It all came down to the money and when you’re the municipal government in an alleged partnership with a provincial and a federal government, you get the sand tossed in your face. That’s where Calgary city council found itself on Tuesday night, after spending close to three hours behind closed doors debating the Alberta government’s realignment plans for the Green Line, returning to council chambers for a public debate and a vote on the Alberta government’s proposal. During that debate, Ward 3 Cllr. Jennifer Mian said agreeing to the province’s alignment was the "last straw” for her and that she would not be running in the fall election. That was tame compared to an angry Mayor Jyoti Gondek who said, with great ire, “The provincial government made it abundantly clear they’re not interested in a partnership on the Green Line, rather they’re interested in exercising power and control, demanding their whimsical vision of an elevated train hammering through downtown is the only option.” “Further, they’ve showed us their actual intent to contractually obligate the City of Calgary and its taxpayers for a vision that’s only been five per cent designed. The province has dumped all of this risk and responsibility onto the city.” The tab for the Green Line is $6.23 billion, shared by the feds (27%), the province (26%) and the city (47%) although the city says the new alignment adds an additional $1.3 billion, which is added to the city's tab. Now the Green Line will run, at grade, from Shepard in the southeast, running through communities including Quarry Park, Ogden, Millican, Highfield and Ramsay/Inglewood, where it will turn west to the Event Centre, stopping at what will be called ‘Grand Central Station’. From there, the line will be elevated over top of 10 Ave. running west to 2 St. SW and then north into downtown, to connect with the Red and Blue lines on 7 Ave. At some point in the future, the line will cross the Bow River and go north to 160 Ave. NW. .It is the elevated portion of the line that has the ire of the mayor, who called it ‘reckless”, adding it would “destroy downtown.” It also has the attention of three major construction firms in the city. Prior to council’s vote on Tuesday, the province’s new alignment was given thumbs down by NAIOP Calgary, BOMA Calgary, the Calgary Construction Association (CCA) as well as the Calgary Downtown Association. “Our respective organizations have reviewed the information that has been publicly released regarding the Green Line and engaged with our members on the substance of the Alternative Alignments Assessment report from AECOM,” the organizations said in a collective statement. “Based on the report delivered to the community, we are not seeing any new information, data and/or financial details that would negate the previously identified challenges with an elevated alignment in the Beltline and the downtown core.” “Our organizations support the building of the Green Line from Shepard (or as far south as funding will provide) to the planned Grand Central Station, leveraging sunk costs to date. However, that support is conditional on an understanding between the City, Province and Federal governments that the Beltline and downtown are revisited with a detailed review and commitment to finding an acceptable alignment with input from all stakeholders. The resulting analysis would include future funding requirements.” It’s not often I agree with the mayor, but on the Green Line issue, I do agree. Regardless of what the provincial government says, elevating the Green Line from the event centre into downtown is a bad idea. There are numerous businesses on 10 Ave. that will lose business, and some will go out of business, because the LRT is running just above their roof lines. It’s probably too late, but the province should take those businesses into consideration and reevaluate its plan. As it stands, council’s vote was a reluctant 9-5 in favour of the province’s revision. The next saga in the Green Line story will be city administration writing a business case to be sent to the Alberta government, where it will be reviewed, with the government having authority to revise it. From there, it must be in the hands of the federal government by February 14, which is expected to approve funding its share by March 31.
