[Mountain Man]

Please build it as is, penny pinching conservatives are the reason the current lines wait in freakin traffic! Spend the money now and build it properly!!

 

[Dārayavauš]

Please build it as is, penny pinching conservatives are the reason the current lines wait in freakin traffic! Spend the money now and build it properly!!

Preaching to the choir! But yes. I am sure they will build it now.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Traffic counts of various bridges. The Centre Street Bridge upper deck isn't even the busiest 4 lane bridge crossing the river.

That depends on what metric you use. It isn't the busiest by cars, but it actually is the busiest route into the downtown in terms of numbers of people.

(More details on my blog including a figure with the major transit and active routes.)

Anyways, good luck to the Green Line. Don't let the old boys club kill it now that they have their cash out of the common purse for their event arenas and the like.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

 

[GoVertical]

Calgary approves $5.5B Green Line transit project

Calgary has taken a giant leap forward in city mobility with the approval of the $5.5 billion Green Line transit project. City councillors approved administration’s revised alignment proposal…

livewirecalgary.com

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Thank gods. Finally a decision.

 

[Mountain Man]

Build it, build it now!

 

[Sky of Blue]

Wow. The condescending tone of this letter.

 

[Dārayavauš]

I hope the UCP pulls funding so we can have another reason to get rid of them the next election. Plus I mean YYC and Ottawa will still be funding, so we can still build and force the shitty Alberta governments hand on this.

 

[Mountain Man]

Sadly the UCP withholding money would probably make them more popular to their base. From the sounds of it, lots of people have raised concerns, but once they see the revised plan they seem to feel much better. I was not expecting a 14-1 vote in favour from council...

 

[darwink]

The lack of understanding at council about risk management/the inability to explain risk management by admin almost did this one in. A pretty similar problem to what helped kill the Olympic Bid. Lack of understanding of risk allocation, contingency, and various contracting methods.

If the province had an agency like Infrastructure Ontario or Partnerships BC to handle much of/all large capital projects, this would be way less of a concern.

 

[Silence&Motion]

The UCP is only leading the NDP by 4 points in Calgary, according to 338canada.com. If there's a 10-15% shift to the NDP in Calgary (taken from the UCP or from the other left parties), the UCP could lose the next election even if they maintain their strength in rural areas and small towns. The UCP would be crazy to sabotage a project that has almost universal support within Calgary City Council and that polls extremely well with the public.

That said, the UCP seems to have this invincibility complex where they think they can do anything, no matter how unpopular, and will continue to win so long as they keep their hard-right supporters happy and prevent the emergence of another WRP.

 

[heightjunkie]

I have seen internal polling numbers. The UCP need to tread carefully not to erode their support in Calgary any further. This is definitely an issue that should be attacked to UCP representatives if you have the will: tell them that denying funding for the green line is an issue that will lose them support of Calgarians. That will get them to open the purse strings.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

I take a different view of McIver's letter. The Alberta government is taking an investors view of the project. No different than a private company. Before they invest, they want to make sure the revised numbers check out. This project has the potential for all kinds of cost overruns.
Also, don't bank on the federal governments share as being solid. Given all of the free-wheeling ( in most cases necessary) spending of the last 3 months, this could change. As a country we are in a big hole, deficit wise. The feds may revise their commitment, they may cap it or they might hold on to it for a period of time.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

^^ the way the feds have been acting, I’d say it’s just as likely that they’ll increase their funding if we needed it. Probably far more likely than them pulling or freezing their funding. Every major economy is in a massive hole right now, it’s not just Canada. We did what we needed to do to stay afloat as a nation. Now the government will be looking at ways to stimulate growth. Infrastructure projects are always at the top of that list.

I have seen internal polling numbers. The UCP need to tread carefully not to erode their support in Calgary any further. This is definitely an issue that should be attacked to UCP representatives if you have the will: tell them that denying funding for the green line is an issue that will lose them support of Calgarians. That will get them to open the purse strings.

I totally agree, but I can’t see how they wouldn’t already know this. This exercise is only to pander to their ultra conservative rural base. If they want to commit political suicide for the next election, they will cancel their Green Line funding. But they aren’t as stupid as many think they are, they know how to read a poll, and every city-wide poll on the Green Line shows overwhelming public support, all in the only swing ridings left in the province.