The secretive Hamilton Transit Task Force is scheduled to reveal its recommendations March 16 on what to do with the $1 billion in capital funding that had been allocated to a new light-rail system by the former Liberal government before the Progressive Conservatives derailed the project in December.

But will anybody know what those recommendations will be?

The task force has already rebuffed an in-person presentation proposed by Mayor Fred Eisenberger and whether a letter that Mountain Coun. Terry Whitehead sent to the group will be read by its members is anyone’s guess.

“I have no indication they will be telling anybody anything,” said Eisenberger. “I think they should. That’s why I have asked to meet with the (provincial transportation) minister as soon as possible.”

Eisenberger insists the task force recommendations must be made publicly available as soon as possible, “if not immediately.”

Eisenberger also sent the task force a “pretty significant” letter and overview of how council has examined the LRT project over the last decade and council’s decision to back the project.

Whitehead said he expects the task force to provide council with a series of transportation options, including funding bus rapid transit, as well as alternatives to the LRT. The question will be, he said, whether the recommendations will come with funding or if they will be unfunded options. He believes the option to use the funding to for highway expansion has been dismissed.

“I think they will simply send the issue back to council to decide,” said Whitehead.

At the Feb. 5 general issues committee meeting, councillors approved a motion urging the province to refrain from using a portion of the $1 billion for construction projects on provincial highways or other provincial transportation facilities such as GO Transit.

The province appointed the five-person task force, chaired by former Hamilton Liberal MP Tony Valeri, and which includes Hamilton City Manager Janette Smith, to provide recommendations on how the $1 billion of transportation funding should be spent in Hamilton. The task force was created after Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney announced Dec. 16 during a chaotic news conference that was eventually abandoned at the Sheraton Hotel, it was shutting down the provincial funding for the LRT. The province blamed skyrocketing costs for the 17-km rapid transit line from McMaster University to Eastgate Square that had ballooned to about $5 billion.