By Dean Hickey
ONE OF THE TOP PRIORITIES of elected officials and city hall staff is to safeguard
whatever remains of Oshawa’s once-prolific industrial base.
Along the south side of Wolfe Street, opposite the old Cedardale School property, stands one such survivor of the de-industrialization of North America, that being AGS Automotive Systems, a company that engages in heavy metal stamping and chrome plating of automotive parts, all within a 350,000 sq. ft. complex that has been at its current location for more than 60 years
Locals will remember it as the Houdaille Bumper plant where workers staged a thirteen-day takeover of the building in August 1979 until they won a better severance package due to its impending closure. It was a labour struggle that generated front page news and introduced reforms extending worker rights to include advance notice of workplace closures.
Well, fast forward to 2024 when yet another threat to local jobs has emerged, this time in the form of a proposed condominium complex to be located on land that is literally a stone’s throw from the AGS office main entrance.
At their most recent meeting, members of the Economic and Development Services committee heard a presentation on behalf of a developer who wants to literally transform the vacant lot into a veritable metropolis of high density housing where no less than 67 household will reside.
One delegation who came forward from the public gallery to address the committee was Lisa Boulton, general counsel for AGS Automotive. Her comments couldn’t have failed to make both the developer and city hall staff look any worse.
The property in question is the playing field for the now-closed Cedardale Public School, which is mostly surrounded by a low density residential area dominated by century-old homes. What has been proposed is the construction of stacked townhouses up to four floors in height, including roof-top terraces that would have a direct line of sight over the top of the stamping plant right across the street.
In her delegation, Ms Boulton was quick to remind councillors that AGS operates under an Environmental Certificate of Approval issued by the Provincial government, and a better-than-average chance exists that some of the new residents would seek to challenge the effects of noise and emissions from their facility.
She indicated AGS itself has not been given an appropriate opportunity to fully understand the adverse impacts their operations might cause. “I just need the committee to understand that 67 units means there’s an opportunity for 67 complaints” she said.
Ms Boulton would offer up a few sobering remarks as to AGS having been “brought into the loop late in the game,” suggesting they were not invited to the community consultation which took place in 2023. She further stated that recent attempts by AGS to reach out to the developer generated no response.
A neighbourhood public meeting was held late last year in an effort to obtain comments from the public. In a report to members of the committee, staff indicate they attended the meeting and also provided the developer with mailing labels for notices to be sent to affected residents and property owners. Yet, as Ms Boulton pointed out, AGS was not aware of the proposal until notifications for the recent meeting at city hall were distributed in October of this year. “We found out about this proposed development as a result of the public notification process from the City of Oshawa” she said.
Herein lies the shortcomings on the part of a city hall department and its leadership team who quite simply dropped the ball in a classic case of bureaucratic indifference.
As this columnist sees it, both the Director and the Commissioner of Economic and Development Services bear the responsibility to take a pro-active approach in a scenario where a major employer may be seriously compromised by a proposed change in use, such as the Cedardale School property.
The commissioner’s own report outlines the need to consider the adverse effects of noise and pollution that may emanate from certain industrial land uses. Contained within a list of twelve considerations for review by staff is ‘noise attenuation’ and ‘land use compatibility with the adjacent industrial facility.’
For the benefit of the commissioner, I have drawn up a paragraph that should have been included in his report, and it reads as follows:
“In advance of the public information centre held on September 28, 2023, the subject application was provided to the Economic Development team for comment. In accordance with policies aimed at protecting the viability of heavy industries while identifying adverse effects any new developments may have on their existing operations, representatives of AGS Automotive Systems were invited by staff to attend the information session and to submit any comments or concerns they felt were in need of consideration as this proposal moves forward.”
A well-intentioned and direct statement that did not appear in the report, a pro-active stance on the part of city hall that did not take place, and a concern for the preservation of good paying jobs that apparently has yet to be properly communicated.
Experience keeps a dear school, yet some will learn in no other; staff at city hall being no exception. Perhaps the warning given by Ms Boulton will not fall on deaf ears, as she told members of the committee, “We fear losing Canadian footprint in the automotive industry and… a development like this in such close proximity to heavy industry will have a very adverse impact on the community. I will also add that, in the city of Scarborough, AG Simpson had a plant for many years, and we… closed that plant because it was just too difficult to work with residences in close proximity to a heavy manufacturing facility.”
With 250 jobs hanging in the balance, someone at city hall should have long-since picked up the telephone and taken seriously the need to start mitigating what may very quickly amount to the loss of more local industry. Mayor Dan Carter suggested to the delegation that “…this is education for all of us, because I think we’re going to come across other situations environmentally sensitive like this.”
It is past time to be proactive in the defence of workers and their families, and that means looking beyond what has become the dull routine of a bureaucratic planning process.
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