Six Major Issues Facing the City in 2017

Partly, that's what happens when you embark on the priciest infrastructure project in city history at the same time as an ambitious overhaul of your waterfront.

It doesn't come quickly - or cheaply.

On the other hand, city residents at the start of last year probably assumed they would have already tasted sweet resolution to never-ending sagas like the fate of U.S. Steel and a not-quite-finished football stadium.

Just maybe, the final page will be written on both those stories in 2017.

Here are a few of the big issues council will wrestle with in the upcoming year:

LRT on track:

Hamilton's $1-billion planned light rail transit system is still seven or more years away from transporting anyone anywhere. But since last year, the big political question about the contentious project has shifted from "Will we do it?" toward 'How will we do it?' Last year, we learned it would take a two-thirds council revolt to back out of LRT. That's unlikely, but politicians in 2017 will still chew on some of the thorniest pre-construction questions about the project, including whether there is a role for the HSR in running the system and how or if light rail costs and revenue will be shared.

In the meantime, the public can weigh in once more on the latest design in a series of meetings Jan. 16-18 before the updated project environmental assessment is submitted, likely in March. Metrolinx will begin vetting pre-qualified bidders for the project in June, with an eye to awarding a contract mid-2018.

In a few words: "We would be very disappointed to be shut out of this project. It's about maintaining public control over our transit service." - ATU Local 107 union head Eric Tuck on the local push to give HSR drivers a role in running light rail.

The stadium is (still) almost done Hamilton's new $145-million stadium has been in use and kind of, not quite, mostly finished since the 2015 Pan Am Games. But the city, province, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the beleaguered builder have been negotiating over deficiencies, unfinished and disputed work ever since - with the city finally stepping in last summer to install draft beer lines and do other minor fixes.

But new problems - most infamously, a speaker the size of a bar fridge that plummeted into the stands - have also cropped up, slowing painful negotiations that occurred under the threat of multiple lawsuit claims exchanged in 2016.

Councillors met behind closed doors just before Christmas to consider settlement options in the long-running saga of who owes how much to whom.

Poverty:

Last year, city councillors made a splashy promise to spend $50 million on social housing and poverty reduction over the next decade.

This year, they have to figure out how to actually spend the money.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger made the original pitch to use expected hydro merger dividends to fund up to $3 million a year in new measures to fight poverty. Coun. Chad Collins, who chairs the CityHousing Hamilton board, supported using Future Fund cash in tandem to shore up social housing.

City staff are consulting with advocacy groups like the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction and institutions like McMaster University, but have yet to formally report back with a proposal to spend the cash.

"We have so many spending needs, but there needs to be a balance. Just about every (social) housing provider in the city is struggling to keep up with repairs, but we need to find a way to add new units, too." - CityHousing Hamilton chair Chad Collins U.S. Steel resolution:

A sale and rebirth is looming for once-and-future Stelco in Hamilton, even if the union representing local workers and retirees is skeptical about the deal.

Expected buyer Bedrock Industries will spend the first months of 2017 trying to hammer out the details with parent company U.S Steel and the province, with court-ordered creditor protection for Stelco extended until March.

Expect the city and local retirees to become more vocal in questioning various aspects of the deal - particularly the planned land trust that seeks to clean up and sell vacant parcels of the company's 328 hectares of harbour property.

Watch for falling rocks An escarpment slope expert from B.C. is slowly testing the safety of an aging metal wall along the rock face of the Mountain access after some loose panels were found in November, spurring a closure of all downbound lanes.

Those lanes will likely remain closed through February.

But a larger study will spend 2017 trying to answer the bigger - and pricier - question about the future of the protective wall. Engineering director Gary Moore has warned tearing down all of the metal panels could cost tens of millions of dollars.

The city has been warned about the 1970s -era wall before now - like during a consultant study in July that suggested risk of "failure," not to mention a landslide in 2012.

"It's going to be big bucks, but we have to do something ... If these issues keep cropping up, someone will get hurt." - Mountain Coun. Donna Skelly Harbour facelift Call 2017 the calm before the (hoped-for) building storm in the west harbour. The city will continue sprucing up the recreational waterfront, with new boat slips, green space and paths going into regular use.

On Pier 8 - the planned future home of 1,600 new condo and rental units - this year's changes will look more like subtraction, via demolition of existing old buildings. But behind the scenes, the city will begin vetting the qualifications of prospective bidders for the ambitious redevelopment.

The next key council decision is in April, when the nitty-gritty details of a formal request for proposals is considered - including a proposed mandatory percentage of affordable housing. Environmental and planning work will also continue on the lower-profile Barton-Tiffany lands in the north end.

The city wants to have the Pier lands "shovel-ready" in 2018.

Matthew Van Dongen is the city hall reporter for the Hamilton Spectator.

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