‘This is no longer our project’: Work on Green Line halted as city works on handover to province

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Calgary’s Green Line LRT is once again in limbo as city administrators figure out a way to transfer management of the $6.3-billion project — and its financial risk — to the Alberta government.

City council voted 10-5 late Wednesday afternoon to direct staff to return with options at the Sept. 17 regular meeting on how to wind down the project and turn it over to the province.

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Council also voted unanimously to have Mayor Jyoti Gondek seek an emergency meeting with Premier Danielle Smith — a meeting a spokesperson for the premier told Postmedia she would be happy to set up.

The LRT project’s fate should be in the hands of the province, according to Gondek.

“We’re no longer in control of this,” she said at the tail end of Wednesday’s meeting.

“This is no longer our project. It’s not the one we approved in 2020. It’s not the one we established a Green Line board for. This is now the province’s project. They need to be the ones who hold the risk on this.”

‘Throwing good money after bad is simply not an option’

Council’s decision was made in response to a letter from UCP Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen on Tuesday that indicated the province would no longer contribute its $1.53-billion share of the $6.3-billion project, following council’s approval of a shortened alignment for the first phase of the LRT on July 30.

Dreeshen had confirmed provincial funding was secure in media interviews immediately after that meeting, telling CBC’s The Eyeopener on Aug. 1 that the city “could bank on it.”

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But in Tuesday’s letter and in a Wednesday statement, he reversed course, stating the UCP government had serious concerns with the city’s new business case for the Green Line that was submitted to the province Aug. 15.

The truncated alignment would reduce projected ridership by 40 per cent, Dreeshen pointed out, despite a 14 per cent higher cost from the previously budgeted $5.5 billion.

“In short, with this plan, Calgarians are getting less for much more,” he said.

“We have an obligation to ensure taxpayer dollars for infrastructure are allocated efficiently and in a manner that will benefit the largest number of Albertans possible.”

Dreeshen reiterated the province intends to hire an independent party to study alternative above-ground solutions to integrate the Green Line with the existing Red and Blue lines that run along 7th Avenue through downtown.

That was an option Michael Thompson, the city’s general manager of infrastructure, claimed Wednesday was not feasible due to the capacity of the existing train network, without diverting the Red Line to run underground along 8th Avenue.

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The province also wants the Green Line to connect to a future “Grand Central Station” as part of its passenger rail master plan, while also extending the line south to Shepard, to accommodate more riders in southeast Calgary.

“Throwing good money after bad is simply not an option for our government,” Dreeshen said.

Councillors ‘left without much choice’: advocate

While members of the ad-hoc Rethink the Green Line citizens’ group applauded Wednesday’s outcome, another Green Line advocacy group called it a worst-case scenario for Calgarians.

Members of LRT on the Green, a group that has been advocating for the Green Line since 2014, said the province left Calgarians “in a lurch” by pulling its funding.

Sabrina Grover, LRT on the Green’s vice-president, said the city was backed into a corner by Dreeshen’s letter, which meant council was “left without much choice” but to pass authority for the project to the province.

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“When you talk about their dream scenario realignment — which, by the way, has been studied time and time again, was studied under Ric McIver in 2020 with the former UCP premier — all of those things have already been ruled out as not the best alignment,” she said.

“It’s amateur hour for the province to be asking for a realignment study when we’ve already had these discussions time and time again.”

The Calgary Construction Association said its members were “dismayed” by the province’s actions.

“The provincial government’s abrupt decision to reduce its financial commitment to the Green Line project is a significant setback not only for Calgary’s construction industry but also for the broader community that has been anticipating the benefits of this vital transit expansion,” the CCA stated.

“Moreover, the provincial government’s decision to unilaterally claw back funding for the Green Line LRT sets a concerning precedent for all future infrastructure projects across Alberta.”

‘That’s a cost that’s sunk’

So far, nearly $1.3 billion has been spent and more than $1.5 billion has been committed to the Green Line, according to the Green Line board’s July progress report.

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That includes more than $600 million on “construction, land and other assets,” in addition to more than $560 million on design and engineering work.

“That’s a cost that’s sunk and that’s a cost I’d hate to walk away from,” said Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong.

The project has also seen some residents expropriated from their homes to make way for future Green Line construction, and demolitions of buildings in Victoria Park, Ramsay and other communities along the alignment.

The city also vacated Eau Claire Market, with plans to demolish the former mall to make way for a future Green Line station.

With so much invested into the project, at least one councillor is asking the province to honour its previous funding commitment. In a ward newsletter on Thursday morning that linked to a form letter, Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott urged Dreeshen to reverse course.

“Minister Devin Dreeshen and the governing UCP have put thousands of Calgarian jobs at risk, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of public dollars spent on work so far and, most importantly, denying Calgarians a city-shaping transit system,” Walcott wrote.

“If we do not expand our transit system and build transit-oriented housing alongside it, both our housing crisis and our transportation problems will continue to get worse.”

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