Hamilton's post-LRT transportation task force will start meeting next week

The task force looking at how to spend $1 billion on Hamilton transportation projects will have its first meeting Tuesday, but the province still hasn't formally announced who is on it.

So far city manager Janette Smith received an official invitation Jan. 20 to sit on the task force, along with a LiUNA representative. The group will meet once a week until the end of February, when it will recommend how the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) should spend $1 billion. 

A spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said Wednesday evening that an announcement of who is on the task force is coming in the "near future." 

Mulroney announced the task force in late December, on the same day that she released a statement saying Hamilton's light-rail transit (LRT) project was cancelled.

The previous Liberal provincial government announced $1 billion for capital costs in 2015. A leaked Metrolinx document has revealed that capital costs and 30-year operating and maintenance costs would be around $3.7 billion. 

But Mulroney said a third-party estimate shows costs had ballooned to $5.5 billion. The province didn't say which third-party company did the estimates, or how they calculated those costs. A leaked document has since shown the company was Turner and Townsend.

The task force will look at, among other projects, LRT, bus rapid transit and widening the Lincoln Alexander and Red Hill Valley parkways.

The draft terms of reference says the chosen project needs to "reflect the needs and interests of the residents and businesses of Hamilton" and provide "substantial" economic benefit.

Other highlights:

• The task force includes seven province-appointed members.
• Mulroney will appoint the chair and appoint a "secretariat" to develop work plans, maintain records, and liaise with the province, among other tasks. 
• The first meeting will talk about meeting dates at the first meeting.
• Members won't be paid, but they'll be reimbursed for travel, meals and hospitality.
• All communications will come from the ministry.
• All of the task force's records will be confidential.

Smith told council during a meeting Wednesday that she wouldn't sign a non-disclosure agreement. She'll also go armed with the city's transportation master plan, the climate change plan and some city technical staff, she said, so she can best represent the city's position. 

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who's been staunchly pro-LRT, says he still hopes LRT will happen.

"I don't have a lot of confidence" in the task force process, he said, "but I have a lot of confidence [that] the people who are going to be appointed here will do right by the city of Hamilton."