Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
I think that the kickers are the following two statements:
So basically the province can approve how their money is used, so if the province doesn't want it used on the SE LRT, it won't be used on the SE LRT.
I don't think that anyone in Calgary would like to see the money go unused, and I don't think that McIver, Bronconnier, or anyone else would have been able to do anything else with it either.
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That's exactly it. Using the Green TRIP funding was always contingent on the Province agreeing on it.
The Green TRIP program was set out by the Province to be used on regional projects. Even then they've been skittish on previous proposals to use the money on commuter buses for bedroom communities, Cochrane in particular, citing them as "not innovative enough."
The previous council wanted to apply to use $800MM of the Green TRIP money to build a SE LRT from Douglasglen to 10th Avenue (an absurd stopping point by the way, but one that could be built for that amount). They were barking up the wrong tree at the time given the nature of the funding source, and administration has now come back with a report saying as much.
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Heres the exact options from the
Council Agenda for tomorrow (item
C2010-69)
Administration is recommending to council that they adopt option 3.
Costs are:
Option 1:
$200M for LRVs (city's matching funds are from pre-allocated monies for 20 LRV's)
$25.6M for SE LRT pre-design
$244.8M for SE LRT construction (matched by $489.6M from greentrip)
Option 2:
$320M for SE LRT from city matched hopefully by $640M from greentrip with no guarantee
Option 3:
$200M for LRV's (same as Option 1)
$10M for SE LRT pre-design
$15.6M for BRT now
Remaining GreenTrip funds to BRT as they become available past 2014 based on recommendations in NM2010-08 which is due in February 2011