Premiering on Oct. 9, 1986, in London’s West End, the Phantom of the Opera recently marked 37 spectacular years.
A pivotal song in the award-winning musical is The Point of No Return. During the premiere of Don Juan Triumphant, the opera within the opera, Christine Daaé realizes that she is being serenaded, not by her love interest Raoul but by the Phantom.
His words invite Christine to embrace his love: “Past the point of no return — no backward glances: our games of make-believe are at an end . . . Past all thought of ‘if’ or ‘when’ — no use resisting: abandon thought and let the dream descend. What raging fire shall flood the soul? What rich desire unlocks its door? What sweet seduction lies before us? Past the point of no return, the final threshold — what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn?”
Many Calgarians are alarmed by upward spiralling cost estimates for the now half a Green Line. With apologies to Andrew Lloyd Webber, they fear that sweet seduction by our city will take us past the point of no return. The latest public estimate of the full cost of the (south only) Green Line is expected to be released July 30, at the regular meeting of council. For how much more will taxpayers be on the hook?
The games of make-believe must come to an end.
As we wait for those numbers, rumours of a multibillion-dollar cost overrun persist and remain more of a hot, talked-about secret than a warm, unspoken one. If multibillion-dollar overrun speculation is anywhere near on target, a huge dose of public scrutiny will descend.
The provincial government has rejected further funding for the beleaguered line. A provincial deal probably would have materialized if it were for a few hundred million. Remember, Edmonton and the rest of the province would demand funding for their pet projects equal to any uplift Calgary got. So, the ultimate provincial bill might well be an additional two times anything provided to Calgary.
City administration reported the cost to repair the Bearspaw South feeder is in the “tens of millions.” Additionally, despite few further reinforcing wire “snaps,” Mayor Gondek cautioned, “we are not out of the woods yet,” at her July 18 media update. The “surprise” of a billion-dollar level cost to replace the entire Bearspaw line in the not-too-distant future seems inevitable.
Public and private commentary is replete with calls for the city to prioritize spending taxpayers’ precious dollars on the basics. Respectfully, Mayor Gondek, Calgarians need to be 100 per cent confident in the reliability of Calgary’s water utility service. Water is a priority and we pay for that.
Calgarians might remember 2017 when the original $4.5-billion capital cost estimate was for a Green Line connecting the South Health Campus, through downtown and the north suburbs to 160th Avenue N. Annual operating cost deficits were on top of that. If the reveal of the previously unspoken secret of the Green Line cost estimate is multibillion-dollar bad news for a truncated Green Line that connects downtown to the Shepard rugby pitches — a Green Line to nowhere — the project needs to be reimagined, at a much lower cost, or abandoned.
The literary types tell us The Point of No Return is about crossing a threshold. If the authenticity of Christine’s removal of the Phantom’s mask revealing his shockingly deformed face extends to a reveal of a shocking increase in the cost of the Green Line with no alternative plan, what little was left of the city’s and other Green Line supporters’ credibility may have crossed a line with voters to the point of no return.
Unlike the Phantom’s spectacular award-winning 37-year run, the spectacular loss of confidence in this mayor, council and administration took only 33 months. The city’s performance has been replete with backward glances and myriad unspoken secrets.
“Past all thought of ‘if’ or ‘when’ — no use resisting: abandon thought and let the dream descend.”
Guy Buchanan and Christine Buchanan are the principals of Co-Star Consulting Ltd.