the project for construction, although the federal government appealed twice to overturn the verdict. After losing the second appeal in 2001, the federal government decided not to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court. The City of Hamilton then launched a $75 million lawsuit against the Government of Canada, alleging misconduct in delaying the project. The lawsuit named federal cabinet ministers David Anderson, Sheila Copps, Herb Dhaliwal and Christine Stewart, as well as 65 federal employees as defendants. The lawsuit alleged "the defendants abused their public office by engaging in targeted malice towards the City's completion of the Expressway" and utilized environmental assessment "in an unprecedented, illegal and unconstitutional manner in order to achieve that objective." In 2008, after rejecting an offer to settle by the Government of Canada, Hamilton Council voted 8–6 to continue the lawsuit and remove a $450,000 spending cap on the suit. In November 2009, Hamilton Council voted to continue the lawsuit, and defeated a motion to make the legal costs public. Opponents criticized the expected environmental damage of the project and questioned the economic viability of highway building in the face of declining oil production. Opponents asserted that two groups would be the chief beneficiaries of the expressway: long-distance truckers travelling from Detroit to Buffalo, and land developers on the Hamilton Mountain. Opponents also took issue with the city spending $220 million (its share of the project) to build the expressway. Opponents also argued that the need for the expressway was not shown in studies. A 1963 transportation study which supported construction, expected the population of Hamilton to be 785,000 by 1985, while the actual population reached 480,000 by 2001. Employment in the industrial bayfront had dropped and a commuting route between Hamilton Mountain and the bayfront was less necessary. Supporters of the expressway highlighted the possible transportation and economic benefits to the city. The expressway, combined with the existing Lincoln Alexander Parkway, closes the ring road with a complete freeway bypass south of Hamilton's urban core. Supporters had argued that the highway was the only viable alternative to the congested roads of Highway 403 and QEW Burlington Skyway Bridge, and that completing the Parkway would divert the growing truck traffic off city streets in southern and eastern Hamilton. The 1990s reconstruction/reconfiguration of the Freeman Interchange (QEW-403-407) from its original semi-directional T configuration to incorporate the extension of Highway 407 had resulted in a lowered