Latest news with #BlueLineLRT
Calgary Herald
15-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
City wants public's feedback on design of Blue Line extension from Saddletowne to Savanna
Article content Construction is still likely years away, but the City of Calgary has secured design funding to extend the Blue Line LRT to 88th Avenue and 60th Street N.E. — the next step in a long-term plan to extend the CTrain network to the airport. Article content Article content The Alberta government allocated $43 million in its 2024 budget and another $5 million in this year's budget to support design work for the Blue Line extension project. Article content Article content The Blue Line currently ends at Saddletowne Circle, but the city wants to extend it approximately eight blocks north, to reach the community of Savanna. Article content Article content The city is asking for public feedback through a webpage devoted to the project, and notes the idea has been in the works for 10 years. The design phase of the LRT extension project will include studying how the train tracks, station and systems are built, how bus connections will work, where and how people can access the station, and potential design features. Article content This stage will also include studying soil and ground conditions where the infrastructure will be built, measuring sound levels to determine where noise-cancellation walls may need to be erected and analyzing traffic data to help design safer intersections. Article content Article content During this stage, the city will also review any potential environmental impacts, as well as determine draft timelines, possible construction methods and updated cost estimates, which it says will help secure more funding when it comes time to build the extension. Article content The idea is spelled out in the city's 2020 Airport Transit Line Study, which envisioned building an automated, driverless 'people-mover' between the Blue Line station at 88th Ave. and a future Green Line station at 96th Ave. N. Article content The study found that 60 per cent of the demand for airport service originated in the northwest and northeast quadrants. Article content A briefing delivered to a city council committee this January outlined the next steps in that research, emphasizing the importance of an east-west airport link as well as integration with the Alberta government's master plan for a future regional passenger rail network.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
How Alberta is spending $8.5B in Budget 2025 on transportation
Social Sharing Upgrades to Deerfoot Trail in Calgary and a highway to connect Fort McMurray to Grande Prairie in northern Alberta are among the projects the provincial government has highlighted in its budget. Alberta's 2025 budget, if passed, slates nearly $8.5 billion toward various transportation and economic corridor projects to improve roads, bridges and water infrastructure around the province. It doles out $2.1 billion for Calgary-area projects, $2 billion in the Edmonton area, and more than $4 billion for other transportation undertakings around the rest of the province. Alberta Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen noted the increased investment in transportation infrastructure is designed to boost economic development and attract investment. In Calgary, the $2.1 billion includes more than a billion dollars in funding for Calgary LRT projects, like the long-embattled Green Line project and $5 million to support planning work to connect the Blue Line LRT to the airport. It also includes $484.8 million to upgrade Deerfoot Trail. Green Line in doubt, but train service to YYC airport progressing In the Calgary region, the funding over the next three years in transportation and economic corridor projects includes: $100 million for the Calgary ring road (west Stoney Trail). $62.4 million for the Springbank off-stream reservoir, a flood mitigation effort redirecting water from the Elbow River into a dry reservoir. $26.5 million to complete the Stoney Trail and Airport Trail interchange. $11.9 million for the proposed Bow River Reservoir. $8 million to complete the Highway 201 Bow River Bridge on southeast Stoney Trail. Work to upgrade several parts of Deerfoot Trail, a major Calgary freeway, first started in 2022, with an eye to introduce extra lanes, new bridges and revamped interchanges. With a booming population around the province, Business Council of Alberta vice-president Scott Crockatt said the infrastructure planning throughout the next three years is welcome to keep up with that growth. He highlighted Deerfoot Trail as a significant part of the province in need of more funding as more people move to Calgary. He also particularly pointed to further funding earmarked to study an LRT connection to the Calgary airport as an important element of this year's budget. "Calgary is one of the best-connected mid-sized cities in all of North America, and this is merely one of the key missing links in our puzzle," Crockatt said. Dreeshen noted the province is waiting for the federal government to approve the new business case for the Green Line project. Once that's completed, he said, the province and city will be able to send tenders to begin laying tracks soon afterward. In the Edmonton area, the budget invested $2 billion throughout the next three years via: $52.7 million for the Terwillegar Drive expansion project through improvements to the Anthony Henday Drive interchange, and $31 million to widen Terwillegar Drive. $40.2 