2 weeks Ago By Rick Bell
Take it or leave it. The choice can’t be any clearer. Premier Danielle Smith’s main man on Calgary’s Green Line doesn’t have the time or the desire to fool around with Mayor Jyoti Gondek or others on city council posturing to score possible political points.
Devin Dreeshen, the province’s no-nonsense transportation minister, confirms a few facts as some city hall politicians mourn the loss of an overpriced stub of a Green Line now mercifully relegated to the dustbin of history. Fact Number One. Calgary city hall talks about transferring the Green Line LRT to the province, handing them the project.
That is not happening. The fact is the Smith government will not pay for a stub of a Green Line tunnelling through the downtown. The Smith government will pay for another kind of Green Line, without tunnels and actually reaching folks where they live.
They’ve got engineers working on that plan now. But the Green Line is still a city transit project. “At the end of the day this will be a City of Calgary project,” says Dreeshen.
The Green Line won’t be taken over by the province? “That’s never been on the table.” Fact Number Two. Calgary city hall is under the impression some or all of the costs of winding down the city Green Line plan, and they are expected to be in the hundreds of millions, will be picked up by the provincial taxpayer.
That is definitely not in the cards. “People in Grande Prairie, their provincial tax dollars shouldn’t go into paying for 10 years of mismanagement by Calgary mayors and councils.” Got it.
Fact Three. I should say FACT THREE because it’s the big one. If Calgary city council does not agree to the Smith government’s Green Line plan to be rolled out in December, the talk ends, the province walks.
Period. Full stop. “If Calgary city council thinks the alignment we are going to show them and all Calgarians in December isn’t worth it then the Green Line project won’t happen.
This is the last chance to get the Green Line built. “It would be the end of the line. This is it.
That would be the last stop with this council. We wouldn’t pursue it anymore with this council.” If the city council elected in October of next year is willing to make the Green Line a reality the province is open to talking.
“If this council wants to take it up after the alignment is finalized, that’s great. If they don’t, well, then perhaps a new city council will want to build a Green Line. “I hope this city council can look beyond their tunnel vision and see the big picture.
If they cared about Calgary commuters they would want to build the Green Line or else all of this has just been political theatre. “This is wildly frustrating because we’re doing this for the people of Calgary. It’s almost as if they forgot about Calgary commuters and why we’re building the Green Line in the first place.
” Dreeshen says the city would have to put dough into the Green Line. He says the province and the city can work together to keep the costs down. Many on city council are openly hostile to the Smith government.
“When they go low, we go high. Not just in the Green Line alignment but also in how we conduct ourselves.” Having part of the Green Line as an elevated train is a possibility.
Smith’s Green Line point man says AECOM’s heavy-hitting consultants are working for the province. They will look at different options, multiple downtown routes and even bus rapid transit within the $6.2-billion price tag.
Dreeshen says the deep thinkers did similar work in Houston. He also has talked to the federal government and their dollars will be there if the province puts their money into a new Green Line. We end with a little jousting.
This is politics, after all. Dreeshen and others in the UCP have called the city’s failed Green Line “the Nenshi nightmare.” Former Calgary mayor and Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has something to say to the UCP.
“I will thank them for one thing,” says Nenshi, who once promised an inexpensive Green Line going the length of the city. “Soon, in the Alberta NDP store, you will be able to buy Nenshi nightmare merchandise just in time for Halloween. Thanks to them for helping me raise a lot of money.
” As expected, Dreeshen fires back. “If he wants to help us remind Calgarians and all Albertans how terrible he was as mayor of Calgary and the nightmare he caused for so many taxpayers I guess we will welcome the help.”.
