Update to Calgarians

For almost 10 years, the City of Calgary has been working towards a generational investment in transit infrastructure through the Green Line LRT. While the journey may have felt long for Calgarians, Green Line is definitively and confidently moving forward. Most recently, Green Line achieved a critical milestone with the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Phase 1, from Shepard to Eau Claire, marking a major and exciting step forward for the project and the City.

With more than $3B in contributions from the provincial and federal governments and over $2B in capital and financial commitments from the City, this first phase of the Green Line will provide long overdue transit service. And we know, from our decades of experience in city-shaping and megaprojects, that Green Line goes beyond transit infrastructure - it is about building Calgary’s future.

Economic trends in North America show that transit-oriented cities draw higher concentrations of technology businesses and multi-national corporations looking for high quality labour – the exact businesses that Calgary is recruiting as we diversify and grow our economy. In addition, throughout construction, almost 20,000 direct and indirect jobs will have been created. The economic impact of these jobs and the direct investment into hundreds of Calgary businesses cannot be understated.

It is no surprise that more than 90% of Calgarians support the project, as identified in the 2022 Spring Pulse Survey. Calgarians understand that world-class cities invest in projects of this scale, and that their family, friends and neighbours will be the benefactors throughout construction and even more so when the line is operational. Green Line will connect more Calgarians from across the city to where they work, live and play.

To make sure that we collectively get this right, the City enhanced project governance and recruited the external Green Line Board. With significant experience in multi-billion-dollar projects, governance, finance and planning and the expertise of the project leadership team, we have shared confidence that we have brought together the right people, in the right roles at the right time.

The Board has a clear mandate to deliver Green Line, on behalf of our funding partners, and within Council direction and the $5.5B budget. To do that, we are collectively focused on managing costs and risk and the decisions necessary to drive the project forward, while balancing the economic and city-shaping benefits that Green Line will deliver.  And, as we address key risks, including inflation, the Board continues to invest in external due diligence to evaluate and validate assumptions. This work continues to confirm that Green Line is on track. 

This shared commitment is what will deliver success - the largest infrastructure project in our city’s history deserves nothing less.

We are building Green Line for Calgary and Calgarians and look forward to sharing more milestones as we collectively make this generational project a reality.

Don Fairbairn, Chair, Green Line Board
Darshpreet Bhatti, CEO, Green Line LRT Project
David Duckworth, City Manager and Green Line Board member