• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

Mayor Declares ‘Betrayal’ After Ontario Cancels Funding for Hamilton LRT

January 10, 2020
Reading time: 3 minutes

Max Pixels

Max Pixels

2
SHARES
 

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger declared a betrayal in mid-December, after the Ontario government announced it was cancelling C$1 billion in funding for the community’s long-awaited light rail transit (LRT) system.

Eisenberger made his statement after Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney hastily cancelled a news conference as protesters entered the room in a downtown hotel, eventually leaving town with a police escort.

“That is not working in good faith with a partner,” Eisenberger told media. “Their timing on this is just outrageous,” and “if they were going to do this, they could have picked a better way.”

He added the 14-kilometre project, in the works since 2007, would have “created hundreds of jobs,” delivered what CBC calls “economic uplift”, reduced the community’s carbon dioxide emissions, and supported affordable housing.

When provincial officials moved Mulroney to a government building across the street, two city councillors stayed in the lobby even after police arrived, refusing to leave until they heard the province’s technical briefing on the cancellation. “My constituents demand answers and my job is to give them that information,” said Ward 8 Councillor John-Paul Danko. “For the minister to come to Hamilton and not be prepared to face the public or face council, that’s just ridiculous.” 

Environment Hamilton Executive Director Lynda Lukasik said it was baffling to have to get news of the cancellation “second-hand from the mayor of the city,” and not from the minister. “What kind of a democracy is this where a major undertaking like this for our community, we all show up here, and the minister isn’t even respectful enough to come talk to people directly?” she asked.

MPP Donna Skelly (PC, Flamborough-Glanbrook), who accompanied Mulroney, said there was concern the situation was “going to escalate”.

CBC says the province’s previous Liberal government had promised $1 billion in capital spending to fund the LRT, and Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives included it in their spring budget. But Mulroney later said a third-party analyst had placed the final cost at an “astonishing $5.5 billion” and claimed the Liberals “were not up-front” about the project.

Ontario Liberal leadership candidate and former transportation minister Steven Del Duca countered that Ford has “been searching for a way to kill the Hamilton LRT.” CBC says the updated estimate “includes almost $2 billion in costs like operating and maintenance, covering the lifespan of the project, while the original $1 billion figure was only for the capital cost of building it.”

Mulroney maintained the Conservatives hadn’t added those costs to justify the cancellation. “We aren’t trying to kill the project,” she told CBC. “We worked very hard to find a way to move forward, to be able to deliver on it. But it’s clear the numbers we inherited misrepresented the true cost of the project.”

Eisenberger noted that Ontario was still going ahead with transit projects in Toronto and suburban Mississauga that were “more expensive than advertised”. Hamilton Centre MPP and NDP opposition leader Andrea Horwath vowed to fight “like hell” to save the project, adding that “what this premier likes to do is make up numbers to justify their cuts”.

Environmental Defence Clean Economy Program Manager Sarah Buchanan called the cancellation “a regressive decision which also contradicts the Ontario government’s own Environment Plan, which promises to reduce ballooning carbon pollution from vehicles by investing in public transit.” She added that the provincial decision “will result in more cars on the road and more gridlock, along with fewer opportunities for urban renewal and growth. Cancelling the LRT will leave Hamilton with more carbon pollution and other toxic air pollution proven to make people sick.”



in Buildings, Canada, Cities & Communities, Community Climate Finance, Energy Politics, Sub-National Governments, Transit

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
73
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler/Grid Engine/WikimediaCommons

Tesla Boosts Annual Deliveries by 50%, Exceeds Combined Market Value of GM and Ford

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}