Provincial and federal hurdles pose further concerns with the future of Calgary’s $6.25 billion southeast LRT project, and there’s a small window of opportunity to smooth things out, according to Calgary’s mayor.

Answering questions about the future of Calgary’s Green Line LRT project on Jan. 7 during a blood donor event, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that two developments have put the project’s future at risk.

She said there are still unanswered questions about the above-ground alignment proposed by the Government of Alberta in December of 2024.

Mayor Gondek said the City of Calgary can’t give the Alberta Government for when they may approve of the proposed provincial alignment. She said the level of detail in the provincial report isn’t enough to make an informed decision.

“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,” she said.

“So a lot of questions, and as two partners who really want to deliver this line, we need to talk to each other and figure out the best way forward.”

She said the path forward, when and if it does occur, won’t happen until the Green Line working group is able to have a meeting.

“I know some dates have been thrown about and some times have been offered, but I don’t know that it’s in the books yet,” she said.

To ensure the fairness of the process, and that the standards for procurement and bidding are met on the city side of the Green Line equation, city council has to remain hands-off on procurement.

That question to the mayor was brought up, as there’s no longer a Green Line board to guide the project.

“We don’t even want to be talking about who could potentially be a contractor that’s working on this that is well outside of what we should be doing as elected officials,” she said.

“That’s something that lives within administration. That process needs to be pure and to the highest standard. We have also said that we need to understand the governance model.”

Mayor Gondek said that the biggest issue for the Green Line project continues to be the financial risk of the project.

“We continue to stress this, what is the risk mitigation strategy? How much of the risk are you going to take on as a provincial partner who has now provided a brand new alignment that you want to see in place? So we’re still waiting for those answers,” she said.

Mayor critical of Trudeau’s decision to prorogue parliment

Compounding the risks for the Green Line, and other city projects said Mayor Gondek, was the announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Jan. 6 that he was resigning and that parliament would be prorogued until late March.

“The federal government, proroguing government at this stage is a really tough pill for us to swallow. We have no idea what’s going to happen with the Green Line,” she said.

She said that any decisions made by the federal government wouldn’t come until March 24 at the earliest when parliament resumes, which leaves a scant few days until the March 31 deadline to have a final project plan for the southeast LRT project.

“I don’t know that this was well thought through. It certainly was not in consultation with municipalities, not ours, for sure. So, 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,” Mayor Gondek said.

“I’m also a little bit concerned all of us went through an infrastructure problem last year with the water feeder main break. If we need to rely on the federal government for support if anything happens in any municipality, I don’t know what the plan is. Frankly, none of us know what the plan is for anything moving forward from here and we have a president coming in who’s new in a couple of weeks, without a real counterpart in our country, so I’m not too happy about the situation we’re in.”

The City of Calgary, in a statement provided to LWC, said that they haven’t yet received any information that would indicate changes to previously committed funding.

“We remain committed to working with all orders of government to continue to serve and deliver key infrastructure projects for Calgarians.”

Mayor Gondek said that she and her team had been reaching out to ministries at both the federal and the provincial levels to ensure that those commitments would be honoured.

“There are funds that were supposed to flow to the provincial government around encampments. Once again, the Green Line funding is in jeopardy. We really don’t know much of anything, but we’re making calls and trying to figure everything out,” she said.

She said that regardless of what happens in March, and whomever the next federal government may be, the importance of municipalities has to be considered.

“They have to understand that their relationships with municipalities in this country are critical. Calgary is the economic engine, not only of this province, but of this country. To not even consider us, or any other major municipality when you prorogue a government is shameful,” she said.