Bell: Calgary Mayor Gondek irritated by Danielle Smith over Green Line

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I guess Premier Danielle Smith isn’t losing sleep.

On Thursday, as Calgary City Council inches closer to a citywide rezoning vote, where most Calgarians will be told to hold out because politicians say so, we’ll have our hands on a letter.

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It’s from Devin Dreeshen, Smith’s transportation leader, and is addressed to Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

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Gondek seems very disturbed.

She tells reporters at City Hall that she finds it strange that the Smith administration “sent us a letter at the same time they sent one to the media.”

Media like on a server. At Calgary City Hall I’m as popular as a butcher at a vegan convention.

Gondek again.

“And they did a media interview before talking to us about the letter.”

Hi Mom!

“I’m interested to know why they are negotiating through the media instead of talking to us.”

What negotiation?

Perhaps the mayor should focus more on ensuring the Green Line doesn’t become a huge drain on Calgary taxpayers.

You see, four members of Smith’s cabinet met earlier this week with the movers and shakers of Calgary’s Green Line LRT.

Now everyone expects the Green Line to face cost overruns for 11 miles of track that doesn’t go to the city’s northern edge or deep southeast, where most riders live and where the original plan said it would go.

We now have a reduced Phase 1 running from Shepard, south of Quarry Park, to Eau Claire downtown and the downtown and Beltline subway stations.

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Thus, the letter establishes two conditions for the province’s $1.53 billion.

First, the province will not give the city any more money for Phase 1 of the Green Line.

Second, the Green Line LRT has to fit with Smith’s plan for trains in Alberta and the Smith government wants the city to consider changes to the Green Line to control costs.

Gondek insists that the UCP government’s hard line of no more money for the Green Line is not news, but Smith’s people, knowing that the cost overruns will likely be revealed next month, obviously wanted to make it very clear that they will not sign any check.

Period. Final point. Do not even think about it.

The mayor has a joke about Smith’s desire to see the Green Line incorporated into the provincial government’s rail plan.

“You can play with toy trains on your table all day and try to come up with a plan.”

Well well.

But Gondek says construction on the Green Line continues and the LRT line “having to comply with a fictitious plan will mean opening up that contract.”

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The mayor does not give explanations.

The prime minister says she has been clear.

The city made a mistake when it decided to build an underground tunnel. It’s much more expensive. The province let the city know that costs would increase.

Smith says the city told them not to worry because they would take care of it.

The premier hopes the city will make changes to its Green Line plan to keep it on budget.

Dan McLean, a councilor who isn’t afraid to challenge the city council system, says with the province exhausted, Calgary taxpayers could be hurt, but the city’s taxpayers are also exhausted.

McLean has an opinion on what to do next

“I have never been in favor of going underground. That’s where all the money is. That’s where things are going terribly off the rails,” he states.

McLean wants the line to run from City Hall to Seton and the South Hospital in the deep southeast.

“That’s where all the people are,” he says.

Longtime council member André Chabot has been raising questions for years.

“What I’ve said from day one is just build what we can afford to build now and then expand in the future.”

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Chabot says many areas that use public transportation start with bus rapid transit.

That’s “a fraction of the cost” and could have made it all the way to Seton.

So what do we do now?

“Good question,” Chabot says.

Some estimate that if the entire Green Line LRT is built, it could cost $20 billion.

Gian-Carlo Carra, a councilman known to readers, admits that the city made a mistake and underestimated how much it would cost to get through downtown and across the river.

Yes, they won’t even cross the river in Phase 1.

Carra says that this year the city council expects “a significant surplus” and imagines that it will go to the Green Line.

Carra mentions debt financing.

“Let’s build it. Let’s build it. “We are going to finish this project against all odds.”

But how are you so sure we won’t burn or drown?

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