Province agrees to preserve some existing work on Green Line LRT following Calgary mayor's letter

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the provincial government has agreed to her request to try salvaging some work from the Green Line LRT project while it considers a new alignment.

It comes after Gondek sent a letter to Premier Danielle Smith and Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen, which the mayor posted to social media on Thursday evening. 

In her post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gondek said if the province were to use some of the city's existing work in its new alignment, it could temporarily save up to 700 jobs and and taxpayer money.

"For example, retaining the existing contract for low-floor vehicles allows design work to continue, prevents a new procurement process and expedites construction," Gondek said in her letter. "Further, maintaining the existing contract for the design work on the segment that stretches from Fourth Street S.E. to Shepard would provide the same benefits."

Gondek says the provincial government had previously rejected the idea twice, but on Thursday, it agreed to the mayor's request.

"For me, trying one more time, doing that Hail Mary pass to see if we could at least sit down and discuss how to salvage parts of a program that not longer exists, had to be done. I had tried twice before. I was going to go for a third time and, fortunately, we are able to move forward," Gondek told reporters on Friday.

She added that some contractors have already left the project, and the city has not yet announced a layoff plan for its 250 Green Line employees.

"The mayor's letter from last night and the productive phone call that we had with her this morning was a really great development," Dreeshen told CBC News on Friday afternoon.

The minister says the Alberta government wants the Green Line built, but the biggest issue between the province and the city came down to underground tunnelling, which Dreeshen says added substantially to the overall cost of the project.

"The province wanted to extend [the line] to the southeast where most Calgarians are, a lot of Calgarians live," he said. 

"It's great to see that the city wants to work with the province to resolve that."

Province hired new consulting firm

The provincial government has hired infrastructure consulting firm AECOM to come up with a new alignment for the Green Line by December. The province wants to forgo plans to tunnel through downtown Calgary in favour of laying tracks above ground to extend the line further into the city's southeast quadrant.

Plans for the Green Line were most recently upended when Dreeshen pulled the province's share of funding on Sept. 3. Since then, city council voted to halt the transit expansion project with costs totalling $2.1 billion, including $850 million to wind it down.

WATCH | Calgary's wind-down costs: 

How much would Calgary spend to wind down the Green Line LRT?

2 months ago

Duration 1:42

With the provincial government pulling its funding from the Green Line LRT earlier this month, City of Calgary officials say they have no choice but to wind down the project. Early estimates of the minimum costs involved put the city's total spending at over $2 billion.

The project has a tumultuous history dating back more than a decade. The city and province have been engaged in a war of words over who is to blame for it going off the rails.

"Ultimately, it is in our collective best interest to save money for taxpayers in our city and province," the mayor said. "As time is of the essence as wind down progresses, it is critical that we quickly book a meeting with both of your offices and administration to discuss this further," Gondek told Smith and Dreeshen in her letter.

Calgary councillors react to letter

Coun. Terry Wong told CBC News he was glad to see Gondek's letter include an attempt to preserve Green Line work, and it aligns with the sentiment of what he said previously in council — that there is an opportunity to salvage portions of the city's work.

"As much as the province pulled funding, it did not mean that the Green Line was dead, but there was opportunity to re-engage with the province and all the stakeholders," Wong said.

The Ward 7 rep added that if the province takes a different approach to the Green Line, and it's ultimately a different alignment, he'll take the opportunity to continue working with the provincial and federal governments on Calgary's LRT.

Sonya Sharp, councillor for Ward 1, told CBC News that Gondek's letter carries a noticeable shift in tone in communications between the mayor and the province.

Gondek previously blasted Dreeshen for pulling funding, accusing the province of only being "interested in power and political stunting."

In Thursday's letter, the mayor appears to indicate a willingness to work with the province to salvage as much as possible. In the letter, she asks for a meeting with the premier and the transportation minister to discuss the specifics of such an agreement.

Sharp said the mayor's attitude has changed drastically.

"You stood up there, you grandstanded against myself and other members of council — words like 'Why would I ever go back to ask [the province] for anything? The project's dead,' to this letter," Sharp said.

She characterized the city's move to scuttle the project after the funding withdrawal as a "knee-jerk" reaction.

"All of this could have been avoided if we had just maybe taken a breath after that letter was sent," Sharp said, adding it appears to her the mayor is trying to save face by asking the province to preserve elements of the city's alignment to save taxpayer money.

"Why didn't you think of that before you decided to wind down with an estimated $850 million cost? Why didn't we pause at maybe a burn rate of $20 million a month, which would have been [less than] $100 million in three months?" she said.

That being said, Sharp agrees it is in the best interest of all parties to hold on to the effort that has already gone into the project.

"You don't want to lose expertise, you don't want to lose some of the work that's been done. But that wasn't the approach they took on Tuesday," she said. 

According to Sharp, clarity has been lost as to whether the Green Line is dead or on pause because of mixed messaging from the mayor. She said she's waiting for the province to come back with a new alignment to determine next steps.