History and Context

As you know, The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce continues to play a leadership role on several fronts important to our membership and the wider community. One significant ongoing priority is modern transportation infrastructure necessary for the movement of people and goods, locally and beyond. A major component of this infrastructure is Hamilton’s LRT system now in development. This system will begin with a B-Line route along King Street, more recently the Province has also committed to the study of a potential A-Line Bus Rapid Transit line. 

The Chamber has been engaged in the development of Hamilton’s LRT program since its conceptual beginnings more than a decade ago. Our efforts to advance the program have centered on two linked initiatives: An LRT Taskforce formed in 2012 and focused on building and sharing an evidence-based case for light rail transit in Hamilton; and, the ongoing advocacy efforts of the Chamber’s board and senior staff.

In addition, many of our members — individuals and organizations — actively contribute to the Chamber’s pro-LRT efforts. Thank you for making a difference — it’s appreciated.

Our efforts — combined with those of many other players, including the City of Hamilton and myriad private sector and community-based organizations — were rewarded in 2015 when the Province of Ontario announced a $1 billion local investment in LRT. More information on the project from the City of Hamilton can be found at http://www.hamiltonrapidtransit.ca/

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Project in jeopardy? (April 2017)

This important announcement quickly set in motion work to get LRT up and running in Hamilton by 2023, the combined activities of the City of Hamilton and Metrolinx have successfully followed expected timelines. However, in the last six months, many City Councillors have begun to publicly question the merits of the project and their overall support.

This issue will hit critical mass on April 19th, 2017, when a Council meeting will be voting to approve an update to the Environmental Protection Report which is necessary to issue a Request for Proposals and initiate the project. We have launched a membership engagement campaign asking members to critically engage their Councillors to move forward in good faith towards supporting the $1 Billion investment. Please see the end of this post to see a sample letter you can send.

As the discussion at City Council reaches a critical point, we also think it is important to share with you the key reasons we stand behind LRT and its benefits for our membership and Hamilton at large. We hope this information will provide you with a foundation for understanding our position and sharing it with others.

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The Business Case behind LRT

Our position and activity on LRT are informed by the exceptional work of our LRT Taskforce, comprised of over thirty key stakeholders, infrastructure professionals and supported directly through academic reports and studies produced by the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics.

Below, in a summary format, are the top reasons the Chamber supports LRT in Hamilton.

1. Our Chamber’s View of Tomorrow
We have worked closely with our members, key stakeholders and the community at large to develop a vision of Hamilton as one of Canada’s top midsize cities measured by talent, investment, and quality of life.

We look to the future and see a Hamilton that:

• Demonstrates a nationally recognized reputation for innovative city-building
• Welcomes a rich diversity of people we need to fuel growth and prosperity
• Offers access to the quality of life services and amenities favored by highly mobile talent
• Unlocks the triple bottom line benefits of transit-oriented development
• Provides rapid and reliable city transit with links to regional destinations

The city-building capacity of LRT in Hamilton, enabled through effective community engagement, planning, and implementation can help make this vision a reality. Our Chamber is committed to seeing Hamilton leverage this significant project as a vehicle to modernize our city for the good of everyone.

2. Strategic Alignment

LRT matches up with Hamilton Chamber priorities that support our members and benefit the wider community.
Our organization’s key city-building priorities include:

• Employment and job creation, particularly in growth sectors of our increasingly knowledge-based, service-oriented economy — small businesses, start-ups, arts and entertainment, and advanced manufacturing, for example.
• Modern infrastructure that attracts and retains next generation talent and investment.
• Rapid and reliable local and regional transportation that provides access to opportunity for all Hamiltonians community-wide.
• Responses to climate change that ensure the quality of life for future generations.

These priorities will be dramatically advanced by an LRT system with connections to our entire city and the greater region.

3. Right Time
We think it’s the right time for Hamiltonians community-wide to capitalize on the many breakthrough achievements shaping the future of our city. These shared achievements have set Hamilton on a new trajectory and further strengthened the case for LRT:

New Image — we’ve reset our image based on a modern value proposition that emphasizes Hamilton’s strengths in urban renewal, innovation, citizen engagement and quality of life.

Increased Confidence — we’re buoyed by recent accomplishments, including record building permits and business start-ups, that provide confidence in our ability to challenge the status-quo and reach higher.

Progressive Policies — we’re harvesting the fruits of key public policies designed to curb sprawl, re-energize urban centres, broaden mobility options, loosen zoning restrictions and protect our built and natural environments.

Connectivity — we’re experiencing increased intercity connectivity and benefiting from fresh flows of people, capital, ideas and investments.

