Green Line CEO leaves project as Calgary continues LRT project wind-down

As the City of Calgary continues with its wind-down of the Green Line LRT, the person who was in charge of the project is on his way out. 

In a city council meeting on Tuesday, CEO Darshpreet Bhatti announced he is leaving his position after three years on the job.

During the same meeting, city council voted to dissolve the Green Line board, which was overseeing the project.

Council had voted in September to wind down the transit expansion project after the provincial government halted its funding.

The province has since agreed to preserve some of the existing work on the LRT, but is still waiting on engineering firm AECOM to come up with a new alignment.

The city's chief operating officer, Stuart Dalgleish, said the Green Line will now become a new city department.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters outside council chambers on Tuesday details are still to come on how the city will handle the Green Line going forward.

"It clearly cannot be the Green Line board that's overseeing any kind of administration. So, it remains to be seen what that looks like," Gondek said.

"The working group that we have with the province also has members of [City] administration on it, so we are in regular contact and communication with the provincial government to figure out what we're doing moving forward."

Bhatti said outside council chambers Tuesday that it was his decision to leave and he wasn't being forced out.

"I just thought that this was the most opportune time in terms of providing the right transition," Bhatti said. "We were already doing the wind-down … I just decided that maybe this is my time to leave it in better hands and move on to something different."

He added there are many other job opportunities elsewhere, but he hasn't made up his mind on where he'd go next.

Asked about how he feels leaving the job with the Green Line unfinished, Bhatti said his emotions are mixed. 

"It does feel incomplete. I'll be very honest in that sense, that every project I've been on, it goes through his own motions, but eventually they are completed. This program will be completed too. I just may not be there for the entire journey," Bhatti said.

Gondek said seeing Bhatti go was difficult, but expected.

"That Green Line board has committed so much time, as has Mr. Bhatti. And let's not forget all the other members of the Green Line team," Gondek said.

"You know, when a project is winding down, you have to understand that the CEO will eventually step away. And so it was a matter of timing, and it's hard to see him go. He offered so much to the project."