Rally held outside Calgary City Hall in support of Green Line LRT

A rally was held outside of Calgary City Hall on Monday in support of the Green Line LRT.

Those who organized the rally said the Green Line is an essential project, and political leaders need to find a solution in order to get the line built.

Earlier this month, the province announced it will pull its $1.53-billion share of funding from the project pending a realignment of the Green Line. The move came after Calgary City Council decided to shorten the first phase of the line due to a more than $700-million increase to its budget.

The city is now looking at what handing the project over to the province would look like. It comes as the province says it is bringing in its own engineers to look at different alignments, including the possibility of running it up Deerfoot Trail.

City council struck down the idea of an LRT alignment in Deerfoot Valley and Nose Creek 10 years ago, after a 2012 study found several disadvantages.

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That idea is one that those at the rally on Monday say would not work.

“The ideas that are coming out of the premier’s office and the UCP are plans dusted off from the ’80s. They don’t serve Calgarians, they don’t serve the city that Calgary is growing into,” said Jeff Binks, president of the LRT on the Green Foundation, an advocacy group working to get the line built.

“If the province wants to build the Green Line, we’re more than happy for them to take it over. If the province wants to build whatever it is they’re trying to build and dreaming up on the fly, I don’t think Calgarians are going to be supportive of that.”

A strategic meeting of council was being held on Monday, with councillors talking about the project’s budget.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the province pulling its funding means the Green Line program as it currently exists is terminated.

“There is so much uncertainty around what it is the province wishes to do. The only certainty we have is that the Green Line program as we knew it is gone,” Gondek said Monday.

“What it is that they’re proposing to bring forward remains a mystery.”

On Tuesday, council is set to decide whether to wind down the first phase of the Green Line and transfer the project management to the provincial government.

— with files from Adam MacVicar and Michael King, Global News.