Calgary mayor meets with province over Green Line, Feds 'surprised' by funding changes
CTV
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek met with representatives from the Alberta government Friday, just days after councillors voted to start the process to 'wind down' the $6.2 billion Green Line and transfer the cost and risk to the provincial government.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek met with representatives from the Alberta government Friday, just days after councillors voted to start the process to 'wind down' the $6.2 billion Green Line and transfer the cost and risk to the provincial government.
The meeting comes after a letter from Devin Dreeshen, Alberta's transportation minister, outlined "serious concerns" the province has with the updated plan for Phase 1 of the Green Line.
Dreeshen's letter said the province would no longer provide its $1.5 billion share of funding for the project, and outlined a plan to launch an independent review to suggest alternate alignment and costing proposals.
"As a province, we want to build the Green Line, but it has to be an alignment that makes sense," Dreeshen told CTV News.
"We are actually commissioning a new alignment that will take place within the next few months, that will stretch, hopefully, as far south as the hospital (in the community of Seton) and southeast part of Calgary to downtown, and then obviously connect into the red and blue," he said.
Gondek met with Dreeshen and a member of the premier's office on Friday morning.
"This morning's meeting with Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen and Rob Anderson from the premier's office was intended to explain that city council has requested information about the costs, risks and other consequences related to winding down the existing Green Line project, in light of the provincial government pursuing a new alignment," said a statement sent to CTV News from Gondek on Friday.
