City’s LRT funding a guaranteed political football

Liberals promised $1B, but parties now hint at everything from new buses to road repairs

THIS PROVINCIAL ELECTION is turning Hamilton’s LRT project into a political roller-coaster ride.

A $1-billion commitment by Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne in 2015 to pay for a light rail transit line across the lower city is now being dangled in front of local voters as funding for alternative projects ranging from bus rapid transit to road repairs.

The threat of political derailment for LRT comes even with $65 million already spent on planning and land purchases — and dozens of residents already moving out of the way of construction.

The bumpy ride for Hamilton’s LRT is almost inevitable, said transit planning and infrastructure expert Matti Siemiatycki. The University of Toronto associate professor said large transit-building projects that stretch over multiple years — and elections — often end up as political footballs.

“It seems like no decision is final, even when you have shovels in the ground,” he said. “To have decisions on those projects re-evaluated, relitigated, or even reversed in those circumstances is not unique.”

For example, a post-election Ottawa council ripped up a signed LRTbuilding contract in 2007, later pay-

ing almost $40 million to settle the resulting lawsuit. (A different LRT project is now being built.)

PC premier Mike Harris also cancelled an NDP-supported Toronto subway under construction along Eglinton West in 1995 and filled in the tunnel.

Hamilton’s LRT was already a hot topic in the previous provincial and city elections — and planned construction, if it goes ahead, will stretch beyond local and Ontario elections in 2022.

Still, until recently it appeared all four major political parties had committed to building Hamilton’s LRT.

That changed about a month before the election campaign — or shortly after Patrick Brown was replaced as Progressive Conservative leader in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations that he denies.

New PC Leader Doug Ford, at first, announced enthusiastic support for Hamilton’s LRT plan — then days later switched gears to suggest the project cash could be used for non-transit projects like road repairs. The party’s transit plan currently says a PC government would support a $1-billion “regional transit” project in Hamilton.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath then surprised project fans in May when she told The Spectator she would allow city council to redirect LRT cash, if it so chose, to a different transit project. But she also vowed the next day to “fight like hell” to make the contentious light rail transit project a reality.

Even before election fever set in, fans and opponents of LRT were selectively parsing the words of Wynne and her local lieutenant, Liberal MPP Ted McMeekin, about the project.

(For example, the premier once told a reporter “it’s never been LRT or nothing” for Hamilton, prompting renewed hope for project detractors. McMeekin later said the city would go to the back of the line for transit cash if it killed the LRT proposal.)

So far, the Green party under Mike Schreiner has expressed support for Hamilton LRT.

Siemiatycki emphasized “politics belongs” in the transit planning process — particularly as a democratic tool to evaluate citizen priorities in the first place.

“The stakes are high, the costs are high and the decisions ... will have real impacts on residents and how your city is designed for decades,” he said.

But if politics end up trumping “evidence-based” planning, then sometimes “you end up with results that are financially wasteful and politically taxing.”

It’s possible that contradictory-sounding LRT campaign vows will have a bigger impact on Hamilton’s fall municipal vote than on the June 7 results.

But in the meantime, the noise around LRT threatens to drown out other notable transit promises in this provincial election — like the NDP promise to upload half of all local transit operation costs, for example. Such a move would take Hamilton taxpayers off the hook for more than $30 million in annual funding for the

HSR, which is struggling with declining ridership, overcrowded buses and driver absenteeism.

The Green party also supports sharing the local transit tab with cities and has suggested using road tolls or congestion charges to help pay the bill.

The Liberals have vowed to lower GO transit fares and pump up the percentage of the provincial gas tax available to cities, which in Hamilton would equate to an extra $10 million.

But the government has also tied access to that cash to the use of PRESTO card technology on local buses, an unpopular requirement with city councillors who fear losing control over local transit decisions.

The Tories would also give more of that gas-tax pie to cities, but have also vowed to slash gas taxes paid by drivers at the pump.

It’s not yet clear how the party would make up for lost revenues from either the gas tax cut or its plans to axe the so-called carbon tax. A costed campaign platform promised by Ford has not yet been made public.

“We will pay for all of our promises using existing government revenue and finding efficiencies across every department,” said party spokesperson Sarah Letersky.

That fiscal uncertainty has allowed other parties to argue Ford is endangering funding for local transit projects like bus replacement, LRT and even GO train expansion.

All three major parties have vowed to hurry up improved GO service to Hamilton and beyond to Niagara, but details on how they would sweet-talk corridor owner CN are thin on the ground. Regular all-day GO train service has been promised to Hamilton in every election since 2011.