Devin Dreeshen, now Alberta Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, at a Donald Trump election night event in New York City on November 8, 2016. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Minister Devin Dreeshen and Premier Smith just killed the Green Line. Click here to demand a reversal and a commitment to funding ASAP.
Minister Devin Dreeshen and the governing UCP have put thousands of Calgarian jobs at risk, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of public dollars spent on work so far, and most importantly, denying Calgarians a city-shaping transit system.
Calgary is experiencing an astonishing population growth rate of six per cent. This means an additional 96,000 Calgarians per year trying to get around the city, trying to find housing, and trying to access services. If we do not build the Green Line and invest in our transit system, we are facing longer commutes and more frequent traffic jams.
If we do not expand our transit system and build transit-oriented housing alongside it, both our housing crisis and our transportation problems will continue to get worse.
We live in a province that, thanks to the hard work of over a million and a half Calgarians in Alberta’s largest city, produces enormous surpluses – to the tune of $4.3 billion in the latest budget. Where’s that money going? Not to education, not to housing, and now, not to transit. (We are getting a few new lanes, ramps, and intersections on Deerfoot Trail for $615 million though.)
One month ago, Calgarians finally had three orders of government begrudgingly working together to build the Green Line, expand our transit system, and build homes along our new transit line. There seemed to be a dawning consensus that a world-class city needs world-class transit.
On September 3 2024, Premier Smith and Minister Dreeshen single-handedly pulled the rug out from under every Calgarian for the dual purpose of picking a childish fight with NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, and to shore up support from the UCP base ahead of an incoming leadership review – the last of which ousted the previous leader Jason Kenney.
Consider the journey to get here and who got in the way at every stage.
To summarize: over the course of nine years and several provincial elections, the Government of Alberta has twice approved funding the Green Line, has twice expressed concerns, has twice delayed the project, twice had their concerns addressed, finally agreed to fund the project repeatedly, and has now turned their back on Calgarians. Disappointingly, it looks like the reasoning behind this latest decision is fueled by a desire to score petty partisan points, and their suggested re-design looks conspicuously like a plan being promoted by some of the UCP’s biggest supporters.
The Green Line is suffering from a lack of provincial leadership. It is not possible to build a world-class transit project if it is regularly used to pick fights and shore up votes for provincial politicians. Every time the project is put into question, its alignment re-debated, or its funding made uncertain, the cost of the project increases. Ironically, while Minister Dreeshen claims he is seeking cost savings, well if he was paying attention, he’d know that his actions are further escalating the cost of the project and jeopardizing thousands of jobs.
Minister Dreeshen and the UCP are trying to kill the Green Line. We need this decision reversed and a solid commitment to funding the project. I urge you to tell Minister Dreeshen how you feel.
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