Breadcrumb Trail Links
NewsColumnists
Article content
Watching from the cheap seats in Edmonton as the City of Calgary and the Government of Alberta play a very expensive game of chicken over the future of the Green Line LRT, a couple of thoughts spring to mind.
On the one hand, while it’s nice to see a different city in the role of provincial punching bag for once, it would be even nicer to live somewhere where there was a project of this scale to fight over.
Advertisement 2
Article content
That’s not to say Calgarians shouldn’t be ticked off at the intergovernmental embarrassment that’s played out before their eyes, culminating in council’s vote this week to wind down its version of the project.
Yet it’s hard to imagine that sanity won’t eventually prevail given that there is simply too much money already sunk into the Green Line for it not be resurrected in some way.
And no matter what form that line eventually takes, and regardless of whether the final price tag is $5 billion, $10 billion or whatever, it will still probably end up as the most expensive public infrastructure project in Alberta’s history.
Meanwhile, amid the dance of blaming and bickering over LRT, let’s not forget recent announcements that medical appointments are now being booked at Calgary’s new $1.4-billion cancer centre, and that backhoes have started work on Calgary’s $1.2 billion arena project.
Up in Edmonton, what we wouldn’t give to have our city and the province squabbling over the scope of our first new hospital in 40 years, or the design of a new medical testing hub, or the location of a child and youth mental-health centre. Instead, in our city, the UCP government just cancels these things outright.
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
(The government’s announcement this week of new school projects is at least one bit of positive news, though it’s best to reserve judgment until more details emerge).
The other observation here is that the province’s belated incursion into the Green Line — some might call it a hostile takeover — is perhaps the strongest signal to date that we have entered a new paradigm surrounding the politics of mega transit projects.
In the past, decisions around design, routing, grade separations, station locations, sequencing and so on were generally the domain of cities that operate the transit networks. Yes, other orders of government had to be involved since they provided big chunks of the funding, but the projects mostly took shape through the work of municipal transit planners, direction from city council and consultation with city residents.
That direct line of accountability between the people using the system and the people running the system makes sense.
In recent times, however, it seems as though those other orders of government have been increasingly sticking their ideological noses into the process, which has added another layer of complication to an environment that is already rife with it.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The federal government under Stephen Harper, for example, introduced a brow-furrowing wrinkle to its transit contributions, by insisting that new LRT projects be developed through public-private partnerships. That hasn’t worked out so well.
More recently, the Trudeau government announced that its new $30-billion transit program comes with significant strings that will, among other things, require municipalities to boost high-density housing and remove mandatory parking minimums near transit lines.
Now we have an Alberta government more or less trying to direct the project management of the Green Line, potentially overriding years of work from municipal planners, politicians and communities.
It is curious why the UCP government would even want this headache, which leads one to suspect this not just about ensuring value for increasingly large amounts of taxpayer dollars. There also seems to be a healthy dose of political opportunism at play.
The government can vow to deliver a Green Line that is cheaper, longer and more efficient than the plan conceived by Calgary’s left-leaning council.
Advertisement 5
Article content
If the city balks at the changes, they take the blame for killing the project. If the development proceeds, the province takes the credit.
And it won’t especially matter if their promises turn out to be false, because it will be several years — well past the next civic election in 2025 and provincial election in 2027 — before the thing is finished, the final costs are divulged, and the functionality is revealed.
Edmontonians should take notice.
A few months ago, I wrote a column calling for our city to pause further LRT commitments beyond the two projects already underway — the west-end Valley Line and the south expansion of the Capital Line to Ellerslie Road.
Debilitating cost and complexity were the main reasons I cited, particularly after council was forced to make significant sacrifices to the original Capital Line vision, and still saw the budget go up 20 per cent.
Those factors alone provide justification for the city to re-evaluate transit investment, but now there is also the risk of interference from a UCP government that has not demonstrated much respect for municipal autonomy on various fronts.
Advertisement 6
Article content
It seems unwise for the city to push ahead on anything new when it could later be used as political football by a government willing to impose its own agenda.
Entangled with this is the UCP’s prioritization of high-speed rail and commuter rail in the style of Metrolinx — the Ontario government agency responsible for a lot of mass transit in the Toronto area, including a bunch of new LRT and subway lines.
In light of those coming developments, does it still make sense for Edmonton to look at extending the Metro line north to St. Albert? What about transit to the airport? Has the business case shifted to prioritize LRT to Summerside or Windermere?
As Alberta’s big cities see massive population growth, it is unfortunate we seem to have entered a time of great uncertainty and conflict on how to move all those people. There is much still to play out, but with the province pushing its own priorities and political weight around, it’s hard not to think civic governments will have a diminishing role in their own transit planning.
kgerein@postmedia.com
Recommended from Editorial
Keith Gerein: Rising costs and complications may force Edmonton to take a pause on LRT
Edmonton moves forward with mass transit plan as population approaches 1.25 million
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.
Article content
Share this article in your social network