🔪The UCP is killing the Green Line

You may have heard the news, Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen and Premier Smith are poised to flush tens of thousands of Calgary jobs down the drain, light billions of public dollars on fire, and deny Calgarians the transit system we need for the future.

Devin Dreeshen seen attending Donald Trump's election night party in New York City on November 8, 2016. (Image source: Toronto Star)

🚃 Green Line needed more than ever if Calgarians don't want to spend their future stuck in traffic

Calgary is experiencing an astonishing population growth rate of six per cent. This means an additional 96,000 Calgarians per year trying to get around the city, trying to find housing, and trying to access services. If we do not build the Green Line and invest in our transit system, we are facing longer commutes and more frequent traffic jams. 

If we do not expand our transit system and build transit-oriented housing alongside it, both our housing crisis and our transportation problems will continue to get worse.  

We live in a province that, thanks to the hard work of over a million and a half Calgarians in Alberta’s largest city, produces enormous surpluses – to the tune of $4.3 billion in the latest budget. Where’s that money going? Not to education, not to housing, and now, not to transit. (We are getting a few new lanes, ramps, and intersections on Deerfoot Trail for $615 million though.)  

🤮 UCP killing the Green Line for partisan politics

One month ago, Calgarians finally had three orders of government begrudgingly working together to build the Green Line, expand our transit system, and build homes along our new transit line. There seemed to be a dawning consensus that a world-class city needs world-class transit.  

On September 3 2024, Premier Smith and Minister Dreeshen single-handedly pulled the rug out from under every Calgarian for the dual purpose of picking a childish fight with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, and to shore up support from the UCP base ahead of an incoming leadership review – the last of which ousted the previous leader Jason Kenney.  

🧭Green Line timeline overview

• In July of 2015, former federal minister Jason Kenney and former mayor Naheed Nenshi announced federal funding for one-third of the Green Line.  

• Calgary City Council approved Phase 1 of the Green Line in 2017. 

• Former Premier Notley inked the provincial funding agreement in 2019.  

• Following another provincial election that saw Jason Kenney become Premier, he delayed the Green Line, asking for a business case that delayed the project for another two years until 2021.  

• In May 2024, after another provincial election, Minister Devin Dreeshen threatened the province’s funding to the Green Line.  

• In July 2024, responding to the concerns expressed by the province, Council agreed to cover a greater share of the Green Line’s costs and move ahead with construction, with Minister Dreeshen and the province’s support.  

• After stating that the project was “100 per cent” secure and that Calgary Council could “bank on it,” Minister Dreeshen then flip-flopped.  

• One month later, Minister Dreeshen announced that the Government of Alberta was pulling funding for the project because… well, he gave no real reason except that he just changed his mind.   

⏳Multi-year UCP delays during high inflation periods caused cost overruns to Green Line

Over the course of nine years and several provincial elections, the Government of Alberta has twice approved funding the Green Line, has twice expressed concerns, has twice delayed the project, twice had their concerns addressed, finally agreed to fund the project repeatedly, and has now turned their back on Calgarians. The UCP's two years of delays to the project came during periods of high global inflation.

Disappointingly, it looks like the reasoning behind this latest decision is fueled by a desire to score petty partisan points, and their suggested re-design looks conspicuously like a debunked plan being promoted by anti-transit elites (who have possibly never used public transit) backing the UCP.

📈UCP Minister Dreeshen further driving up Green Line costs

The Green Line is suffering from a lack of provincial leadership. It is not possible to build a world-class transit project if it is regularly used to pick fights and shore up votes for provincial politicians. Every time the project is delayed or its funding made uncertain, the cost increases.

Ironically, while Minister Dreeshen claims he is seeking cost savings his actions are further escalating the cost of the project and jeopardizing tens of thousands of jobs.

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