The Hamilton construction community is reeling with the news that the government of Ontario has cancelled the city’s long-anticipated LRT project.
The province made the announcement Dec. 16, saying rising costs as documented by a third-party analyst make the project unsupportable. Originally budgeted for $1 billion, Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney said in a statement the project would now cost $5.5 billion.
Even as Labourers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) international vice-president Joe Mancinelli pledged to find a way to salvage the project, stakeholders such as Hamilton-Halton Construction Association (HHCA) general manager Sue Ramsay were contemplating the prospects of thousands of lost jobs and the disruption of dreams the city had for significant spinoff growth.
“It’s just shocking,” Ramsay said the morning after the announcement. “I walked into our building this morning and we co-habit with a bunch of other trade associations and everybody is just like, ‘Wow. Nobody saw that coming.’ ”
For years the HHCA has held presentations at its annual meeting preparing its members for opportunities that would develop as the LRT build approached — the contract was to be awarded next year.
Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce noted the province has already spent $184 million to develop the line, which would have run straight through the downtown. The Chamber also said there had been a 500 per cent increase in new residential units downtown and the proposed project had unlocked hundreds of millions in development in the lower city.
Property acquisition was also proceeding with 60 properties bought and $80 million spent, not to mention, Mancinelli added, the significant investments the three qualified consortiums have made preparing to bid for the project.
LIUNA’s pension fund has been a major investor in the downtown in the past 10 years, anticipating the growth associated with the LRT project.
It is definitely going to hurt the economy,
— Mark Ellerker
Hamilton-Brantford Building Trades Council
LIUNA director of communications Victoria Mancinelli said the union has shown its commitment to the downtown through the restoration of the Lister Block and LIUNA station, the completed William Thomas student housing building, the Cobalt towers, affordable housing units on West Avenue North and Queen’s Garden long-term-care facility. LIUNA is also planning new condo towers and its regional office is located downtown.
“There has been so much investment along the route,” said Ramsay. “It has been unprecedented, the development of hundreds of residential units along the route, which is incredible because Hamilton is desperate for housing. I don’t know what is going to happen to those projects now.
“This has been decades in the making and it is an opportunity to plan for the city that Hamilton is going to be in 20 years.”
Hamilton-Brantford Building Trades Council business manager Mark Ellerker noted his affiliates would be gathering at a regularly scheduled council meeting Dec. 18 and would discuss the impact of the cancellation.
“We thought it was a big opportunity for the city,” he said.
“It was a project of large magnitude, it would have spread over four or five years, with good jobs, and it was going to have a community benefits component to it as well. Maybe affordable housing benefits.
“It is definitely a disappointment, that’s for sure.”
Ellerton said the local trades were used to projects stopping and starting again based on different funding streams when governments change, and it requires major adjustments in many ways but notably in keeping apprentices on track to get their hours. Cancelling projects hurts both the workers and the contractors, he said.
Labourers, represented by LIUNA, will be first among the trades especially affected by the Hamilton cancellation, Ellerker speculated.
“This is definitely a big earth-moving project, a lot of labourers, LIUNA, will be hurt by this,” he recited.
“Operating engineers, ironworkers, there are a couple of bridges, and then all the utilities, the electricians and the pipefitters, there is all that kind of work as well.
“This is a fairly large project but they were talking not just on the construction side but also in the engineering side. For every one person you see working on the tools you see someone in the office doing white collar work so it is definitely going to hurt the economy.”
The government said the initial promise of a billion dollars for transportation projects was still on the table and it would create a task force to develop ideas for projects. But Ramsay said, “If there is a silver lining here, it is too early to see it.”
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