Mac turned down for downtown campus

Hamilton city council has turned down a motion to give city owned land to McMaster University to build another satellite campus in the downtown core. But it doesn’t mean that the project can’t go ahead.

And that is really the reason why council said no to a request that probably will get the green light down the road.

The motion asked the city to support a plan by McMaster University to add another location in Hamilton’s downtown core. The university needs the city’s commitment to be eligible for funding from a soon to expire provincial grant.

Patrick Deane is President of McMaster University: “The university too has for at least the last several years has seen part of its future in an expanded presence downtown which we pursued through downtown medical campus and we’ve always thought of that as a beach head to bring more programs downtown.”

The problem however was that while two members of council had discussed the project with university officials, most councillors had just learned about it and were given few details.

City Councillor Brad Clark: “We were informed just in the last couple of days. Apparently there were some discussions with councillor McHattie and Farr and McMaster University staff but the mayor was not involved and the council was not involved. We were surprised to be asked to endorse something blindly when we had no information on it. ”

McMaster officials will now return September 4th, with more details — enough time to meet provincial deadlines.

City Councillor Jason Farr: “This is a terrific proposal and I have no doubt that all of the facts that they are able to bring forward on September 4th will put minds at ease.”

City Councillor Brian McHattie: “Oh, it would be a spectacular project. To begin with, a thousand undergraduate students downtown, a promise of up to five to ten thousand students over time and we know that students spend an average of six thousand dollars per student during their time at school times a thousand five ten. It’s tens of thousands of dollars being spent in the downtown.”

City Councillor Brad Clark: “The concept I’m interested in — but we don’t have any information. It’s unfair, for anyone whether it’s councillors or McMaster, to present and ask us to endorse a project without knowing any information about the project.”

At one point during today’s discussion, Councillor Sam Merulla accused those who voted against the motion of defaming the university. Of course they denied that and university officials said in no way did they interpret the rejection of the motion as a slight against the university.