There are certain things that are undeniably Canadian and never questioned. Among these are back bacon and eggs on a cold winter morning; a cottage, a two-four and a warm summer night; tuques, a Tim Horton’s on every corner and an arena in every town.
And, then we have Niagara Falls. The last time they built an ice rink was 1973. Maybe all that hot air from the U.S. is affecting their natural Canadian inclinations. Everyone is agreed that it needs a new facility to replace Memorial Arena. Even the rats are demanding better accommodation. But, after that it gets complicated and nasty — convoluted tale of politics, unions, sports and charity surrounded by puddles of toxicity and suspicion.
“We had 93 acres of brownfield property that has been remediated and we’re donating 16 acres to the city for an arena,” says Gail Petersen, director of communications and public affairs, for chemical company Cytec/Cyanamid.
One problem. Brownfields are tracts of land that were once used for industrial purposes but are now vacant.
Niagara Falls city council said thanks, and went ahead in approving an $18-million, two-pad facility desperately needed by local hockey and skating clubs.
Which is about the time the Cytec gift-horse gagged. Unite Here! Canada, a union representing about 700 local hotel workers, went public with demands that the site was unsafe. Alex Dagg, Unite Here! co-director, says Cytex used the property for 80 years to manufacture and store such nasty bits as coal, coke and calcium cyanamid. “We’re not anti-arena. We’re not anti-hockey. Our concern is with the site,” Dagg says. The union fears the city is buying an arena but getting the Sydney Tar Ponds. Or the Love Canal Gardens.
It’s demanding a halt to planning, construction and an independent environmental assessment. “There was some side noise that put pressure on people and made them (that would be city councillors) question their judgments about what they were doing,” Petersen says.
So, much of the summer was spent with finger-pointing instead of pointing brickwork. Meantime, the public doesn’t know what to believe. It wants kids to have a place to play hockey, but doesn’t want them coming home with two green heads either. And, mention things like coke and carcinogen as Unite Here! has done, and people get worried.
“It’s the things people don’t understand that scares them,” Petersen says. “They hear the word coke and think, ‘oh, it must be really bad.’ But they don’t understand that they’ve been cleaned up so that any amount (left) is inconsequential.”
Regenerating brownfields is often controversial but it is also not unusual. In Niagara Falls itself the Thunder Waters golf resort is built on reclaimed land.
“We just think (city council) should be very careful. It’s not the only land in Niagara Falls,” Dagg says. “The site is not a safe site. The chemicals manufactured in that plant were dangerous. We think there’s coal tar ... and that’s carcinogenic.”
Cytec says it has been cleaning the Stanley Ave. site since 1993 and that “every time we do a test an independent organization hired by the city also does one,” Petersen says. “Then the tests go to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment which decides if they meet the standards. Cytec has nothing to gain by not meeting those standards. It appears ... Unite Here doesn’t respect the MOE and doesn’t trust (them).”
Dagg says she is unaware the MOE has received any independent testing. “Cytek hired a firm called Cantox to do the land assessment. We don’t believe they’re independent because they’ve been hired by the company who want the land to be cleared. Cantox also did a land assessment at the Sydney Coal Tar plants. Cantox is the same company that cleared that land and said it was safe and later had to evacuate it.”
Cytec would eventually like to develop the rest of the 93 acre site. Having an arena in place could spur that, but says Petersen, “there is no benefit to us to deliver land that isn’t clean.”
Niagara Falls has the Junior B Canucks and Junior C RiverHawks. Mick Wolfe, a minor hockey coach and general manager of the ’Hawks, is eager for construction to start. “We badly need facilities and I’m willing to put my faith in the experts. It’s probably one of the most studied lands in Ontario and I’m confident an arena here is appropriate.”
Plans for the 3,000-seat twin-pad went on hold two weeks ago when a group that includes Don Cherry indicated it’d like to construct a 5,700 seat rink to house an OHL franchise. This week that got blown out of the water. Too many complications. Back to plan A? Who knows. City council meets tomorrow and Dagg says, “we’ll be there. We have workers who live in that community and we’re concerned with their welfare.”
In another twist, Unite Here! Canada had been in contract talks for its workers with Canadian Niagara Hotels. What does that have to do with turning sod on an arena? Maybe nothing. Except Canadian Niagara holds the lease from Cytec and is the developer on those remaining 93 acres. Petersen says: “I don’t know but if you could make difficulties for the company you were negotiating a contract with, well ...”
Dagg denies ulterior motives. “(Cytek) can make that allegation if they want rather than deal with the issue,” says Dagg, noting the union reached a settlement with Niagara Hotels in July. “The issue is before we build an arena with public funds we want to be sure it’s safe ... there are carcinogenic substances buried in that land.”
Buried along with it seems to be a lot of goodwill not to mention the dreams of a lot of little NHL wanna-bes. Pity.
