[Patrick.1980]

The provincial funding hasn't disappeared, it's been delayed. They will receive $75M next year and the rest will come in 2022 iirc. The feds will still be funding their portion, nothing's changed in that regard. The plan is for the federal money to get the project through the first couple of years, with the provincial money coming in at a later stage.

 

[darwink]

This is good news. The project is so off the rails that funding it now would be foolish. Best to wait for a new City council. The federal money is likely gone regardless.

Well, Kenney's cancelled the Green Line; 8 of the 10 ridings it passed through elected UCP MLAs.

The city was supposed to receive $555 million for the planned LRT over the next four years. Nenshi, seemingly incredulous, told reporters it will now receive $75 million.

$75 million is useless in building a piece of infrastructure, it's like someone offering you twenty bucks to help buy a house. And this is for the entire term of the UCP government, after which they presumably hope to be reelected, and then not fund the Green Line again.

I assume the feds will take their matching money back, too. (Remind me, Kenney's been critical of Ottawa sending too much money to Alberta, right?)

It is important to think of this project in context - The funding was always over at least 10 years anyways. Money can be spent without grants flowing. Matching can flow without cash in hand. In P3 projects, costs to the public sector can be profiled to be in line with available funds.

Sure, it would be better to have money earlier. But is it a death blow? No. Is it even a black eye? No.

 

[Silence&Motion]

It seems pretty clear in hindsight that the UCP has been sending its cronies like Jim Gray to start questioning the Green Line in order to provide political cover for the province to withdraw (or "delay") funding after they promised to maintain support for the project during the election campaign.

I fear that Trudeau's re-election means that most Calgarians will now blindly support the UCP no matter how badly they screw us over in the next four years.

 

[samboD]

It seems pretty clear in hindsight that the UCP has been sending its cronies like Jim Gray to start questioning the Green Line in order to provide political cover for the province to withdraw (or "delay") funding after they promised to maintain support for the project during the election campaign.

I fear that Trudeau's re-election means that most Calgarians will now blindly support the UCP no matter how badly they screw us over in the next four years.

wow,so wrong.

 

[accord1999]

It seems pretty clear in hindsight that the UCP has been sending its cronies like Jim Gray to start questioning the Green Line in order to provide political cover for the province to withdraw (or "delay") funding after they promised to maintain support for the project during the election campaign.

This might have merit if the City hadn't also admitted the problems with downtown at the same time; the latest in a string of budget overruns, delays and missed promises.

 

[MichaelS]

It seems pretty clear in hindsight that the UCP has been sending its cronies like Jim Gray to start questioning the Green Line in order to provide political cover for the province to withdraw (or "delay") funding after they promised to maintain support for the project during the election campaign.

I fear that Trudeau's re-election means that most Calgarians will now blindly support the UCP no matter how badly they screw us over in the next four years.

This all might be rather convenient for Council, as they can now blame Kenny all the ills of the greenline. The reality is, there was no agreed to downtown alignment. The new option was to be unveiled in January. However, based on how well this Council gets along, I doubt there would have been any strong consensus, especially given the lack of engagement that has taken place on this new alignment so far (halfway through the 4 months to do it, and I am not sure if there has been any).

The City also stated they would not issue the RFP for the phase from 4th Street SE to Shepard in January as initially scheduled if there was no downtown alignment agreed to. So, even if provincial funding were maintained, I doubt the schedule would have been, as there would be a need to delay the RFP while they tried to sort out the downtown alignment.

 

[Social Justice]

The delayed funding is very disappointing to say the least.

One of the things I missed about the NDP government is how they pandered to Calgary voters. In the 2015 provincial election, Calgary elected MLA's from 4 different parties, while Edmonton only elected NDP MLA's. In several Calgary ridings the races were extremely close. IIRC, the NDP candidate in Calgary-Glenmore won by 10 votes. This outcome made Calgary a 'swing' city. Everyone was trying to win Calgary's vote for 2019. However, In 2019 we only sent 3 NDP MLA's to the legislature. I think if Calgary had sent 7 more NDP MLA's to the legislature, the UCP would have thought twice about delaying the Greenline funding.

2015 Alberta general election - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2019 Alberta general election - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[gsunnyg]

What gets me the most irritated in all this is the $100 million+ in Deerfoot Trail upgrades. Shows how educated the UCP are in urban planning. Id rather see $100 million more into the Green Line which would help alleviate traffic from Deerfoot more than adding extra lanes. They can add as many lanes as they want, it'll end up facing the same fate as Mcknight Blvd, more traffic!

 

[Silence&Motion]

It's totally maddening. The UCP also INCREASED funding for the ring road and cut funds for the LRT system generally (on top of the cut funds for the Green Line).

 

[darwink]

It's totally maddening. The UCP also INCREASED funding for the ring road and cut funds for the LRT system generally (on top of the cut funds for the Green Line).

I think this is a misnomer - not 100%, but I believe it is just going towards already planned construction. It isn’t new money it is just that the year added to the budget is more than the year removed from the budget.

Amatuer reading and interpretation of the budget is not recommended! Even us who dive into it regularly can regularly get it wrong.

 

[Stephen Ave]

What are people's thoughts on the chances of the green line getting built? When I first heard about the Green Line funding change it was only a delay in the funding, but now the talk is about Bill 20 and the government being able to renege on their funding deal.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Frankly, I think the odds of the original green line vision (LRT end to end, tunnel from 16th Ave to the east Beltline) being built in the next decade are about 10% higher than the odds of an NDP government being elected in Alberta. I don't think the suburban communities on the line are themselves entirely to blame, but 8 of the 10 ridings on the Green Line have UCP MLAs.

 

[darwink]

What are people's thoughts on the chances of the green line getting built? When I first heard about the Green Line funding change it was only a delay in the funding, but now the talk is about Bill 20 and the government being able to renege on their funding deal.

I still think it is 100% going ahead. I think the UCP can’t let it die - it would be too easy of an example to point to a lie. They’ll (the province) write a letter confirming the funding and offering to make the city whole by the end of the ten year period, probably. And the city will just suck it up and get on with it.

the city has a powerful move to play if things get worse: offer to give the entire project to the province with the municipal funding if the province thinks it can deliver it better.

 

[gsunnyg]

My fear for the Green Line is that we get a short sighted dumbed down line with no consideration for urban planning. Something similar to the NE blue line where the goal is to cover as much distance but limiting opportunities for future development around stations to help increase long term ridership. I would hate to see the downtown-centre street segment put on grade level, it would be 36 St. NE all over again.

 

[Mountain Man]

3 Councillors are pushing for the BRT for the north leg now. Not a terrible idea as it can be upgraded to LRT down the road. We need the central part to be constructed as grade separated LRT ASAP, the north and south can be the BRT until more funding comes available.