The latest delay for Calgary’s Green Line project hurts not only its future users but the companies needed to build it according to one Calgary construction leader.
Calgary Construction Association president Bill Black said the city’s ambitious Green Line light rail project, which was intended to serve commuters to and from the downtown to the southeast region of the city, has seen delays and conflict since its inception.
“The project started with a very ambitious scope and has shrunk fairly progressively since as budget restraints were recognized,” he said.
Industry followed the twists and turns of what Black termed an “on again, off-again” project, including the possibility of a foreign consortium building the line until provincial Transport Minister Devin Dreeshen said in early September of this year the Government of Alberta would pull its $1.53 billion in funding from the $6.2-billion transit project if the City of Calgary didn’t return to the original plan for the line.
“The reality is we’ve seen the province pulling their funding portion as a way to put the brakes on the project,” Black said, adding the local construction industry faced uncertainty at several points in the project’s timeline.
“Five years ago it was still an imagined, white board project, so industry was following its progress knowing at some point an opportunity for actual work would materialize.
“We’d engaged in a conversation about breaking it up so local contractors can participate. Don’t bundle or create a risk profile only foreign entities can do as you’d expect…We wanted to champion the idea of built by Calgarians for Calgarians as much as possible,” he added.
The least-scoped version of the line was announced a month ago, Black said, and “industry was beginning to gear up. Some entities were close to actually starting work. Maybe contracts weren’t signed yet but intent was clear. I’ve been speaking to some members who had begun to shuffle resources so they would be available when shovels hit the ground, and we were closer than we’ve ever been in a decade,” he said.
Black added many companies budget around October and the latest Green Line delay might cause complications for local companies.
“When you’re budgeting for next year your revenue projections are part of what drives your budget prioritization,” he said. “You hang a big question mark over something this large right before budget season and industry may respond to the worst-case scenario.
“Even if everyone turns around in February and says they’re ready to go…We’ve turned off the taps and reassigned people,” he said. “If this is allowed to drag out and be a question mark for some time it could have ramifications that can’t be quickly reversed.”
Black pointed to the province pulling its funding as setting a bad example for future project development, especially given the province is the largest procurer of construction in Alberta.
“There’s a precedent that large amounts of funding can just be pulled. We were asked why we sounded alarmist, and the reality is it was sudden and the reasons given for pulling the funding whilst they may have had legitimate questions were questions that had been there for a long time,” Black said.
“The reduced scope was announced over a month ago. Why wait that long to express your displeasure? The tunnel ahs been there since day one, so why now express your concern about that?”
Jason Kenney’s government previously delayed the project in 2021 when it refused to contribute its funding until the project was re-evaluated, though it did give final approval on July 7, 2021.
“No delay is convenient, but a funding partner is entitled to have questions. It is Alberta taxpayer money and they are a one-third funding partner. When you politicize the issue there’s lots of finger pointing that the delay was largely to blame for the problems we still have,” Black said. “It was a factor but it was by no means the only factor in this scenario.”
Politicizing the project doesn’t help either local business or the people of Calgary, he added.
“It’s expected that these things get politicized but it’s unfortunate when they do because the project generally suffers. With the final customers, Calgarians in this case, it’s like the analogy of parents going through a divorce and the kids are the collateral damage,” he said.
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