Don Braid: Calgary city council voted to spend $850M to get nothing. Even the feds would blush at that

The flat-out stupidest decision ever made at city hall means useless spending, higher taxes and no Green Line.

No councillor or mayor who voted to spend $2.1 billion with nothing to show for it can possibly survive the election next October.

And yet, that’s what nine councillors and Mayor Jyoti Gondek did when they voted to shut down Green Line work.

The massive loss, which includes $850 million in new windup costs, is surely unique for a Canadian city.

We usually look to the federal government for waste on that level. Even there, squandered loot buys something — a ship or two, maybe an excellent new postage stamp.

Our council voted for empty construction yards, bleak demolition sites and dormant land now owned by the city.

For some, there’s fresh pain and bitter irony.

Earlier this year, the city closed the Eau Claire Market, kicked out the businesses and evicted residents from 23 River Run townhouses directly north of the market.

The only possible redemption for such jackboot measures is replacing what is killed with something better.

There was a station and development plan for Eau Claire. Now that’s dead, too.

This divide on council is mostly (but not entirely) partisan. Voting to keep the project alive were Dan McLean, Sean Chu, Sonya Sharp, Andre Chabot and Evan Spencer. All but Spencer are UCP-aligned.

But then, council turned around and voted 8-7 to establish a working group to keep talking to the province and Ottawa.

You can’t really expect them to make sense. The 15-year history of this benighted project shows nothing but shifting timelines, unstable funding, grand designs routinely changed and a spotty history of co-operation with the province.

What does make sense is finding a new way to build the Green Line. Premier Danielle Smith clearly wants that. The entire council agrees on the need.

Smith is starting to sound a bit nervous. She continues to say the city is welcome back at the table and a new design will appear by year end.

The premier also notes that the province would not own and build the project.

She played chicken and was perhaps startled when city hall clucked back. That must be satisfying to councillors such as Gian-Carlo Carra of Ward 9, who demands that Smith appear before council and apologize.

But on Thursday, there were signs of the real world breaking into city hall.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek sent a letter to Smith asking her to “preserve elements of the existing work” in order to save money.

She sought agreement to retain the the existing contract for low-floor LRT cars, as well as a major contract for design work.

Those are city deals. If the province agrees they should stay in place, the city would avoid the huge penalties for suddenly breaking a contract.

The letter is the first sign that the city might edge into a new agreement.

The premier’s message to city hall isn’t hard to grasp — accept a fresh design with no downtown tunnelling, receive provincial funding, build the thing.

Going with Smith’s plan, whatever councillors think of it and her, is the only way to get some value out of the $1.3 billion already spent and evade windup costs.

That $850 million, cited as the most modest estimate by city officials, is simply toxic when the only goal is to stop a project.

About $1.4 billion in property tax flows into the city treasury annually. Collecting an extra $850 million in one year would almost double the current tax rate.

Increases would probably be spread over several cycles. That would likely mean tax hikes of 10 to 15 per cent for years to come.

This comes as city administration is already pleading for a 4.5 per cent hike next year, following the 7.8 per cent increase imposed in the current year.

The only escape from spending $850 million is to reverse this absurd Green Line windup.

Council should dispense as little as possible, keep those contracts alive and give the province a chance to design a workable LRT line

The alternative is a scandal that will rip through election year 2025.

Councillors who keep pressing to shut down the project might as well quit right now.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.

X: @DonBraid