Relief for drained councillors after light-rail drama

Asked how he felt after the 10-5 vote to push ahead with LRT, the first words out of Fred Eisenberger’s mouth apply to many on his wearied council.

“I quite honestly feel relieved,” said the mayor.

That relief is not only political, it’s personal.

In the space of one astonishing week, the light rail project careened from the edge of extinction to majority council support for a better plan that now includes an extension to Eastgate Square.

But over those same seven days, public and private pressures on councillors — particularly on the unde-

cided and opponents — reached a crescendo that has left many bone-weary mentally and dog-tired emotionally.

It’s an article of faith among some that if not for Terry Whitehead’s April 19 motion to postpone voting on the environmental assessment until this Wednesday, LRT would have been consigned to limbo by a 9-6 vote.

Now that the crisis has passed and the $1 billion from the province secured, a huge weight has been lifted from their tense shoulders. Four councillors either flipped their votes or came down off the fence to make that happen. They still have doubts, but they can finally breathe again.

“I know the strain it has on my colleagues; it’s the same strain it has on me” said LRT opponent Chad Collins, whose surprise support came with an olive branch to the other side.

“No one’s sleeping; no one’s eating … everyone’s feeling it.”

Whitehead, whose delaying motion arguably saved the day and gave the province time to meet his Eastgate condition, is “exhausted and drained” by months of internal bickering, “vitriolic” criticisms and personal insults.

“It’s not an experience you want to go through too many times,” he said.

Tom Jackson sensed a “pall” over city hall after the marathon April 19 meeting and a feeling of “remorse” among councillors for how bitterly divided they and the community were over the issue.

Months of confusion and acrimony have taken a collective as well as personal toll, he says.

“The stress and tension on this LRT was definitely even more than combining amalgamation, Red Hill and the stadium together.”

Two days before Wednesday’s vote, the east Mountain veteran still hadn’t decided where he’d land and so prepared two speeches, one in support, one opposed.

In the end, Jackson voted for LRT with the caveat that may change when the operation and maintenance agreement comes up next year. After voting, Jackson says it felt like the lid had blown off a pressure cooker, allowing the pent-up steam to escape. “It was like a total relief.” What tipped the scales for Jackson? Over the last week, he began hearing from constituents who previously hadn’t been engaged on the issue. Their overarching theme was, “Tom, please think very long and hard if you’re going to give $1 billion away.”

There was no one tipping point for Collins. He says it was the wearying accumulative effect of dealing with an increasingly alienating issue that even impacted his brotherly bond with Sam Merulla, an LRT supporter.

Collins figured the EA would pass Wednesday night. Once that happened and properties are expropriated and people displaced, he felt there would be no going back and no point in giving community opponents “false hope.”

Going to Eastgate means the rail tracks and overhead wires will now be running through his east end ward. That means many of his businesses will be facing challenges. Collins figures he’ll be better placed to help them on the inside than the outside.

“I can either find myself on the sidelines throwing tomatoes at this thing until I’m blue in the face or I can try to work to massage it and make it better than it is.”

Arlene VanderBeek of Dundas says she made up her mind to support the project a couple of days before the last-minute provincial agreement to go to Eastgate.

She thinks the extension is a great “plus” but that’s not what brought her down off the fence on the side of light rail. It simply felt, after balancing all the pros and cons, like the right thing to do.