Province recommits funding to Calgary’s Green Line LRT project

Hope for the completion of Calgary’s Green Line LRT has been revived with the province saying it is recommitting its funding to the transit project.

A joint statement from Mayor Jyoti Gondek and Alberta’s transportation minister Devin Dreeshen on Thursday indicates both parties have agreed to advance the work from 4 Street SE to Shepard in southeast Calgary.

With that, the $1.53 billion that Alberta previously committed is now back on the table to support the continuation of work.

Both sides says the decision preserves more than 700 jobs and does good on both parties’ shared financial investments.

“The recommitment from the province means the three original funding partners are back at the table,” said Gondek. “We continue to await what the new alignment looks like in the downtown area.”

AECOM is currently working on a revised downtown alignment on behalf of the province, which says the new plan will be either at-grade or elevated and connect into the Red and Blue Lines, the new event centre, and communities in southeast Calgary.

The city is assisting in AECOM’s review, according to the joint statement.

“Right now we are looking at whether the design work can meet with what’s anticipated out of the alignment that’s being considered through AECOM,” says Gondek.

“There are many conversations that need to take place between our administrations and contractors, and that’s the work that can continue now.”

Dreeshen says he has been involved with several working group meetings, alongside Gondek and Premier Danielle Smith, to ensure the Green Line gets built the right way.

“If the Green Line was to be wound down, the city would have to start from scratch, and you’re really looking at years of delay,” he said. “It’s positive to see that the city wants to work with the province.”

“Hopefully between now and December it’ll be more straight line versus zig zag,” he says.

The beleaguered project has been mired in drama for the last month, after the province said it was no longer going to take care of its share of the project’s funding.

Calgary council voted 10-5 mid-September to wind down the project, which was estimated to cost over $2.1 billion and impact more than 1,000 jobs.

“We continue to wind down the Green Line project as we knew it,” Gondek said Thursday. “This is a new project.”

Without the cash from the province, the city said it couldn’t afford to continue, and asked Alberta to take over, including assuming responsibility for the wind down.

The province said no, standing firm in its desire for a return to the project’s original alignment.

Its biggest criticism was the fact the project had shrunk in size with a bigger price tag attached. In July, council learned the total capital budget for the project had ballooned to more than $6.2 billion, but that the line would only be built as far as Lynwood/Millican instead of Shepard.

City officials have previously said pausing the project would cost up to $30 million a month.

NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is accusing the province of saving a project “that they killed.”

“Minister Dreeshen told hundreds of workers that they were okay in August, that they would lose their jobs in September, and now in October that they’ll be OK until Christmas,” said Nenshi in a statement on Thursday.

“This is not over. We still have to figure out how to get the Green Line downtown and eventually to the communities in North Calgary.”

-With files from The Canadian Press