Elections
Council has voted dozens of times since 2008 to advance Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) project, including voting to submit the plan with a full funding request to the Province in 2013, and voting to accept full funding and implementation from the Province in 2015. Do you support completing the LRT plan? Why or why not?
Responses to the question: "Council has voted dozens of times since 2008 to advance Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) project, including voting to submit the plan with a full funding request to the Province in 2013, and voting to accept full funding and implementation from the Province in 2015. Do you support completing the LRT plan? Why or why not?"
In This Page:
2 Candidate Responses (top)
| Ward 06 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Jackson, Tom | Maybe | LRT Completion…Not Necessarily. My preference has always been if given the “choice” I would prefer the $1B. be spent on upgrading our existing infrastructure and expanding our HSR and DARTS services AND allocating any additional $$ towards projects that would provide “Community Benefits” such as the future expansion of the Sackville Hill Seniors Centre. However, at the April 26/17 City Council meeting I supported the EA process continuing with a written submission I read into the record, with the proviso that I “reserved the right to withdraw my support” IF circumstances changed!! The 2007 RRR document always spoke of “building a case for a future LRT” by “increasing ridership on Conventional Transit first”!! Somehow we veered off of that prudently staged plan. However, with the insistence by the now former Provincial Liberal Government that the funding MUST be used for the LRT, I did not wish to lose that huge amount of largess for our City….hence my vote on April 26/17. The “O and M” is also disconcerting to me at a potential annual increase of potentially 1.5% in perpetuity. I also am not concerned about the approximate $100m. spent up to now. I was impressed with President Eric Tuck of ATU quoted as saying in an edition of The Bay Observer this Summer (I’m paraphrasing), that the approx. $100m. spent on a combination of property purchases and conceptual designs could be used for an alternative mode of transportation. The BLAST network ideally should be placed as the priority. |
| Taylor, Timothy | Yes | I reserve the right to change my mind on this issue as more information (Construction tendering overruns, environmental impact reports, etc.) become available.
I currently support the LRT project. I think current council has been pretty clear, while not unanimously supporting LRT, they are generally in support. There have been enough votes in favour, enough times. Now, as with my own opinion, other councillors may change their minds as information becomes available during the process. One thing we have to be cautious of, is this doesn't become a project like the Tim Horton's Stadium, where a lot of great options for the city were presented and (at least in my opinion) the lesser of were chosen because of politicking instead of what was actually best for the city. I feel Hamilton is at a turning point. We tote ourselves as the "Ambitious" city. If we are to remain the world class city we were, we need a world class transit system (and some other stuff). Does the LRT project relieve all of the issues with our transit system? Certainly not, but it helps. It is the first step down a long and... ambitious... road. It is also an important sign to the province and the country that we are serious about remaining an important city in the development of Canada. If we turn down $1bn in infrastructure(+) spending, without a VERY good reason and clear unanimous decision, we will be sending the sign that we aren't ready to move into the future together. It will be a long cold day before the province ever offers something like this again if we don't go forward now. Instead of becoming an ambitious light for the future, we will be come a rusty relic of the past. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 1 | 50.0% |
| No | 0 | 0.0% |
| Maybe | 1 | 50.0% |
1 Candidates Have Not Responded (top)
| Ward 06 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Young, Brad | ||
