Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives the thumbs up sign in the background as former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi announces the beginning of construction Green Line transit project in Calgary, on July 7, 2021.MIKE STURK/Reuters
The term “Nenshi nightmare” was deployed on July 4, less than two weeks after Alberta’s New Democratic Party members crowned Naheed Nenshi, Calgary’s former mayor and one of the most recognizable politicians in Canada, as their new leader.
Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, road-tested the catchphrase in an interview with Postmedia, using the alliteration to rebrand Calgary’s Green Line as a transit boondoggle of Mr. Nenshi’s making.
The Green Line, a decade ago, was pitched as a 46-kilometre expansion of Calgary’s light-rail system, known as the CTrain. It was envisioned as Calgary’s backbone, strengthening Alberta’s largest city by connecting its growing communities in the north and the south, with easy access to downtown for both.
But plans shrunk as costs grew over the years. Now, the United Conservative Party, which previously supported the Green Line, wants to tie the project’s problems to Mr. Nenshi, who attracted tens of thousands of Albertans to the NDP during its leadership race this year.
Mr. Dreeshen escalated the battle this week, telling Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek that the provincial government will not make good on its $1.53-billion funding commitment given the project’s diminished redesign and rising costs.
Ms. Gondek, in turn, said the city cannot afford to build the $6.2-billion project without Alberta’s contribution. Council instructed city bureaucrats to report back on the implications of killing the project and the possibility of transferring it to the province.
Jasmine Mian, a progressive Calgary councillor, said in an interview that the tone of discussions between the city and province shifted as Mr. Nenshi gained momentum this spring.
“The project that we were working on collaboratively with them is now a ‘Nenshi boondoggle,’ a ‘train to nowhere,’ ” she said.
Mr. Dreeshen, in his Sept. 3 letter to Ms. Gondek, said he has “serious” concerns with the Green Line’s most recent iteration, which Calgary detailed in a business case submitted to the province Aug. 15. He blamed Mr. Nenshi for the province’s decision to pull out of the deal.
“To be clear, we recognize your and the current council’s efforts to try and salvage the untenable position you’ve been placed in by the former mayor and his utter failure to competently oversee the planning, design and implementation of a cost-effective transit plan that could have served hundreds of thousands of Calgarians in the city’s southern and northern communities,” Mr. Dreeshen wrote.
Dan McLean, a conservative councillor, believes the municipality mismanaged the Green Line project, but conceded that the UCP’s campaign against Mr. Nenshi has infected the government’s decision-making process when it comes to Calgary transit.
“It plays a part, for sure,” he said.
Ms. Gondek said in an interview that, in July, Calgary provided Alberta with the same information contained in the August business case. Mr. Dreeshen, after receiving that information, reiterated the province’s support for the project, although he stressed that Alberta would not increase its financial commitment.
On Aug. 1, after Calgary publicly revealed that the Green Line’s first phase would be shorter and more costly than anticipated, the minister said the provincial government was still going to write the city a cheque.
“They can bank on it,” he said on CBC radio.
Mr. Dreeshen’s office did not respond to request for comment regarding Ms. Gondek’s statement that the minister was informed of the Green Line’s reduced scope and ridership in July.
Ottawa, under then-prime minister Stephen Harper, committed $1.53-billion in 2015; Alberta, under the NDP, got on board in 2019. The UCP, under former premier Jason Kenney, reviewed the Green Line’s plans a year later and eventually signed off on the deal, although critics argue that the pause contributed to escalating costs as inflation took hold.
Mr. Dreeshen, in his Sept. 3 letter, said he recognized that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent on the Green Line. However, the government said “throwing good money after bad” is not an option.
The minister, when asked whether this decision was based on the Green Line or its political rival’s presence on the provincial scene, said Mr. Nenshi’s original vision was not properly engineered and lacked a realistic budget.
“All of the problems are cascading on the Green Line from when Naheed Nenshi was mayor 10 years ago,” Mr. Dreeshen said on CBC this week.
The UCP plans to produce a new map for the Green Line, eliminating a planned tunnel downtown, within three or four months. The tunnel is expensive and the UCP argues that by scrapping that component, the rail line may be able to reach as far as the hospital in Calgary’s south.
Ms. Gondek and Mr. Nenshi, in separate interviews, said the city studied other route options, but the tunnel, while expensive and risky, is the most feasible.
Mr. Nenshi said early Green Line budgets were designed to fund studies and complete the expensive downtown phase of the project. Calgary would then expand the project by accessing additional money that governments regularly set aside for transit projects, he said.
The former mayor noted that thousands of jobs are on the line and residents are again facing delays in accessing transit. Mr. Nenshi said if the UCP pulled out of the city’s Green Line project to damage his reputation, he would rather they just take direct shots at him.
“Don’t use people as your collateral damage.”