Province pulling funding for Calgary's Green Line LRT project, letter says
Minister Devin Dreeshen promised Aug. 1 provincial funding was secure despite scaling down of project
The Alberta government is pulling its share of the funding for Calgary's Green Line LRT, according to a letter sent to Mayor Jyoti Gondek on Tuesday.
In the Sept. 3 letter, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News, Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen called the city's revised Green Line LRT plan "unacceptable," saying the province would not support it.
In late July, to address rising costs, council voted 10-5 to cut six stations from the initial phase of the Green Line, and to increase its budget by $700 million to over $6.2 billion.
The proposed new line would run from Eau Claire to Lynnwood/Millican instead of Eau Claire to Shepard, making it much shorter than originally anticipated.
The province has been counted on to chip in about $1.53 billion for the project.
In an interview with The Homestretch on Aug. 1, Dreeshen said that pledge to the project was "100 per cent" secure.
"I've been working closely with the mayor and Calgary city councillors so that they know that the commitment from the province for the Green Line [is] in place and that they can bank on it."
But after further reviewing the city's new business case for the Green Line, Dreeshan said he had serious concerns about the adjusted scope of the project.
"The Green Line is fast becoming a multibillion-dollar boondoggle that will serve very few Calgarians," the letter says.
"Although we understand that hundreds of millions have already been spent on utility and other work for the current Green Line scope, throwing good money after bad is simply not an option for our government."
Dreeshen also took aim at Calgary's former mayor, Naheed Nenshi, who now leads the provincial NDP.
"We recognize your and the current council's efforts to try and salvage 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."
In the letter, the province says it will move forward by contracting out a third party to provide alternative proposals for the LRT line that integrate the red and blue lines along Seventh Avenue S.W., and the province's envisioned Grand Central inter-city railway station in the east end entertainment district.
Dreeshen's office has not yet responded to an inquiry from CBC News.
CBC News reached out to several members of city council Tuesday, but all declined to comment on the letter. Mayor Gondek has not yet responded to a request for comment.