Expenditures for Hamilton’s LRT on the rise

With spending closing in on $100 million, will it soon be too difficult to stop this train?

The number of provincial dollars spent on Hamilton’s planned LRT system is rising.

According to updated figures, the provincial transit agency Metrolinx has now spent and committed $78 million to the $1-billion project.

Of that $78 million, $54 million has already been spent, while the rest represents looming expenses.

The figures, the most recent available, are as of October 2017.

They include expenses for staffing, property acquisition, consulting contracts, leased spaces, and hard costs such as printing and equipment.

Overall, the $78 million denotes a jump of $6 million over the previous total presented to city councillors last April.

But back then, Metrolinx had actually only spent $31 million. That’s now increased by approximately $23 million to the aforementioned $54 million.

None of this, by the way, includes the $5.2 million the City of Hamilton spent on preliminary project reports and studies from 2007 to 2011.

“There has been no additional city money spent … since that time,” according to Kris Jacobson, the acting project director for the city.

Jacobson is the interim replacement for Paul Johnson, who’s been promoted to general manager of the city’s healthy and safe communities division, the new name for a reorganized emergency and community services department.

But in one of his last forays as the city’s LRT pointperson, Johnson suggested the millions committed to the project so far will soon be overtaken by even bigger spending.

In late December, Johnson told councillors that Metrolinx is in various stages of negotiations for the acquisition of 35 properties along the 14-km route between McMaster University and Eastgate Square.

It’s not known what properties are involved. But sooner or later Metrolinx will need to purchase the large parcel of land at Longwood Road and Aberdeen Avenue, which has been identified as the maintenance and storage hub for the fleet of LRT vehicles.

Clearly, that alone will be a multimilliondollar expense.

So what does all this signify, beyond the fact that the controversial project continues to eat up more provincial dollars as it trundles along?

Well, it should be pretty obvious that by the time the June provincial election arrives, project expenses will easily be pushing $100 million.

And that suggests they’ll likely be well over $100 million by the time of the October municipal election.

That clearly means local voters will need to seriously consider the cost implications for the city if a new anti-LRT council is elected.

As city staff reported last April, it’s not known if Metrolinx will seek to recover some or all of its expenses through legal action if council decides to deep-six the project. But it’s certainly a risk.

As I’ve noted previously, if construction contracts with a private-sector consortium were in place, cancelling the project would present local taxpayers with even greater financial risks.

After all, in 2009 the City of Ottawa paid $36.7 million via out-of-court settlements with two construction firms when it cancelled its $778-million LRT project.

The point is, when talk turns to killing the project, Hamiltonians need to remember the legal risk goes up with every contract signed and dollar spent.

Fortunately, given the project’s delayed timelines, it’s highly unlikely a building contract will be awarded by the time Hamiltonians go to the polls.

And it’s always possible that if faced with a new anti-LRT council, the provincial government might restrain Metrolinx from trying to recover any or all of its sunken money.

But surely at some point even the most ardent LRT opponent will have to ask themselves if they have the stomach to accept such a gigantic waste of public dollars.