1. Do you believe the city is at a point where it sufficiently understands the costs of a Light Rail Implementation? By sufficient, we mean sufficiently enough to pursue additional funding sources?
No I don't believe there is sufficient understanding. Even at this point in the project most of us were surprised that $9.1 million had already been spent, $5 million of which came from the City, the rest from the Province. We initially approved $200,000 a year for three years to run the LRT program, but have no recollection of further approvals that would amount to $5 million.
2. What is council’s understanding of the funding sources for Light Rail. Do we have an idea how much the municipal contribution will need to be, and are there any plans afoot to lobby the Federal government or other sources, to contribute funds?
The understanding of the municipal contribution ranged in different Councillors' minds from zero to one-third of the total, which is upwards of a billion dollars. It will be up to Metrolinx to create the funding strategy which is due in 2013. The presumption is that they would work out a partnership with the Federal Government to cover the total cost of all projects, not piecemeal. The original investment strategy published by Metrolinx in the Big Move document was based on $50 billion dollars over 25 years, or $2 billion a year. The following is lifted from the original document under Chairman Rob MacIsaac's signature.
Metrolinx has outlined the following vision for the Investment Strategy:
- Fair and equitable full-cost transportation pricing;
- Access to a range of dedicated, long-term funding sources and tools;
- Dedicated funding pledged back to support integrated multi-modal solutions;
- A shared responsibility by all three orders of government;
- A meaningful role for private-sector participation;
- Importance of public and stakeholder consultation/engagement;
- Commitment to performance measurement.
3. Assuming we can find our way through the funding challenges, what kind of impact do you think an implementation of LRT will have on Hamilton’s progress toward revitalization?
This is a difficult question to answer, but an excellent report on Transit-Oriented Development was prepared for the City by the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics . http://mitl.mcmaster.ca/documents/MITL_LRT_August.pdf.
I urge any interested people to read it carefully. Briefly, the report suggests that such projects might need champions because the full benefits might not be realized for decades. This means the public might take some convincing. Buffalo has had their Metro system for 38 years, and authorities there tell me that currently there are some glimmers of the promised development along the route. I have my own ideas on how best to use LRT in the Hamilton context, but suffice it to say the revitalization of Hamilton is well underway, with new development in the billions of dollars throughout the City, and especially the Downtown core. How LRT best fits into the picture in my opinion needs further discussion.
Thanks Mayor Bratina for engaging with Hamiltonians on The Hamiltonian.
"We initially approved $200,000 a year for three years to run the LRT program, but have no recollection of further approvals that would amount to $5 million."
ReplyDeleteWhat did the taxpayers of Hamilton get for this money?
Apparently the mayor and "most" of the councillors don't even know the answer to that question.
DeleteAt least the Mayor is being honest in his answer. I don't like cover up jobs.
ReplyDelete"No I don't believe there is sufficient understanding. Even at this point in the project most of us were surprised that $9.1 million had already been spent, $5 million of which came from the City, the rest from the Province. We initially approved $200,000 a year for three years to run the LRT program, but have no recollection of further approvals that would amount to $5 million."
ReplyDeleteShouldn't he, I don't know, ask the City Manager to explain it to him? He's basically implying that the bureaucracy spent money without permission, no? Seems like a serious implication to me.
Mayor Bratina, Council and financial Staff were quite stumped when challenged with simple math during Mr. Santucci's delegation concerning the HWT.
ReplyDeleteNow, the Mayor and City crew "have no recollection" of how they ended up spending $4.4 million dollars on LRT (the simple math of subtracting $200,000 a year x3 (600) from the "$5 million which came from the City."
This expensive tidbit of news from the Mayor got me to thinking about the current bruhaha about a downtown casino. The City takes in a little more than $4 million from Flamborough Casino each year and the Mayor and some councillors have been vocal in saying they wish/we need that to continue, perhaps with a casino in downtown Hamilton.
The Spec today has two good pieces on the casino; while Dreschel's is great, Dr. Robert Williams, "one of Canada's pre-eminent researchers on the social impact of gambling," states, " So the municipal government is a winner, but they are the only winner, because the local economy is a big loser."
Mayor Bratina, Council and Staff very much worry me as of late concerning their decisions regarding spending taxpayer's money and subsequent lack of accountability of same to tax-paying Hamiltonians.
Simple math tells me we do indeed have the $4 million we apparently need annually from the casino; however, it may take a miracle of some kind for the Mayor and the folks at City Hall to figure out that if we stop dishing out to the HWT and can find the $4.4 million that's gone astray from the LRT look-see so far, we can spare the downtown a gambling facility that, according to Dr. Williams, will see the downtown economy lose big time.
Of course, we don't have to believe the likes of Dr. Williams; rather, we can look at the success stories of Windsor and Niagara to see how their local economies benefited.
Oops, bad examples.
Back to the missing money.
Mayor Bratina, since you spilled the beans on the missing $4.4 million, surely you will press on this matter to find someone who does recollect spending it.
The Hamiltonian has been advised that council knows how the money was spent and were told in public session the source of the funding.
ReplyDeleteThe Hamiltonian Admin
Can they direct us to the report on how the money was spent?
DeleteMayor Bratina said, "We initially approved $200,000 a year for three years..."
DeleteBefore money is spent it needs to be approved by council, no? Or, was the money spent and then council was told? The latter would explain why the Mayor said, "We...have no recollection of further approvals that would amount to $5 million."
So far, both Hamilton Waterfront Trust and the LRT file have cost taxpayers millions and millions and yet no one, including Mr. Rossini (sadly), is acting responsibly in regards to supplying answers/informing taxpayers of same.
That said, am looking forward to the report that Council approved the spending of the $4.4 M and a subsequent report which details how the money was spent.
I don't understand this at all. Is he saying that 4.4 million was spent without council being told?
ReplyDeleteLets give some credit where its due.Council have not called for a forensic audit of HWT,thereby saving the taxpayers a real pile of.......money?
ReplyDeleteI can see the possibility of Metrolinx being the sole organization in the province to take control of all transit systems in the GTA including Hamilton. There is a precedent happening as we speak, where Metrolinx is taking full operational and financial control of the propose TTC expansion of subway or LRT in Toronto. Truly believe that public transit has to be a provincial responsibility for many reasons.
ReplyDelete