Opinion: Brian Lewis Questions Timeline for Steelport AI Approval Process

Mayor Horwath, Members of Council, and Members of the Committee of Adjustment,

I am writing as a candidate for Ward 2 councillor — and as a resident who has closely followed the Steelport AI data centre proposal.

I am not writing to argue for or against the project itself. I am writing about process — because what is unfolding today raises serious questions about whether this decision can be made responsibly under the current timeline.

As of 4:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, the public record contained 1,209 letters and thousands of pages of submissions across six files. The agenda was still being updated as of late yesterday afternoon. As of 4:20 p.m. today, neither an updated agenda nor a final speaker count had been publicly released.

No member of the Committee of Adjustment, no member of council, no city staff person, no journalist, and no member of the public has had the time to meaningfully review what has been submitted. That is not a public consultation process. It is the appearance of one.

The issues before the Committee tomorrow are not simple, and several fall entirely outside the Committee of Adjustment's jurisdiction under the Planning Act:

TREATY CONSULTATION
Indigenous community representatives have raised concerns that this application may violate the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 — a treaty recognized under Section 35 of Canada's Constitution. The duty to consult is a Crown obligation. It cannot be satisfied by a Committee of Adjustment hearing. Approving a severance application with an unresolved Section 35 obligation does not make that obligation disappear — it creates the conditions for an injunction that will delay this project far longer than a proper consultation process would.

This is not an abstraction. Today, at this morning's meeting, council read Hamilton's own land acknowledgement — as it does every meeting, including during National Indigenous History Month. That acknowledgement commits Hamilton to recognizing its role as caretaker of these lands and waters, and to honouring the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant — an agreement specifically to share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.

Hamilton Harbour is one of those resources. The city's own words deserve to mean something.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Serious unresolved questions remain about water drawn from Hamilton Harbour for cooling — the same harbour this city has spent fifty years rehabilitating. Peer-reviewed research documents measurable heat island effects extending kilometres beyond data centre sites. Documented concerns about infrasound — frequencies inaudible but physically felt — have been reported near similar facilities and fall outside existing municipal noise bylaws. These are not social media rumours. They are legitimate questions that belong in an environmental assessment, not a severance hearing.

EMPLOYMENT CLAIMS
Public statements in support of this application have cited employment projections that appear to conflate the full Steelport master plan — 800 acres of mixed development — with the data centre component specifically. Residents and committee members deserve that distinction clarified on the record before any decision is made.

THE ELECTION CONTEXT
With a municipal election on October 26th, this council has weeks, not months, left in its mandate. A decision of this consequence — affecting Hamilton's industrial waterfront, triggering unresolved treaty obligations, and generating more public submissions than anybody has had time to review — should not be rushed through by an outgoing council under time pressure.

The incoming council and the residents of this ward deserve to know this was done right.

I am not asking the Committee to reject this application outright. I am asking that it be deferred pending a proper environmental assessment and meaningful Indigenous consultation — the kind that actually fulfils the obligations Hamilton commits to every time it reads its land acknowledgement aloud.

If this project is as strong as its supporters claim, it will survive a proper process. If it cannot, that tells us something important.

Hamilton spent fifty years cleaning up that harbour. It deserves more than a few weeks to decide what replaces what came before.

Respectfully submitted,


Brian Lewis
Candidate, Ward 2
brian@brianlewis.ca
289-674-3534
brianlewis.ca

This was an email submission from a municipal candidate. The piece was published as commentary on a matter of public interest.