Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek met with provincial representatives Friday to discuss the future of Calgary’s Green Line LRT project, as city officials explore winding down the project and transferring its responsibility to the Government of Alberta.
Earlier this week, the province pulled its $1.53-billion share of funding from the project pending a realignment of the Green Line, following council’s decision to shorten the first phase of the line due to a more than $700-million increase to its budget.
Gondek met with Transportation minister Devin Dreeshen and Rob Anderson, a premier’s office representative, to explain council’s decision to explore “costs, risks and other consequences” of shutting down the project.
That information is expected to be made public during a city council meeting on Sept. 17; the mayor’s office confirmed it will also be shared with the Government of Alberta.
“There was a request from the Province for a summary of all work on Green Line to date, as well as ongoing work, and a summary of all contracts,” Gondek said in a statement following the meeting.
“The Province also confirmed that they have no desire to revisit the original alignment.”
The mayor’s statement noted the province is “actively pursuing engineering expertise” to design an above ground alignment by the end of the year.
“When we receive the third party developed options we will determine next steps,” Dreeshen said in a statement.
“We are actively encouraging the province to reconsider their decision,” Gondek said in an interview on Global News Morning. “We want to bring a north-south spine to the city, and to do that we presented an alignment that builds the really tough part first.”
Gondek said there are concerns within and outside city hall that the situation has “shaken” market confidence in Calgary.
It’s a similar concern echoed by the Calgary Construction Association (CCA), which said the province’s funding withdrawal from the project sets “a concerning precedent for all future infrastructure projects” by introducing uncertainty and more risk for investors and builders.
While builders factor risk into their contracts, CCA president Bill Black said it could result in higher costs if a solution isn’t found quickly.
“If the risk profile becomes too high, then it can discourage people from participating, or it can lead to premiums being applied to the profile.” Black told Global News. “Therefore, the cost of these projects increases.”
Despite sharing similar concerns with the province over tunnelling under the downtown core, Black said he is confident the Green Line can be salvaged; he noted the “halo impacts” of other commercial and residential projects that are predicated on the construction of the transit line.
“I think it could be resigned to history and legacy fairly quickly,” Black said. “Let’s work on what is right rather than who is right and think about what Calgarians need.”
Dreeshen’s statement said the province is “confident” there won’t be “any damage” to Calgary’s reputation with the construction industry, and blamed former Calgary mayor and current NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi for “mismanagement of the project.”