‘We cannot afford to rush’: Calgary mayor questioning province’s Green Line timeline

The province's plan for Calgary's Green Line may have a federal thumbs up, but some businesses along the proposed route say we need to pump the brakes.

Calgary’s mayor threw cold water on the province’s timeline for the Green Line LRT project on Wednesday, citing several agreements and assessments she believes need to take place before the downtown track designs are locked in.

Speaking Wednesday along 10th Avenue S.W. near the proposed elevated Green Line route, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she has “no idea” how the province thinks the design work for the downtown segment of the project will be completed by 2026.

“We cannot afford to rush into a plan that ignores critical risks, increases the burden to taxpayers and threatens the long-term viability of our very important downtown core,” Gondek said.

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The mayor said before the city can sign off on the designs, the financial commitments need to be understood so taxpayers aren’t left holding the bag on cost overruns.

Additionally, she said a full assessment on how the project would affect property values, downtown businesses, the environment and transit would need to take place.

“There is no clear plan to address how this alignment will affect properties that are along this route, including commercial spaces and major downtown employers,” she said.

“This could have a devastating impact on the economy, jobs, as well as property values, something that we have been working hard to grow and fund.”

On Tuesday, the province announced the Government of Canada approved the business case for the revised Green Line route, which connects to the Red and Blue lines downtown and the new event centre and stretches as far south as Shepard.

The approval secured $1.53 billion in funding from the federal government. The approval sets the stage for construction to begin on the southern leg of the LRT line.

The province said design work downtown is expected to be completed by 2026, leading to construction beginning in 2027.

In an interview Wednesday, Devin Dreeshen, minister of transportation and economic corridors, encouraged stakeholders or residents in the area who are concerned about the elevated track plan to get engaged with the development process.

“Obviously the finalized design work of how it’s going to look and those types of local issues are going to be going to be addressed during that process,” he said.

“There is time to have that input of local businesses, local people that live in that area. So, I just encourage them to be part of that process.”

However, the minister also noted that the approved business plan attached to the elevated downtown alignment is tied to both federal and provincial funding, so there isn’t much room for major changes.

“That’s the alignment that’s going forward,” he said.

“Obviously, we save over $1 billion in tunnelling costs because we’re now not tunnelling where we’re going elevated. So that plan has been approved by the federal government as well as provincial government. The city council also voted on it and approved it.”

Calgary’s city council approved the revised route in January, endorsing a plan that would see construction in the south start while a full downtown design plan is worked on.

The decision came after the Government of Alberta commissioned a report for a preferred alignment through the Beltline and downtown that would see an elevated track instead of a tunnel.

“As a council, we were clear. We directed administration that we needed a full and transparent review before any further commitments are made,” Gondek said.

The mayor noted one other kink in the proposed alignment, saying that it crosses CPKC’s rail right of way, but there is not an agreement in place to iron out the rights.

“Without this agreement, there is no way to guarantee that this alignment could proceed as is being proposed,” Gondek said.

Gondek said the city will be putting together a “functional plan” on the proposed alignment, which would assess the concerns the city and stakeholders have.

Based on that plan, the city will determine how it wants to move forward and have a better understanding of the potential timeline for the project. Gondek said the development of a functional plan usually takes around two years.

Tariff impact?

The province said the city will seek proposals for construction starting in the spring, with a focus on using local companies.

Dreeshen said the province will be looking at proposals from Alberta and Canadian construction companies when the tenders go out in spring 2025.

The province is waiting to see what happens after April 2, when U.S. President Donald Trump says an additional “global tariff” will go into effect, on top of a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum imports enacted earlier this month.

“When it comes to the cost of materials, if they’re possibly sourced in the U.S., that’s something that we’ll see what happens on April 2 to see if there could be some inflationary cost of this construction project and all the other construction projects that we have going around the province,” Dreeshen said.

The minister said the province is setting up a round table with the construction industry on April 3 to discuss the potential impact of additional tariffs.

According to the province, the cost for a line from Shepard to Seventh Avenue S.W. downtown is $6.236 billion.

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Jordan Kanygin