2 weeks Ago By Scott Strasser
Is the Green Line dead? It certainly appears to be, after city council’s decision Tuesday to pull the plug on the multibillion-dollar transit project. But provincial officials — and a few councillors — believe otherwise. On Wednesday, Premier Danielle Smith said to study an alternative alignment for the proposed CTrain line, and will bring the findings of that report to the city in December.
While Smith said the province has no intention of taking over management of the Green Line, Mayor Jyoti Gondek insists that whatever the Alberta government brings back will not be a city-owned, or operated, transit initiative. Gondek also said the province’s version will require the approval of the federal government, whose $1.53-billion funding share for the Green Line was predicated on the city’s original plan.
“The province has rejected the plan that was put forward based on lengthy engagement with all three orders of government,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “They’re proposing their own new project. “We’re not even at the table yet until we know if this project can access the funds presently available.
We certainly cannot manage the financial, contractual and reputational risk on this.” Council’s voting breakdown on Tuesday suggests there is still differing opinion on the Green Line’s current status of limbo. — to orderly wind down work and seek ways to transfer responsibility for the project to the province — passed 10-5.
A separate vote also passed that requested the establishment of a working group to continue discussions, with representation from all three orders of government. After a recommendation from Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp to pause the wind-down was defeated, it was recrafted in a later motion, which passed narrowly, 8-7.
Smith referenced the vote at a news conference Wednesday, suggesting there is still a majority of council that wants to work with the province on a new vision for the line. The working group is a last-ditch opportunity to rekindle the project, Sharp suggested, and perhaps salvage some of the work that has already been completed. “Obviously, council voted in favour of winding down the Phase 1 they approved in July, so now it’s up to the province to strike a working group to see what the plan is to move forward,” she said Thursday.
“I feel we may have hit the execute button on the wind-down a little quickly.” Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean echoed that sentiment, and said the city and council need to hold some accountability for the project’s failure.
“What we’ve seen is a really good example of what not to do, from civic leadership, when it comes to working with your provincial partners,” he said. “It’s unfortunate the province didn’t want to fund this project but the city has to accept some responsibility here.” However some councillors and the premier may view it, one local political scientist says another LRT line won’t be built in Calgary anytime soon.
“The city has wound it up. People are being laid off today,” said Mount Royal University professor Duane Bratt. “Maybe a rapid bus system gets established to the deep south, to the deep north (but) as far as an LRT anytime soon? I can’t imagine how that is going to be.
” Bratt said he can’t think of a political precedent for the “fiasco” the Green Line has become in Calgary. The closest parallel could be the previous arena deal between the city and the ownership group due to cost escalations in December 2021. But in that case, not nearly as much money had been spent and construction was not yet underway.
The Green Line will likely become a municipal election issue in 2025, Bratt said, particularly if a mayoral candidate runs on the platform of working with the government to resurrect its own vision for the line. “I expect that to occur, but do I think the LRT will actually get built? No,” he said..
