculty of Science, and that as many as a dozen courses that could make use of the facility have been identified.
At this point, MACMarsh is very much in its infancy, and on-site development is at least two or three years away. The project received a Forward With Integrity grant last May to fund the installation of wells and meters that measure aspects of the area such as water flow. Waddington is optimistic that the project will attract philanthropists in the future. He points to a similar venture undertaken by the University of Ohio that has proved very popular with donors.
“[McMaster] would be the first [university] in Canada, and only second in the world, to have a research wetland on its campus,” he said when asked about the financial needs of the project.
As for the Marsh’s effects on its residential neighbours, that’s a facet of the project that has to be examined carefully.
“Before anything would begin it would be very important, obviously, to go through formal designs and discuss it with the public,” Waddington commented. He further indicated, though, that he believes most people would rather live next to a naturalized wetland than a parking lot. “It would be interesting to track public perception throughout time,” he said.
McMaster was planning to repave the disturbed part of Lot M and reopen it for parking, but those involved with MACMarsh are optimistic that this intention will be reversed in light of their project. In a few years, current first year students might be enjoying their lunch beside a pristine, on-campus research marsh. As it develops, everyone will have a part to play: from Earth Scientists and English professors to students and community members. Coleman sees this interdisciplinary, intercommunity cooperation as a chance to learn and grow.
“It’s a “way of linking up, let’s say, ‘disparate’ forms of knowledge and saying ‘hey these are all part of our shared story about this place’.”
If you looked at early photos of the McMaster campus, you might notice that it looks drastically different than it does today. In the 82 years Mac has spent in this city, the school has grown, more buildings were put up to accommodate the growing population, and the campus expanded to take up more of the surrounding area.
But in early November, the administration took a major step towards bringing Mac back to its roots. The President’s Advisory Committee on Cootes Paradise (PACCP) announced on Nov. 9 that a 30-metre buffer zone would be created between parking lot M, on west campus, and the nearby Ancaster Creek.
The implementation of the buffer will mean the lot will lose 318 parking spots, according to the Hamilton Conservation Authority.
The lot currently has 1,400 transponders for staff and students, and approximately 1,300 spots. According to Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s Director of Public and Community Relations, the use of the lot is spread out over the week, so the loss of the additional space is not expected to have an effect on the availability of parking.
The area that is now occupied by parking lots M, N, O and P was the floodplain area for Ancaster Creek. It wasn’t until McMaster took possession of this portion of the Royal Botanical Gardens land in the 1960s that the floodplain was paved.
Randy Kay, a local environmental activist, said this change has been a long time coming.
“This is a very integral part of the puzzle,” he explained. “It is a huge, important piece of the larger Cootes Paradise recovery.”
Kay is the organizer of Restore Cootes, an environmental group dedicated to the revitalization of the area surrounding McMaster. The group has been leading “Ponds to Parking” hikes since December 2011 to spread awareness of the issue.
Kay also submitted a letter to the University Planning Committee in March 2011 encouraging the administration to take on the wetland restoration project, but did not have any success at the time.
“I was a little upset, actually… when you send a letter to the University Planning Committee, they don’t actually even acknowledge they’ve received it.”
In the spring of 2012, after a meeting with McMaster officials, two city councilors, and the chair of the PACCP, the University agreed to take on the project, creating a specific lot M subcommittee, and their support “changed the dynamic quite a bit,” said Kay.
Although the agreement to the 30 m buffer marks an achievement for Restore Cootes, Kay explained that the process of working through the channels of University administration was not always easy.
“You’re kind of left in this one-way vacuum where you don’t get anything back. It goes into this black hole of administration,” he said of his early attempts to get the attention of the University Planning Committee. “I could see that being a barrier, for citizens and other interested people around the campus to get involved.”
As well as working with the PACCP, Restore Cootes collaborated with MacGreen, OPIRG McMaster and a group of “McMaster Marsh” professors. The professors have also been advocating that a currently closed portion of the lot be repurposed to become an outdoor research facility, to serve both students and faculty.
“What they’re doing now is the minimum requirement for today’s standards of a healthy, coldwater creek,” Kay explained. “Doing the minimum is what needs to be done… doing more would be great.”
