Waterfront secrets don’t sit well

City of Hamilton staff have decided on which bid they favour for developing the Pier 8 lands. But we can’t tell you which one.

Until the deal is sealed by a city council vote June 6, City Hall has decided the public won’t know which of the four proposals has received the nod. The rationale for this is that the request for proposal process isn’t technically complete until the preferred bidder is confirmed. This may be a legally-sound defence, but from a transparency perspective, it stinks.

The public was given an opportunity to respond to all of the semifinalist proposals. But now they won’t get a chance to respond to the finalist until the deal is done?

And why wasn’t the same restrictive rule applied last year when council approved a $103-million sewage sludge-drying plant proposal? In that case, the staff recommendation on the preferred proposal was public, not secret as in this case.

Why the double standard? What makes the Pier 8 development proposal different from the sewage sludge proposal?

The optics are not good here. This is the sort of thing that makes already suspicious citizens even more so, and casts an unfortunate pall on what should be a good news story. Everyone who works at City Hall should know by now that transparency should always be the default, and secrecy should only be imposed out of necessity. Matters should not be kept secret just because they can be.

There are just a few days until the vote now. But as a matter of principle, city council should still make this right in advance of the meeting. Secrecy is never a good look.