Calgary Minute: LRT Revisions, Scotia Place, and a Water Main Report

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• On Tuesday, at 9:30 am, there will be a Regular Meeting of City Council. On the agenda is a potential change to the Elections Bylaw requiring that all candidates for City Council submit a valid Police Information Check and Criminal Record Check as part of their nomination paperwork. Also on the agenda is a proposed change to the Expense Policy for Councillors. Right now, Councillors can spend up to $100 a day on hosting expenses while travelling - the new policy would replace the daily limit with a per-person amount for the people being hosted by Councillors. Council will also confidentially discuss the revised plans for the Green Line LRT. (More on that below!).
  
  
• The Intergovernmental Affairs Committee will meet on Wednesday at 9:30 am. The Committee will hear updates on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Alberta Municipalities, as well as briefings from the Prairie Economic Gateway Elected Steering Committee and the Tsuut’ina Transit Service, among others. There will also be a confidential discussion about the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board.
  
  
• The Community Development Committee will meet on Thursday at 9:30 am. No agenda is available for this meeting yet.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The Province unveiled yet another revised plan for Calgary’s Green Line LRT, featuring an elevated route through downtown. The new alignment, developed by consulting firm AECOM, "saves" $1 billion by avoiding tunnelling costs and cancelling the Eau Claire station, but then spends that money to extend the line further south and add five new stations. City Council will soon decide whether to approve the project under these new terms. We continue to believe the entire project should be scrapped. Even with these minor modifications the project still comes nowhere near meeting even the most generous of cost-benefit analyses. It's time to stop wasting Calgary taxpayers' money.
  
  
• The Calgary Planning Commission unanimously approved the final development permit for Scotia Place, the new event centre set to replace the Saddledome by fall 2027. The $900-million facility will feature 18,400 seats, expandable to 20,000 for concerts, along with a community arena, restaurants, and a food hall. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2025.
  
  
• The failure of the Bearspaw south feeder main in Calgary, which caused significant water disruptions, has been attributed to a combination of factors, according to a 600-page report. Chief among these was microcracking in the outer mortar layer of the pipe, which allowed soil to corrode the reinforcement wires, leading to the snapping of 200 wires. Elevated chloride levels in the soil, likely caused by road de-icing, contributed to this corrosion. Another independent review is forthcoming.

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