Statement by Mayor Fred Eisenberger on the province urging the Federal Government to aid in funding Hamilton’s Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Project

HAMILTON, ON – I welcome the announcement that the Ford Government remains committed to the promised $1 billion investment in Hamilton transportation infrastructure and is calling on the federal government to support in the building of Hamilton’s Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Project.

I learned at 10:30 a.m. today during a call, along with City Manager, Janette Smith, that the province is releasing the results of the technical analysis of the Hamilton Transportation Task Force recommendations this afternoon. The results concluded that the Hamilton LRT project is shovel ready and is a viable project if accompanied by funding by the federal government.

As a result, the province will be submitting five priority GTHA transit projects to the federal government and the Hamilton LRT will be among them. The Hamilton LRT project is in addition to the Ontario Line, Yonge North Subway extension, Scarborough Subway extension and Eglinton Crosstown West.

The five projects will be submitted via the Investing In Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) Transit Program process. The province has recommended Hamilton’s ICIP funding proposal to the federal government and we await the federal government’s approval. 

We have now rebounded from a cancelled project in December 2019 to a provincial priority project. However, for the LRT project to break ground, it would require federal participation. Based on that, we are cautiously optimistic.

Hamilton’s LRT project is shovel ready and ready to go ensuring economic benefits can be realized faster than any other possible project. The LRT project will create thousands of jobs, economic uplift, increase affordable housing, cut CO2 emissions and will replace aging underground services such as water and waste water which would otherwise be the responsibility of local property taxpayers.

I am grateful to Premier Doug Ford and Minister Caroline Mulroney and thank them for their leadership.

I look forward to getting this project back on track working alongside our provincial, federal and private sector partners