Improvements to HSR service, including support for a provincially-funded light rail transit (LRT) system, have emerged as key promises in the mayoralty race. That gives voters an opportunity to examine the actual votes cast by the three major candidates over the last eight years on major transit issues including HSR service improvements, funding allocations, fare hikes, and modification of the existing area rating system that results in far lower transit-supportive tax rates in the former suburban communities.
Strong growth in transit usage is evident across the country, but Hamilton has lagged far behind comparative Ontario communities and actually registered decreased riders in four of the last seven years. Accumulated HSR growth from 2006 to 2011 was 3.5 percent, while places like London, Kitchener-Waterloo, St Catharines, Durham and Brampton rang up five-year growth rates between 17 and 70 percent.
Hamilton staff have repeatedly advocated more transit investment, but it took over 25 years for council to approve even a small allocation of local monies to the HSR earlier this year. And that move to marginally increase cross-mountain services was reduced to hourly service by a last-minute motion by Ancaster councillor Lloyd Ferguson.
That reduction was supported by Brad Clark and opposed by Brian McHattie. Both had initially supported the larger service improvement that was endorsed a week earlier by the general issues committee. Fred Eisenberger was not part of the 2010-2014 council.
Ferguson’s opposition focused on the fact that Ancaster households would pay more for the changes to the Rymal 44 and Stone Church 24 routes. That’s because the HSR is funded by how many service hours each pre-amalgamation municipality receives. This year a $350,000 home in the old city of Hamilton pays taxes of $309 to support the HSR, while similar valued houses in Ancaster and Stoney Creek are respectively charged $86 and $90.
A 2007 motion to ask staff to examine the feasibility of phasing out this taxation system for transit was defeated in an 8-8 vote, with McHattie in favour of the review, and Eisenberger and Clark both opposed. When other aspects of area rating were abandoned in 2011, a decision on the differences in transit taxation was again put off.
The use of federal gas taxes for transit has also divided city council. Nearly all large Ontario municipalities use their share of this “sustainability” initiative launched by the Paul Martin Liberals in 2005 to support transit and other environmental improvements. Hamilton directed much of it to renovating city hall and then dedicated the entire $32 million a year to road projects.
In 2008 McHattie suggested using $3 million of the federal monies for bus purchases to free up provincial gas tax monies for HSR operational improvements. In 2009 council unanimously supported his motion to direct staff to make the shift, but that didn’t happen in the 2010 budget prompting McHattie to ask for an immediate shift. He failed to get a seconder for that motion from a council that included both Eisenberger and Clark. The change was eventually endorsed in 2011 and slowly began affecting HSR service the following year.
More recently, council has unanimously endorsed a Light Rail Transit system on the Eastgate-McMaster corridor as long as the provincial government pays for the project. While both Clark and McHattie supported the pro-LRT motions, they took different positions on how the province might pay for its ambitious $50 billion “Big Move” transit spending program. All councillors except McHattie rejected all eleven ideas for new revenue sources suggested by the province such as road tolls, higher gas taxes, parking fees and development charges.
All three mayoralty candidates voted on the last HSR fare increase implemented in 2010. In 2008 both McHattie and Clark had supported a motion to freeze fares but that was defeated on a tie vote with Eisenberger against the motion. Clark and McHattie then both supported a successful move to make HSR rides free for people 80 and over. Eisenberger opposed this. A year later, Eisenberger moved the successful resolution that imposed a 15 cent per ride fare increase. Clark and McHattie both opposed that increase.