Green Line discussions on hold despite urgent calls for provincial, federal talks

Given the many disagreements that transpired before Christmastime, Calgary's mayor says the path forward on the Green Line LRT project still isn't clear — and what's happening in Ottawa isn't helping, either. 

Mayor Jyoti Gondek says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision this week to resign following a Liberal leadership race further complicates the transit project's financing. 

"We have no idea what's going to happen with the Green Line," she told CBC News on Tuesday. 

The federal government has committed $1.5 billion for the project, but still unknown is the federal government's support for the province's revised alignment, which was announced last month. Gondek says her officials are reaching out to federal ministers to seek clarification.

"I'm fairly disappointed that we don't have a federal government right now that's able to help us with a major infrastructure project."

Off the rails or on the right track?

In the final month of 2024, tension surrounding the Green Line LRT project reached new heights.

On Dec. 13, the province proposed a new alignment, which was a revision of the City of Calgary's previous plan after multiple disagreements between levels of government about how the multibillion-dollar project would take shape. 

Infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, hired by the province in September, was tasked with developing the new alignment. It stretches just over 17 kilometres and has 12 stations instead of the previous plan's seven. This iteration of the Green Line would feature no tunneling through Calgary's downtown, which was a major point of criticism from the province in the city's previous alignment.

Alberta's revised plan has the LRT running through the core along 10th Avenue on elevated tracks, and then curving north to allow riders to connect with the Blue Line and Red Line in the downtown along Seventh Avenue.

According to the province, its version of the project would come at the same $6.2-billion price tag as the city's previously approved alignment. 

However, on Dec. 17, the City of Calgary said the province's revised alignment would cost $7.5 billion — $1.3 billion more than the Alberta government's report would suggest. 

What's more, a redacted version of the report compiled by AECOM was not publicly released by the province until Dec.18 after criticism from several city officials.

Right before city council's holiday break, Gondek and the city councillors on the Green Line working group requested an immediate meeting — no later than Dec. 24 — to discuss the new plan. The letter was addressed to Premier Danielle Smith and Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen.

As of Tuesday morning, no meeting has been held and nothing has been scheduled. 

CBC News reached out to the Dreeshen's ministry for a comment but did not receive a response before publication. 

"City council won't be able to consider anything until we get our questions answered. So until we have a working group meeting, I'm afraid I don't have much more to report," said Gondek.

Until the city can get some matters clarified, according to the mayor, it's premature to say when council could consider voting on whether or not to proceed with the provincial plan.

"We've got parts of that report that say we haven't done a structural analysis, we haven't done the full engineering on this project, the costing — what they're proposing and what we are understanding — is way off. So a lot of questions, " she said.

"As two partners who really want to deliver this line, we need to talk to each other and figure out the best way forward."