Pay more, get less: maybe that should replace Blue Sky City as Calgary’s civic slogan
How big of a financial armageddon will Calgary’s Green Line prove?
So huge that the excuses are already being rolled out, despite not a single metre of track being laid.
But it won’t be halted, even though everyone involved understands this green elephant will burden city ratepayers for decades to come.
Remember those silent movies with the hero tied to the railway track as the locomotive bore down? These days, we’re similarly captive, though it’s doubtful there’ll be any last-second escape.
That was made plain Tuesday when we discovered the already shortened line — originally to run from the far north to the deep south at a cost of $4.5 billion — is getting yet another haircut. Instead of running from Eau Claire downtown to Shepard in the southeast, it will now only go as far as Lynnwood, axing six planned stations in the process.
Keep up this rate of attrition and, if it ever does operate, Calgarians will be getting on and off at the same stop, though probably through different doors to ensure they get their money’s worth.
This is touted as Phase 1, with additional lines added when we can afford it. But there’ll be no Phase 2.
This whole project will finally die when engineers try tunnelling downtown, through ground criss-crossed by a bevy of underground rivers.
Expect the long delays and huge cost overruns that’ll accompany the planned tunnel to draw the final curtain on the project. Some future council will cry “enough is enough,” and insist the $10 billion, $20 billion or $30 billion spent so far wasn’t anything to do with us.
We’re now told it has nothing to do with the mayor who gave his blessing to the project almost a decade ago. Naheed Nenshi is pointing the finger at Jason Kenney, accusing the former Tory premier of delaying the project for two years, thereby pushing up financing costs. It’s a stretch, though it’s unlikely Premier Danielle Smith will go to bat for Kenney’s reputation any time soon.
Actually, the current UCP government, not one to look a political gift horse in the mouth, is too busy calling this project the Nenshi Nightmare. Smith’s lot know the fallout will be visible to all by the next provincial election, one in which our former mayor hopes to triumph with the NDP by relying upon his reputation here in the vital Calgary battleground. Of course, it’s just a coincidence Smith is adamant there won’t be another cent of provincial cash for the Green Line.
It’s nasty politics, but the upshot is Calgarians alone are now on the hook for all cost overruns.
If you can believe the latest numbers — and, really, why would you — this shortened line will cost more than $6.2 billion, an increase from the last budgeted figure of $5.5 billion. Pay more, get less: maybe that should replace Blue Sky City as Calgary’s civic slogan.
There is one positive we can cling to in these desperate days. Were it not for plebiscite-voting Calgarians, this transit line fiasco, along with the unknown financial fallout from the burst water pipe debacle, would be taking place while the city was building infrastructure for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Just think on that for a moment: this current council in charge of a global event with us picking up the tab.
See. It could be worse.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist.