“Who are we kidding,” said Mr. Bratina last week. “This document needs to come together.”

Ward 1 councillor Brian McHattie, and an opponent of the lawsuit since it was launched by former Mayor Larry Di Ianni, said the city should stop spending its money going after civil servants.

“I don’t want to see any more money spent,” he said. “We rebuilt the former Bank of Montreal (for Gowlings, the city’s outside legal consultant). It’s a ridiculous amount of money. I don’t need to spend any more money towards those guys.”

City Manager Glen Peace said a report is being prepared for council’s review on the city’s legal action against the federal government. He expects the report to be presented to council within a few weeks.

Councillors this week reviewed the issue with its outside lawyer during a two-hour incamera meeting.

Politicians voted 8-6 to continue the city’s lawsuit.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who campaigned during his mayoral victory in 2006 to end the federal lawsuit, said councillors need a full debate on the issue.

“We will have a full presentation to council (then decide) whether to proceed or not to proceed,” he said.

The city’s lawsuit was launched in April 2004 against the federal government, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, former Liberal MP Sheila Copps and 67 other citizens.

A report last fall pegged the cost of the legal action at about $200,000.

About a year ago Mr. Eisenberger proposed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper the city would drop the lawsuit in exchange for needed federal funding for a number of projects, including cleaning up Randle Reef, and constructing a bridge over the Queen Elizabeth Way.

City officials have argued it cost Hamilton an additional $50 million in construction costs to fight the federal government to avoid the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). They say Ms. Copps and federal officials conspired to use the CEAA to block the building of the Red Hill Creek Parkway.

The city is seeking $25 million in aggravated and punitive damages.

Two courts ruled in 2001 that the Red Hill Creek Parkway did not have to be subjected to the CEAA. The justice ruled the expressway should be “grandfathered” since construction on the project began in 1984.