Special Report: Light Rail Province Clarifies Yet Again That LRT Funding is for LRT, Not Whatever Hamilton Feels Like This Week It is simply false to claim that Hamilton can turn down LRT and still hang onto the money in a placeholder until we decide what we want to do with it. By Ryan McGreal

Published April 24, 2017

Opponents of the Hamilton Light Rail Transit (LRT) Plan continue to circulate the phony and many-times-debunked claim that Hamilton will somehow be allowed to use the $1 billion LRT funding commitment for some other transportation project instead.

Last week, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was caught off-guard with a question about Hamilton's LRT and responded in a way that seemed to crack the door open for some kind of Plan B. She said:

So, the money that is on the table for Hamilton is for building transit. It's for building transit. There has been a discussion in Hamilton, as you well know, for years about bus rapid transit, light rail, um, we want to build transit in Hamilton to improve the quality of life of people who live in Hamilton. I really hope that we can come to an agreement. I was very pleased when there seemed to be a decision on building the LRT. You know, I think that's the right way to go and I hope that we'll be able to move in that direction. But that money is for building transit in Hamilton. It's for building transit in Hamilton and we're going to continue to work with Council. I don't know what their resolution was last night. I don't know what their discussion is right now. I had thought that they had made a decision about the LRT, so it is disappointing to me that there's a back-and-forth on this, I'll be honest. And I hope we can get it resolved very quickly.

RTH contacted the Ministry of Transportation to ask for clarification on the Government's position, and received an email response from Vanessa Miceli at the MTO that explicitly stated: "The funding is not allocated specifically to the City of Hamilton but to the LRT project."

If Hamilton City Council rejects the full capital funding for LRT, the City will have to develop a new transit plan and then submit a new funding request, with no guarantee that the Province will approve the project.

In 2015, the Province turned down the City's $300 million funding request for a new HSR bus storage and maintenance facility and new express buses. Their explanation was that the Moving Ontario Forward fund is for regional rapid transit, not local transit, and that cities already receive both federal and provincial gas tax transfers to help fund local transit.

Likewise, after Brampton City Council rejected Provincial funding for their LRT line (an extension of the Hurontario-Main LRT line in Mississauga), they have had to go back to the drawing board to begin developing a new request.

City staff have confirmed that it will be at least 2020 before the City is ready to submit a new plan for funding consideration - and there is no guarantee that the new plan will be approved or funded.

Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale MPP Ted McMeekin further confirmed the Government's position this morning, during a question-and-answer session after a Provincial announcement about a guaranteed annual income pilot project.

Reporter Samantha Craggs of CBC Hamilton tweeted:

And:

And reporter Matthew Van Dongen of the Hamilton Spectator tweeted:

And:

It is simply false to claim that Hamilton can turn down LRT and still hang onto the money in a placeholder until we decide what we want to do with it.

Following is the full text of the response from MTO:

As announced in May 2015, and further reaffirmed through the 2016 Ontario Budget, the Province has committed up to $1 billion through the Moving Ontario Forward plan for the capital construction costs to build a new LRT line in the City of Hamilton. The funding is not allocated specifically to the City of Hamilton but to the LRT project. Investments under the Moving Ontario Forward – Inside the GTHA fund are directed to rapid transit projects that will help improve mobility and manage congestion in the region. The Province respects the importance of municipal decision-making to support our transit investments. The Province and Metrolinx continue to work collaboratively with the City of Hamilton to advance work on the project, and to achieve the timelines announced in the 2016 Ontario Budget.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

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