City officials pegged additional Green Line wind-down costs at a minimum of half a billion, with Calgary’s Chief Financial Officer saying the city should be made financially whole.

Councillors voted in favour of winding down the current Green Line project, and examine transfer of the project to the province.

Calgary city councillors heard from both City of Calgary administration and the Green Line Board that the total amount spent, with zero kilometres of track, is estimated to come in at $2.153 billion.

That total includes $1.308 billion already spent on several years of construction, land acquisition and purchasing (LRVs), plus $300 million in already committed costs, according to CFO Carla Male.   That leaves a minimum delta of roughly $550 million that, as of now, the City of Calgary taxpayers could be on the hook for.

CFO Male said that they’ve only had two weeks to compile information on the potential wind-down costs, and it’s based on the latest information available to the City of Calgary.

“There is no doubt that winding down the Green Line program will have an impact on the city in more ways than one, and in ways we just cannot anticipate right now,” said Male.

“One of the most significant impacts will be on city employees and contractors. There is a very real, human, emotional toll that this abrupt change has had for those working on this project and for this city more broadly.”

Male said that this was a preliminary cost, but it could climb higher with potential lawsuits against the City of Calgary, or other unforeseen closing costs.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said it was too early to be talking about wind-down costs when the province hasn’t put forward its plan for a transit line to southeast Calgary. That’s expected to come after a consultant’s report in December. He asked in chambers if the wind-down costs accounted for portions of the Green Line that could be used in a future provincial plan.

It’s conceivable that the province could use the southern alignment of Calgary’s Green Line configuration, making use of the infrastructure and enabling works done over the past six years. Other costs, like Enmax upgrades and relocations, and land acquisition could have value to the City of Calgary.

Administration said they were uncertain of the potential of this given no information on the province’s transit plan.

McLean was asked if the project was dead.

“I don’t think people should be using that terminology. It’s been over 10 years. It just went through different iterations, scope changes, funding changes,” he said.

“No one called it dead before. I think this is just a pause and we come up with a better solution.”

Being made ‘whole’

CFO Male referred to the City of Calgary somehow being made financially whole, referring to the different levers outside of city jurisdiction to recoup wind-down costs.

“The third one, and I mentioned it throughout the presentation, we will work with the Government of Alberta’s administration to make sure that the city is made whole,” Male said.

Some councillors questioned whether the City of Calgary could compel the province, or even pursue litigation to compensate them for costs. Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that they’ll have to find out what “being kept whole” actually means.

“This project is a responsibility of the City of Calgary, and the responsibility for the wind-down lies with us. We are the ones that entered into contracts. We are the ones that have employed the 1,000 people who are working on this project right now,” the mayor said.

“The liability, the risk, lies entirely with us, and I would hope that the partner who ended this project would take responsibility and accountability for their share of the cost.”

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said that given the amount it will cost to wind down the Green Line, the province could have ponied up their portion of that and it would have helped the Green Line reach Shepard and perhaps even Seton.

The goal of the provincial transit plan is to connect Calgary’s under-construction Event Centre all the way down to Seton and the South Health Campus.

“So, when we talk about financial management or mismanagement, in this case of the province, the province could have just come to the table as an equal funding partner and gotten us all the way to Seton,” she said.

“We now have spent $2.1 billion, literally, on a train to nowhere. Zero kilometers.”

Mayor Gondek said it was too early to say if there would be any impact on Calgary taxpayers in the upcoming November mid-cycle adjustment.