Hamilton Liberal MP Filomena Tassi says she will support any shovel-ready transit project, including the controversial light rail transit system, that the city submits to the government.

“I will go to bat for Hamilton funding whatever the city wants,” said Tassi, the minister of labour. “Whatever project (the city) puts forward I will support it.”

She said the federal government and federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna are already considering shovel-ready projects once the decision is made to reopen the country’s economy and ease restrictions.

“Hamilton is a great community to invest in,” she said. “The benefits and returns have proven themselves in the arts, manufacturing, across the board.”

The city’s business and pro-LRT community have begun to lobby the federal government to commit to funding the light-rail project as part of an overall economic stimulus package that will boost the community’s post-novel coronavirus pandemic economy.

The provincial government’s Hamilton Transit Task Force released its recommendations in early April that endorses building an “intracity high-order” transit project. The task force identified LRT, bus rapid transit and GO transit.

The provincial conservatives cancelled the LRT project in December 2109 after referring to a contentious third-party review of the plan’s cost that officials stated had ballooned to $5.5 billion — $2.8 billion to build, plus adding 30 years of operating and maintenance costs.

The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Fred Eisenberger have been arguing that it should be the federal government’s obligation to provide the city with additional capital dollars to build the entire LRT route from McMaster University to Eastgate Square as part of an economic stimulus package for Hamilton.

“We will need stimulus projects very soon,” said Chamber president Keanin Loomis, recently talking to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath. “It’s a project that is ready to go and it feeds into what the federal government is looking to find as well.”

Tassi said McKenna has been in contact with Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Eisenberger about various infrastructure projects for the city, including transit.