Chad Collins won't try for an LRT referendum after all

So much for a referendum on LRT in Hamilton.

What happened now that everything's carved in stone and we have no say on anything?- Maria Pearson, Ward 10 councillor

That's the view of Chad Collins, Ward 5 councillor, who is opposed to Hamilton's $1 billiontransit project.

Collins had planned to introduce a motion to hold a 2018 referendum on LRT. But last week, amunicipal lawyer saidtwo thirds of city council would have to vote to reopen the issue first.

Now, Collins said, he has no choice but to drop it. Eleven of 16 council members would have to vote for it, and the six staunchly pro-LRT ones won't.

"Now that the litmus test is stronger, we're not even close to 11," he said.

• Two-thirds of city council would have to vote to reopen the LRT debate

Collins saidhe accepts that.Procedural rules exist for a reason, and "for us to say we're going to move on anyway is, I think, a politically slippery slope."

"There's no getting around that, and there shouldn't be."

The legal opinion is a possible saving grace for the Metrolinxproject, which several councillors are skeptical about.

I'm not changing my mind.- Lloyd Ferguson, Ancaster councillor

Last week, municipal lawyer George Rust D'Eye also the city's integrity commissioner and lobbyist registrar told council in a closed-door report that thereconsideration vote is required. Councillors willdiscuss this at a special committee meeting about LRT on Oct. 25.

Councillors havevoted numerous times over the years to look into LRT and ask for money to build it. Most recently, they voted earlier this year to sign a memorandum of understanding with Metrolinx.

• Councillor will push for election ballot referendum on Hamilton LRT

That vote, while passed fairly casually at the time, seems to be key now. Council can't reverse a decisionit's already made during the same term, Rust D'Eye said, without two thirds of them voting to revisit it.

This doesn't sit right with Maria Pearson, city councillor for Ward 10 in lower Stoney Creek. From what she understood, she said, the memorandum wasn't binding.

"So what happened now that everything's carved in stone and we have no say on anything?" she said.

It's not done until it's over.- Sam Merulla, Ward 4 councillor

Pearson said she regularlytakes HSR, so she understands the importance of good transit.But she questions, for example,how the route was determined.

Regardless, at least two of the pro-LRT councillors say they don't plan to switch sides.

"I'm not changing my mind," said Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster.

Sam Merulla, Ward 4 councillor, isn't either. But he doesn't think the new legal opinionmeans the project is saved.

"I don't feel this issue is going to be settled until the (construction) contract is actually granted," he said. "That is going to be the point of no return."

"It's not done until it's over."