Pro and anti LRT camps mobilizing ahead of April 19 - and so is the mayor

No one's sure if April 19 will be a do-or-die day for Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) project. But many for or against the project are acting like it is.

There's a rally planned for people who support the project. There's an ad campaign planned by people who don't. At city hall, Mayor Fred Eisenberger is meeting with councillors and rallying support.

"Getting the environmental assessment done and out is important to the success of the entire project," Eisenberger said.

"I'm hopeful we can accomplish that on the 19th, but we'll see."

There have been plenty potential make-or-break moments for the $1 billion project since council first started talking about it 10 years ago. But this new hurdle voting to send an updated environmental assessment (EA) to the province is getting perilously close to crunch time.

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The province is paying to build LRT along the B line from McMaster University to the Queenston traffic circle. Earlier this year, the province announced a companion piece A line bus rapid transit (BRT) from the waterfront to the airport.

Council has voted for it numerous times, including to establish a joint office with Metrolinx and sign a memorandum of agreement.

But as the 2019 construction date nears, some have cold feet. Last month, councillors voted at a 14-hour meeting to defer approving the EA, which is an update to one done in 2011. They'll vote again on April 19.

After the March meeting, Sam Merulla, a Ward 4 councillor and LRT supporter, tweeted about a "gang of 10" on council who are prepared to kill the project.

Since then, he's done his own social media campaigning. He calls LRT an infrastructure issue. The city has a $3 billion infrastructure deficit, he said. Eighty per cent of the project budget after administrative costs will go to replacing infrastructure.

"We need to get that messaging out there," he said last week.

Anna Davey and others have lined up a "Rally for LRT" at cityhall on April 15. Eisenberger and others will speak at it.

LRT supportersfeel "a real sense of frustration," she said. "We certainly hope when it comes down to it, council is going to do the right thing."

Matthew Carrabs, a 14-year-old Winona resident, has crowd funded money for his new group "Yes to LRT in Hamilton." He hopes to put up a table at Stoney Creek supermarket this week to promote the project.

Meanwhile, Carol Lazich of the No LRT effort has an advertising campaign planned for next week.

"We continually submit letters and articles to council and the (Hamilton Spectator)," she said. "We keep talking to people. We keep spreading the word."

With the March vote, she said, "we feel strongly that our message is being heard."

"We're a large group and we're getting larger."

As for Eisenberger, he's trying to build consensus.

"I would say no," he said when asked if he's been doing political horse trading. But "I'm certainly asking members of council 'What is your issue, what barriers do you have and what can we do to alleviate them?'"

April 19 may not be a do-or-die moment, he said. But the EA is.

"This project cannot happen without an EA and if the EA isn't delivered to the province, there's no forward movement after that," he said. "It's a full stop."

samantha.craggs@cbc.ca | @SamCraggsCBC