The Hamilton Chamber is advocating for LRT at a time of transformative change that is providing city-wide benefits. Let’s seize the day.

4. Right Place
Hamilton’s unique geographic location contributes to our rationale to support LRT.

Regional Growth — we’re at the heart of one of the world’s top mega-regions measured by ongoing population growth, employment, and quality of life.

Midsize Cities Movement — we’re among a cohort of historic midsize cities in North America and beyond that are attracting people seeking quality of place for themselves and their families.

Urban Living — we’re seeing more people and businesses choosing to locate in downtown Hamilton.

5. Role of Government

We think government can play a leadership role in creating the right conditions for increased private sector involvements in city-building. History shows that early public investments in infrastructure and services provide the foundation for the business sector to do what it does best: develop, build and animate local economies.

We see LRT as a case in point — governments at all levels teaming up to create modern transit corridors that will unlock unprecedented private sector investments that will, in turn, generate jobs, prosperity and tax revenues.

6. Provincial Investment
Monies received from the Province of Ontario to fund the capital cost of building Hamilton’s first LRT line represents a strategic opportunity to modernize our city in ways that are good for business, quality of life and the environment. The $1 Billion allocation hails as our fair share of the $50 Billion “Big Move” fund, dedicated strictly to rapid transit projects.

The province has the financial capacity to enable Hamilton to join a growing number of dynamic LRT-enabled cities worldwide. Hamilton on its own could never afford this game-changing infrastructure.

We think it is essential to embrace the receipt of this hard-fought investment from the province exclusively targeted toward LRT. Hamiltonians, through taxes collected by higher orders of government, are currently investing in transit projects province-wide. In fact, in a recent interview, the Province has made it quite clear that Hamilton’s failure to utilize the investment will immediately be re-allocated to other communities on the waitlist. 

7. Due Diligence Led to Informed Conclusions

On the way to declaring our support, we examined LRT in Hamilton using three interconnected lenses: economic, social and environmental. Our process of due diligence, which began in 2012, included an interdisciplinary Taskforce.
This Taskforce (which continues to convene) provides a context for reviewing, discussing and evaluating an array of resources germane to LRT in Hamilton, including academic literature, consultants’ reports, feasibility studies, etc.

Due diligence, strengthened through the task force process and extensive research, led our Chamber to several significant conclusions:

1. The status quo is unacceptable: the current state of public transit in our central core, and existing development and commercial activity, are not sufficient to achieve aggressive population and employment growth targets. The pace of change is incremental and slow. Hamilton is at a crossroad — we need to choose a pathway that enables growth through LRT supported intensification.
2. Context matters: the City of Hamilton is working towards a long-term vision for “BLAST” network— a blueprint for the staged introduction of an integrated, city-wide rapid transit network — places LRT within a much larger picture which includes transit services that link together urban, suburban and rural communities. BLAST, along with Hamilton’s “nodes and corridors” strategy, will help ensure that everyone benefits from LRT.
3. Good for business: LRT is an initiative that supports our Chamber’s core constituency — businesses, large and small. Aside from work associated with planning, building and operating the LRT system, there will be countless business-friendly spinoffs related to commercial and residential development, retailing, arts and entertainment, and the adaptive reuse of historic properties.
4. Hamilton is LRT-ready: Reliable research and comparison with peer communities show that conditions are ripe for a viable rapid transit system in lower city Hamilton (i.e., the B-Line and A-Line BRT proposal). This includes ridership levels, population growth projections and investor confidence among private sector developers. Moreover, the City of Hamilton is making good progress in the introduction of new zoning bylaws, and that will help ensure quality, transit-oriented development along and adjacent to LRT.
5. Cost-benefit analysis: the targeted and community-wide benefits that will accrue from LRT in Hamilton will over time outweigh the costs. The project will generate well over a thousand permanent and part-time jobs during planning and construction phases. At least 60% of the $1 Billion investment will also be utilized for long needed surface and subsurface infrastructure overhaul on King Street, creating significant savings for local taxpayers.

The Chamber will continue to advance the case for LRT on multiple levels, locally and at the provincial and national levels. We are also working with Metrolinx and City of Hamilton to develop a robust communications strategy for businesses affected by the eventual construction, as well as seminars to build organizational capacity to thrive during the construction phase.

Please contact us with your ideas and inquiries. They are always welcome.

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Call to action: In advance of the meeting on April 19th and other related critical checkpoints, please see the attached template to engage your Councillor and urge them to support the project, HERE.

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For more information, please contact: Huzaifa Saeed | Policy & Research Analyst | Hamilton Chamber of Commerce | t: 905-522-1151 ext: 230 | e: h.saeed@hamiltonchamber.ca

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