Ancaster bakery giant gets OK to use the city sewer system

An Ancaster bakery that employs 651 people is on safer ground now that the city has given it rare approval to connect to a municipal wastewater line.

The city is taking the unusual move of letting Oakrun Farm Bakery pay to extend a wastewater pipeline on municipal land by four kilometres.

The bakery has struggled for years with ways to handle its sugar, flour and fruit waste. It's owned by the Swiss corporation ARYZSTA Inc.

Coun. Lloyd Ferguson said earlier this month that without the approval, he was worried the bakery would relocate and take the jobs with it.

"I just don't want to see them leave Hamilton," he said.

• 651 bakery jobs at stake if city doesn't extend sewer line: Lloyd Ferguson

Ferguson's advocacy for the corporation generated some controversy. The Hamilton group Citizens at City Hall (CATCH) implied that the company had lobbied Ferguson, and that this move was a test of the registry's effectiveness.

Ferguson, who has been critical of the registry, chaired the committee that established it.

But neither Ferguson nor Oakrun Farm contravened the bylaw because the bakery is in Ferguson's ward, said city solicitor Janice Atwood-Petkovski.

The bylaw allows councillors to talk to constituents and companies in their wards without submitting to the registry.