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Gondek said on Monday that the Alberta government’s plans so far remain a mystery to the city and that she’s still unclear on why the province axed its portion of the funding
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Community advocates on Monday protested the provincial government’s decision to pull funding from the Green Line LRT project, while Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek heaped criticism on the UCP ahead of a Tuesday meeting that will discuss the project’s fate.
Gondek sharpened her criticism of the province’s handling of the north-to-south rail line following a closed-door meeting at city hall, calling its actions “shameful.”
City council will receive an update from administration Tuesday on the wind-down plan for the Green Line, along with recommendations for how the city wraps up work on the project. It will also discuss the “costs and consequences” associated with wind-down activities. Neither Gondek nor city councillors have seen the recommendations coming from administration.
Gondek said Monday that the province’s plans so far remain a mystery to the city, and that she’s still unclear why the province axed its portion of the funding.
“I have no idea what it is that the Government of Alberta thought they were looking at in July versus the business case that they got based on all of that information in the middle of August,” Gondek said. “I don’t know why they changed their mind. I don’t know what they didn’t have prior to this.”
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Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen told Gondek on Sept. 3 in a strongly worded statement that the province was pulling its $1.53-billion commitment to the project, after council had approved a shortened version of the Green Line on July 30. At the same time, the city readjusted the budget to $6.3 billion, $750 million more than initially budgeted for the full line. Days later, Dreeshen assured the province’s share of the funding was safe.
In his letter, Dreeshen took a swipe at new Alberta NDP Leader and former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi. “We recognize . . . the untenable position you’ve been placed in by the former mayor and his utter failure to competently oversee the planning, design and implementation of a cost-effective transit plan that could have served hundreds of thousands of Calgarians in the city’s southern and northern communities,” Dreeshen wrote.
There is an appetite among some council members for the city to create a criteria under which they would support a provincially led rail line, Gondek said, however further discussion will be needed Tuesday once administration’s report is presented to council.
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The province has sought an independent review, set to arrive in December, of other routes that connect with existing transit lines at a future centralized station near the Scotia Place site.
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A group of community organizations, including a handful of Alberta NDP MLAs, gathered outside city hall on Monday with green placards reading “defend the Green Line” to protest the province’s decision. About 100 people attended the rally that included speakers from LRT on the Green, University of Calgary Students’ Union and Amalgamated Transit Union 583.
Jeff Binks, president of LRT on the Green, placed the blame for the current situation at Premier Danielle Smith’s feet. “This isn’t on Calgarians. This isn’t on city council. This is on the premier of Alberta, and we’ll see what kind of person she is and what she values in terms of Calgary and Calgarians.”
Joe Ceci, Calgary-Buffalo MLA for the NDP and former finance minister and Calgary city councillor, said the province’s potential interest in creating routes heading north to Nose Creek Valley would help further interest in building a Calgary-to-Banff rail line, adding, “I don’t think they treat municipal orders of government as an order of government. I think they treat them as a child of the government.”
Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said she has been disappointed with the city’s communication on the issue, and said handing over the project wholesale may not be in the city’s best financial interests.
“When you wind down a project like this, yes, there’s financial risk, but there’s also reputational risk . . . we need to be very much concerned about how we are presenting this in the public right now.”
mscace@postmedia.comX: @mattscace67
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