He said 85 per cent of the project, which will be built along a 14-kilometre route from McMaster University to Eastgate Square through the downtown, will be to replace sewers, water mains and bury hydro cables.

Eisenberger compared the critics to the LRT with citizens who were against the Red Hill Parkway. He said the parkway costs about $7 million a year to maintain, but generates about $20 million annually. The LRT, he said, will cost $1 billion, but “will generate up to $30 million a year in taxes.”

Eisenberger also argued that despite Sgro’s claims, LRT is part of the city’s BLAST network of expanding transit across the city.

As for fixing the city’s roads, Eisenberger said the city is following its transportation master plan to get to needed road repairs. He said Rymal Road has already been widened in one section and will be widened from Winterberry to Upper Wellington.

“We continue to work through a reasonable capital budget at the same time keeping our tax rates reasonable,” he told Sgro. “We could fix all of our roads. We could do that, but we would have to jack up our tax rate 20 to 30 per cent.”

Eisenberger told Sgro he “was able to manage a zero cost to the local taxpayer for a $1 billion infrastructure” project.

Phil Ryerson, who called himself an “activist against the government on the internet”, opposes the LRT and wants to use concrete to fix all of Hamilton’s roads to make them last longer. He said the LRT will cost about $5 billion because of the additional price tag on infrastructure.

Henry Geissler, who opposes the LRT’s east-west direction, said Eisenberger can’t justify building the LRT because of infrastructure. He said the current route will cause traffic chaos. He proposes building the LRT in a north-south direction along James Street from the waterfront to the Hamilton Airport.

George Rusich, who ran against Ward 5 Coun. Chad Collins in the 2014 election, finishing third, said LRT is a done deal and it’s time to build it.

“It feels like we have been talking about the LRT for 20 years,” he said. “Let’s move forward.”

Eisenberger and Sgro also clashed over how to fund additional affordable housing in a city that has a homelessness crisis, with people living in tents on the escarpment.

Eisenberger boasted about the city’s proposed $50 million over 10 year poverty project that will see more affordable housing built in partnership with the private sector and not-for-profit organizations.

Sgro proposed building 1,000 affordable housing units for first-time home buyers struggling in an escalating housing market.

Eisenberger shot down the plan, saying it will cost about $300 million, about one-third the city’s budget. Beyond the $50 million affordable housing plan, Hamilton is looking at allowing laneway homes, pocket homes and expanding accessory housing suites in residential areas.

“That’s the way we can provide for more affordable housing,” he said.

Eisenberger said he is “super sensitive” about addressing the city’s homelessness problem, especially after emerging from poverty himself in the east end of Hamilton.

“I know what it means to struggle,” he said.

Eisenberger said under his watch there has been a 25 per cent decline in the number of homeless people on Hamilton’s streets from 2016 to 2017.

Paul Fromm, who talked about being the mayor of motorists, was opposed to LRT, but wanted to help “our homeless” people first.

When Ute Schmid-Jones suggested to Fromm that drivers should get out of their vehicles and get onto public transit to reduce congestion, Fromm responded “That’s not going to happen.”

There were periods during the debate when moderator Mike Fortune had to caution Edward Graydon and Carlos Gomes for using inappropriate language or just stop them from speaking.

Graydon, who called Eisenberger “shameful” and a “lame” mayor for not discussing the cannabis issues due to a conflict of interest since he owns shares in a local medical marijuana facility, complained that Eisenberger waited too long to fix Main Street East.

Eisenberger, who was polite in addressing Graydon’s criticisms, said he was the “first one to ring the bell” to fix Main Street East this year after it suffered serious deterioration during last year’s severe winter. The project cost about $1.4 million to repave both ways of the roadway.

Schmid-Jones, who has been a Green party candidate in Hamilton, suggested Hamilton needs to ban bottled water in the city and not just at city facilities. The idea sparked some opposition, especially from Fromm, who was against it.

But it was Gomes during his closing comments who exclaimed that nobody will tell him to stop smoking marijuana.

“If I want to smoke weed, who is anybody in this room, anybody to tell me I can’t?”

Absent from the Cable 14 debate was Mark Wozny, who said he would be attending, and Ricky Tavares, who told Cable 14 representatives he would only attend if he was paid.

The municipal election is Oct. 22.