“The province had the opportunity to think rationally about this issue and it did not do so,” said Steve Allan
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They’re just angry.
Steve Allan and the rest of the group of concerned citizens who want the province to revise the light rail plans for the Green Line received notification from the UCP government late Friday.
No. No rethinking.
How did you feel?
“First, surprised. Just amazed, and then angry and disappointed,” says Allan, expressing himself politely for our family readership.
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“We have been working on this for years and trying to make it clear to the city and the province that this will be a disaster.
“We now have a growing number of people who agree with us. I meet people who say: Who in their right mind could think that this is a good idea?
“The province had the opportunity to think rationally about this issue and it did not do so.”
And here is the highlight.
Allan says the group has been in talks with Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government, giving residents the feeling they are on the right track.
They knew that Smith thought it was crazy to put the Green Line underground through downtown.
They knew that Smith liked their idea of avoiding the risks and costs of an underground line and that he supported running the railway from City Hall down to Seton and the hospital in the far southeast.
Allan talked to Smith about this whole Green Line thing two years ago and Smith supported him.
They got the distinct impression that they now received support from the Smith government.
They said they had received “positive signals” from Smith’s people.
Smith herself has said publicly that she wants the city to rethink the Green Line without the “engineering nightmare” of tunneling downtown and dealing with all the “underground river systems.”
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She talked about extending the line deep into the southeast.
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There are also questions about the LRT connection to Eau Claire.
“The city made a mistake when it decided to go ahead with it. The province can stop the project and will take a close look at the matter. That is the impression we had,” says Allan.
That’s a no-go.
Instead, as Calgary residents know, the Green Line is expected to continue as planned from downtown Eau Claire to Lynnwood/Millican, not even as far south as Ogden, and that’s not far south.
It’s a shrinking stump of a Green Line, a mini-me route, a $6 billion-plus stretch of track that doesn’t go where most riders live and has no plan or money to complete.
The entire $4.5 billion “Green Line” from the far north to the deep southeast of the city was a political fantasy of former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi long before high inflation, and now it is a political mirage, no matter how much it costs.
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Within the Smith government, the Green Line is referred to as the “Nenshi Nightmare” and is believed to have been sketched with a green crayon.
Now the Smith government is simply happy to see the stub of the city’s Green Line connected to the Prime Minister’s idea of creating a major central station for its own commuter trains.
The province is also likely to tell us it wants greater control of the project, whatever that means. It has invested $1.5 billion and vowed not to invest more money – on this section of the Green Line.
The entire Green Line could cost taxpayers $20 billion or more. Allan believes that keeping the Green Line plan in place will hurt the city and the county.
“All Albertans should be outraged because the province will bail the city out of this disaster despite its claims. Albertans will pay for it.”
He adds that the province can no longer really put pressure on Nenshi because it has abandoned a plan to rethink its position.
How can the citizens’ group proceed?
Five city council members voted against the current Green Line plan.
Sonya Sharp, Dan McLean, Jennifer Wyness, Andre Chabot and Sean Chu.
Is there anything you can do when the city council returns to work next month?
“We expect the five to continue their fight and demand a review,” says Allan.
“They have the support of many Calgary residents.”
The fight is not over yet.
The group has not come this far or worked this hard to then throw in the towel.
They hold on to something they say often.
It’s never too late to do the right thing.
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