LRT SUPPORTERS
hold rainy rally at City Hall to convince council to move ahead with the $1-billion project ahead of a crucial vote on Wednesday.
The slogans and the signs were often playfully clever; but under the wit and laughter beat a certain ferocity, perhaps the ferocity of a promise betrayed or at least threatened.
Hamilton’s $1-billion light rail project was supposed to have been a done deal, a virtual fait accompli.
MPP Ted McMeekin, speaking at the proLRT rally at City Hall Saturday, said the issue is “not a game. It’s a game-changer.”
But if it were a game, McMeekin added, it would be “Jeopardy!” And the category choice of those against the light rapid transit project would be: “How about throwing away opportunity, for a billion dollars?”
Hundreds of supporters of the proposed transit system, to which the province has committed $1 billion, showed up in the rain, and the mood was correspondingly, well, unsunny. And determined.
Despite council voting to pursue LRT years ago, the whole enterprise teeters on the brink, with a crucial vote coming up Wednesday.
The vote to approve an environmental assessment update would allow Metrolinx to begin LRT procurement this summer. A vote against approval could jeopardize the project through delay, with elections scheduled for 2018.
A growing chorus of councillors has publicly opposed the project as envisioned, citing concerns over operating costs to local taxpayers.
During Saturday’s rally, Hamiltonian Tom Shepherd expressed his frustration over the pushback on council.
“Honestly, I’m distraught that some members of council are trying to cut the legs out from under something they already agreed on and something that’s already in the works.”
Shepherd is perhaps symbolic of the stakes at play. A young homeowner who works at Stelco, he feels totally invested in the city.
“What city of more than half a million doesn’t have a decent mass transit?”
Cheryl Paterson, a teacher with children in their 20s, held a sign that read, “The best city to raise a child in Canada includes the LRT.”
“We’re shocked that we have to be here, that in a city as amazing as this one, we’re thinking about not moving ahead,” she said.
This idea, the LRT as a choice for the future, was the live current in the gathering, the presiding theme.
To that effect, some spoke to their sense of certain councillors’ backs being turned, not only in betrayal of a decision made, but in retreat from the future.
“Courage isn’t the absence of fear,” said rally speaker Kathryn Wong-Crooks, “but the ability to move forward in the face of fear.”
But it’s not a matter of courage so much as obviousness, said Hamilton Chamber of Commerce president Keanin Loomis. He asked what you call a project that has brought together labour, business, students, the disabled, young, old and a billion dollars.
“You call it a no-brainer. It’s win-winwin.”
Loomis talked about the cost, not of going forward with LRT, but of going back on it.
“We have so much to lose. The money will go to another community; 3,500 jobs and … lost momentum, demoralization.”
Community organizer Sarah Jama addressed the crowd about the importance of improved mass transit, particularly LRT, for the disabled.
For the dignity of the disabled, she argued, this “needs to happen.”
Anthony Marco, president of the labour council, and Mark Ellerker, business manager of the construction trades council, opened the speeches, saying councillors have a commitment to labour and to builders to proceed and to go local.
Lynda Lukasik of Environment Hamilton, who emceed the event, spoke of the LRT as the right thing environmentally. How it would be a betrayal of the environment to back out now as we “face an uncertain climate.”
The rally’s youngest speaker, Grade 8 student Matthew Carrabs, director of Yes To LRT Hamilton, said: “The hard part (of his education as an LRT supporter) is to learn about selfishness.”
By the time Mayor Fred Eisenberger closed out the speakers’ roster, the sun had come out, and he asked why there are still questions after 10 years.
“I’m tired of hammering away at this, but I’m not done. I’ll keep hammering.”
Nigel Cruz, 24, a Hamiltonian, is working for an engineering firm.
“I’m a lifelong commuter. It would be massively beneficial to have the LRT go through.”
Teacher Grant Ranalli expressed his view of the consequences with his large sculpted sign in the crowd, the shape of big piece of toast, explaining it’s what Hamilton will be “if we say not to LRT.”
Other speakers were retired public health nurse Clara Wallman, in her 80s; Ahmed Farah, community organizer in Ward 8; Eric Gillis, rally organizer; and Laura Cattari of the Hamilton Roundtable For Poverty Reduction’s Fix the Gap campaign.