The largest public debate in Brampton’s history, over an issue that has divided the city, will take place Wednesday evening, when the future of a $1.6-billion LRT project will be decided.

Council will vote on whether or not to accept provincial agency Metrolinx’s LRT route, which would see it run up the city’s historic Main St. into downtown and then loop back down from the central GO Train station. In April, the province committed to fund the project’s core capital cost.

Read:The Brampton LRT debate: Yes or No?

At least five of the 11 council members do not support the plan and are calling for the Liberal government to fund a yet-to-be finalized alternative route that they say would make more sense for Brampton. Mayor Linda Jeffrey, a former Liberal cabinet minister and MPP, has been actively lobbying council and the public to get behind the province’s plan.

More than 130 residents have registered to either speak or have their correspondence on the acrimonious issue received by council, and many more are expected to add their names to the list once the meeting starts.

The special meeting at 7 p.m. inside council chambers at City Hall was scheduled after residents made it clear that the issue is too important to be dealt with at a regular daytime council meeting.

Previously, the largest number of public participants that delegated a Brampton council meeting was 33, for a 2008 vote involving accommodations for places of worship in the city.

City staff said that council will have to pass a motion to allow the meeting to go past 11:55 p.m., in accordance with a procedure bylaw. Council might have to do so, as the future of mass transit in Brampton has sparked an intense debate among many of the city’s almost 600,000 residents.

The issue hasn’t just divided council. Two community groups have been aggressively lobbying for their respective positions: Fight Gridlock in Brampton supports the Metrolinx plan, and says the city’s aging downtown desperately needs it; while Citizens For a Better Brampton wants an alternative route, arguing that much of the proposed route along Main St. does not have the ridership or the future growth projections to support an LRT.

On Wednesday, a decision will probably be made that will have ramifications for much of Brampton’s future.

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