The_Cat
Senior Member
Calgary needs the Green Line. It's like our Valley Line.
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Alberta Politics
- Thread starter ION
- Start date
Garneau2Go
Active Member
trevorhayden
Active Member
UCP: add all the bells and whistles to the Green Line
Calgary: adds a tunnel to not slow cars
UCP: too many bells and whistles. No more money for you!
Calgary: adds a tunnel to not slow cars
UCP: too many bells and whistles. No more money for you!
David A
Senior Member
This is not surprising. There probably is some genuine concern about cost, but I have a feeling the UCP is reluctant to fund certain things like transit, and their poor relations with Calgary City Council probably does not help.In the Sept. 3 letter obtained by Postmedia, Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen calls the revised concept of the southeast-to-downtown Green Line LRT plan in Calgary a wasteful disaster and states the province can't in good conscience follow through with its $1.53-billion funding share.
Province rejects revised Green Line plan, says funding to be withheld
In a scathing letter, Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen slams Calgary's Green Line plan, saying funding for it to be withheld.calgaryherald.com
So no new hospital for Edmonton, no new LRT line for Calgary, but they still seem to have the money for a new arena there. All this might be easier for the UCP to defend, if they were not running multi billion dollar surpluses.
Gus Haynes
Active Member
Yeah, I mean, Dreeshen's statement (trying to somehow rewrite history and blame Nenshi for the death of the project) kind of tells you what drives the UCP: trying to score "wins" at the expense of their enemies. Albertans are the collateral damage.
trevorhayden
Active Member
Truly despicable creatures in our government these days.
Gronk!
Senior Member
The UCP will likely piss it all away just like the previous PC governments.
YEG imagineer
Active Member
I predict the UCP will make a grand announcement of $1.5 B to connect downtown with the airport by way of the CP rail lines within 6 months. Give to Calgary but not to the municipal council.
Garneau2Go
Active Member
The proposal was expensive, but they want to integrate it with some sort of new Calgary Grand Central Station and the arena deal they used to win the last election. The municipal green line cancelation can’t be about cost when the plan is to then tack on…*checks notes* a whole multi billion dollar HSR network.
It’s primarily to screw over Nenshi and Gondek while acting as fiscally responsible saviours, even though a significantly more expensive project is going to take it’s place.
It’s primarily to screw over Nenshi and Gondek while acting as fiscally responsible saviours, even though a significantly more expensive project is going to take it’s place.
David A
Senior Member
I wouldn't be surprised by this either ... if so there goes the Green Line money!
The provincial dithering about this goes back to 2014 or so, when Kenney was a Federal Minister and eager to fund it. I feel Calgary City Council is basically tired of it now and has finally washed their hands of it.
So the province can do whatever they want, but there may be no municipal money or Federal money.
TAS
Senior Member
The province is going to come back to Calgary with a new green line plan that is not underground perhaps by end of year or early 2025. Calgary council will then be presented with the plan and if they choose not to fund their third of the cost, then there will be no new green line. Or, as the minister said, the new green line could be shelved until the next council is elected and they might say yes.
See where UCP is going? Make current progressive council look incompetent. Make Nenshi look bad. Incentivize electing a UCP friendly city council in 2025.
But make no mistake, Calgary is not going to be shortchanged.
Whattagame
Active Member
Maybe Dreeshen was confused by his party's commitment to shutting down all green projects.
David A
Senior Member
Oh, I do see how this is going - those with the money make the rules and this current provincial government tends to be very heavy handed with the bigger cities.
But, it still may not work out the way they want. For instance, there will be a Federal election and what if the Federal money disappears after that or maybe they have different ideas than the province.
This sort of project requires the cooperation of three levels of government and as should already be clear does not work well with one dictating to the other two. If it falls apart, I suspect it is the province that will get the blame.
Gronk!
Senior Member
Danielle Smith will just lay the blame on Trudeau as usual. But will she blame Pierre Poilievre if (God forbid) he becomes the next PM?
TAS
Senior Member
In Ontario I believe it's just the province and the feds who cover the costs of transportation projects like this - the cities add no funding.
As already has been pointed out, the province also covers full cost of Calgary's Deerfoot Trail including its current $615 million upgrade + all its ongoing maintenance and snow removal. Whereas Yellowhead had 50% covered by us ($500 million from Edmonton) and the rest by the feds and province for current upgrades. And we pay our own maintenance and snow removal. I'm not knocking Calgary's fortuitous position, I just want Edmonton to get in on it - however the province doesn't want to open that door and people in this city probably aren't aware of this discrepancy or are resigned to it.
This green line is kind of playing out like their event centre. The first deal falls through at the last minute and so province steps up and Calgary ends up with a bigger, better arena than the first one with the province paying for $330 million of it.
If for some unknown reason federal money is not there for transportation, which I highly doubt will happen, I'm sure the province will look after Calgary's needs.