Progressive Conservatives confirm LRT position

Tories say Hamilton will keep spot in funding line even if council changes course

Let’s get this straight once and for all.

If the Ontario Conservatives win the June provincial election, the Tories are committed to completing Hamilton’s $1 billion light rail transit project.

That’s spelled out in blue and white on Page 52 of the PC party’s campaign platform.

However, if Hamilton’s current city council or the new council elected next October vote against the LRT system, the Conservatives say money will still be on the table for a different rapid or enhanced transit system for Hamilton without making the city get back in the funding queue.

According to a party spokesperson, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown will be respectful of city council’s decision come what may.

He says the party isn’t taking sides in the LRT debate but the door is open for funding if council decides to go with another rapid transit system.

In essence, this is the position that Brown articulated at a Flamborough Chamber of Commerce lunch back in the summer of 2016 and then elaborated on at a roundtable discussion last August.

The party spokesperson notes the position is consistent with Brown’s former experience as a two-term councillor with the City of Barrie who didn’t like other levels of government thinking they knew what was best for the municipality.

None of this is new to Ward 7 Coun. Donna Skelly, who is the Progressive Conservative candidate for the riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook.

But Skelly’s comments to this effect during a CHML radio interview earlier this week created enough of a stir to warrant confirmation from the party. Consider it confirmed.

“The bottom line is the Conservatives will support whatever the (council) decision is and will not meddle,” says Skelly, a strong LRT opponent.

“At this point, council supports LRT. At this point a Conservative government will support LRT. If council changes it’s mind for whatever reason — the (operating) cost is too high or there’s an election and a (council) change of heart — a Conservative government will support the decision of that particular council as well, LRT or not.”

By comparison, local Liberal rainmaker MPP Ted McMeekin has previously suggested that if Hamilton drops light rail transit in favour of, say, bus rapid transit, under the Liberal government it will have to join a new lineup for rapid transit funding.

All of this feeds into Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s belief that, one way or another, LRT will be a major election issue.

He recently told the Hamilton Community News that the project will be at risk until “shovels are in the ground.”

But to be fair, Eisenberger’s been saying much the same for months.

Even before the project was delayed by council’s request to Metrolinx to allow HSR to run LRT, Eisenberger said he expected the light rail project to be front and centre in his re-election bid, which he’s more than happy to campaign on.

The difference now, of course, is the aborted HSR request delayed the procurement process enough to significantly upset the project’s original timelines, meaning neither the city’s operations and maintenance agreement with Metrolinx or the contract with a private-sector builder will be signed before either the provincial or municipal elections take place.

That means if a new council does reject LRT, any legal ramifications and financial risks will be between the city and the province instead of with a private sector contractor, which, as far as bitter pills go, is a much easier one to swallow.

Clearly the provincial election should be much less of a concern for supporters of light rail transit in Hamilton than the municipal election.

Clearly the October municipal election offers opponents their last best hope of stopping LRT.