The Alberta government is pulling its share of the funding for Calgary’s Green Line LRT, according to a letter sent to Mayor Jyoti Gondek on Tuesday.
In the Sept. 3 letter, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News, Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen called the city’s revised Green Line LRT plan “unacceptable,” saying the province would not support it.
Calgary city council approved a budget of $6.2 billion for the megaproject in July, when it also decided it would be cutting six stations to complete its initial phase. The province was expected to chip in about $1.53 billion for the project.
After reviewing the city’s latest business case for the Green Line, Dreeshan said he had serious concerns about the new scope of the project.
“The Green Line is fast becoming a multi-billion dollar boondoggle that will serve very few Calgarians,” the letter says.
“Although we understand that hundreds of millions have already been spent on utility and other work for the current Green Line scope, throwing good money after bad is simply not an option for our government.”
Dreeshan also took aim at Calgary’s former mayor, Naheed Nenshi.
“We recognize your and the current council’s efforts to try and salvage the untenable position you’ve been placed in by the former mayor and his utter failure to competently oversee the planning, design and implementation of a cost-effective transit plan that could have served hundreds of thousands of Calgarians in the city’s southern and northern communities.”
In the letter, the province says it will move forward by contracting out a third party to provide alternative proposals for the LRT line that integrate the red and blue lines along 7th Avenue S.W., and the city’s future Grand Central Station in the east end entertainment district.
Dreeshen’s office has not yet responded to an inquiry from CBC News.
CBC News reached out to several members of city council Tuesday, but all declined to comment on the letter. Mayor Gondek has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In an interview with The Calgary Eyeopener on August 1, Dreeshan said the province’s $1.53 billion pledge to the project was “100 per cent” secure.
“I’ve been working closely with the mayor and Calgary city councillors so that they know that the commitment from the province for the Green Line [is] in place and that they can bank on it.”