Hamilton's hard-luck case may be the key to transit help from Metrolinx.
By Rob Faulkner
Published in the Hamilton Spectator on October 17, 2008.
Hamilton is making its hard-luck economy a major thrust of its bid for a rapid transit system.
Wealthier Toronto-area contenders like York Region are further ahead on rapid transit funding and proposals to Metrolinx, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger accepts.
But he says he has a unique case to make, as a board member of the provincial Crown agency plotting regional transportation.
"My answer to (Metrolinx chair) Rob (MacIsaac) has been that Hamilton has a different circumstance than wealthier municipalities. We haven't had the assessment growth that a Mississauga or York or Durham or Oakville has had over the years," he said.
"We are using this as an assessment growth tool as opposed to managing the growth we've already had. You can't look at all these communities and say you are all in the same boat because we're not."
Metrolinx chair Rob MacIsaac said this week that most of the agency's much-anticipated first five-year budget, expected next month, will fund six or seven Toronto-area projects now undergoing benefits case analysis.
Second-round projects like Hamilton would likely appear in Year 4 or 5, he said. Despite admirable work by Hamilton city staff, he said, York Region is far ahead with its construction consortium ready and environmental assessments completed.
Hamilton is doing planning work with the hope that local rapid transit with full capital funding will be in the 2009-13 Metrolinx budget. Metrolinx shortlisted a King-Main east-west rapid transit line as one of the top 15 projects for the first 15 years of its 25-year plan. It could be rail or bus with dedicated lanes, but that is yet to be determined.
This week, MacIsaac suggested second-round projects, like Hamilton's, will start with funding for planning and related "predictable" costs. He clarified yesterday that Hamilton is doing feasibility studies and Metrolinx won't wait four years before starting its own studies of local routes.
"There could be movement, so I am not counting that out. But really, my broad message was that, look, the earliest years of the (2009-13) budget will not have funding for the Hamilton project. You'll start to see it appear in the later years and it will ramp up.
"It (Hamilton) is a priority for us and I would like to see it in the first five years, but my message really is that it won't be in the early years (of the budget). It will be in the later years."
Metrolinx only has $11.5 billion to fund its draft $50-billion, 25-year regional transportation plan; that will cover just seven years of work.
MacIsaac warned early this week that if he were a city manager, he would be putting money aside for projects now. He said Metrolinx is only likely to fund a "bare-bones" system.
It has to be determined which of the costs Metrolinx will cover.
"Municipalities will have different expectations about what these projects are going to look like, so the Metrolinx board has to come up with some determination of what costs are eligible and which ones municipalities should bear on their own," MacIsaac said.
John Howe, Metrolinx general manager of investment strategy and projects, said Hamilton light rail could be judged as a potential "urban redevelopment catalyst" to build a strong downtown core.
MacIsaac said it's reasonable for Hamilton city staff to estimate that shovels could be in the ground for rapid transit in 2011.
"Three years is probably reasonable, but we still have to get through our capital budget to see when we can actually get the financing in. I don't think there is a huge distance between what we are saying and what Hamilton would like in a perfect world."