million for an interchange at the QEII Highway and 65th Avenue in Leduc. $31.9 million to expand Ray Gibbon Drive. $20.3 million for safety improvements to Highway 16A and Range Road 20, an intersection that's been the site of dozens of collisions west of Stony Plain. $17.2 million to twin Highway 19, south of Edmonton, which has also previously been a safety concern. The Alberta government also announced provincial funding for extending Highway 686, to link Fort McMurray to Grande Prairie. Improving Highway 686 was part of Dreeshen's mandate letter in 2023, and it will cross hundreds of kilometres to connect two major regions in Alberta's energy industry. "That's a game changer for the north," Dreeshen said. "It not only opens up oil and gas and forestry operations, but it also gives that secondary access in and out of Fort McMurray in the case of a fire or flood ever happening again." Other major transportation projects receiving funding around the province include: $208 million to twin Highway 11 between Sylvan Lake and Rocky Mountain House. $141 million for safety and road improvements on Highway 881. $127 million for capital improvements on Highway 60. $106 million to twin Highway 3 between Taber and east of Burdett. $101 million to twin Highway 63, north of Fort McMurray. $92 million to replace the Balzac interchange at Highway 566 over the QEII Highway. $87 million to construct the La Crete bridge, spanning the Peace River along Highway 697. $69 million to widen Highway 40 between Hinton and Grande Cache. $24 million to upgrade Highway 1A. $9 million for the interchange ramp for the QEII Highway and 40th Avenue near Airdrie. $7 million to extend Highway 956 from La Loche, Sask., to Fort McMurray.
CBC
28-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
What's in it for Calgary? Alberta government drops new budget
New funding for some major projects in Calgary was announced on Thursday as Alberta's UCP government released its 2025 budget. This fiscal year, the province is cutting a $30 million cheque to redevelop the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology's campus centre, $12 million to advance planning and regulatory approval processes to mitigate flood and drought hazards in the Bow River basin, and $16 million in new funding over three years for the Contemporary Calgary transformation project at the former Centennial Planetarium. There is also $61 million over three years for the new Central Drug Production and Distribution Centre, in order to support timely access and preparation of prescription medications. Tabled by Finance Minister Nate Horner on Thursday afternoon, the Alberta government's 2025-26 fiscal plan includes other commitments for the city that had already been announced, such as money to extend the Blue Line LRT in the northeast, and various investments in Calgary health-care facilities. "It's a budget that's stable," Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters on Thursday. Yet Gondek also said there are still many things the city doesn't know in terms of specifics of the budget and its impact on Calgary. "At this point, I'm choosing to remain cautiously optimistic. I will say that there was a strong theme, and that was the theme of growth and its challenges," she said. "It's interesting that the … budget speech was so focused on growth and challenges and opportunity within the province, yet there's not really much that addresses the growth that Calgary has seen in the past couple of years, with the fastest growing city in this nation. And there really wasn't a nod to that." One of the budget's most notable feature's is the fulfilment of the UCP's long-promised lower, eight per cent personal tax rate on income under $60,000, which was a significant part of Premier Danielle Smith's campaign in the 2023 election. The tax cut is expected to cost the province $1.2 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year. However, while the province is offering a lower tax bracket, education property taxes will go up over the next two years in order to cover one-third of the education budget. Property tax jump hits Calgary The education property tax is levied alongside municipal property taxes based on assessed property values. The province collects this money by requisitioning it from municipalities, who then must collect it from home, business and farm owners alongside their own municipal property taxes. The province plans to increase its total requisition to $3.1 billion for this fiscal year, up from $2.7 billion last fiscal year, and the bulk of that near $400 million increase will come from Calgary. The annual requisition from Calgary is expected to increase to $1.037 billion, up 17.6 per cent from the previous year. Further, this year's provincial budget notes the share of education operating costs funded by the education property tax will increase to 31.6 per cent, "following historic lows of 28.5 per cent in 2023-24 and 29.5 per cent in 2024-25." For the average Calgary homeowner, this property tax hike means an additional $239 per year — based on the province's estimates according to median home values — compared to just $92 in Edmonton. "And it'll go up again next year," said Horner in an embargoed press conference earlier Thursday. "We're having to fund education in a major way." Notably, it means property taxes for Calgarians will jump the most this year — but exactly by how much seems unclear, as the province and city were reporting different numbers as of Thursday evening. Calgary's mayor told reporters at City Hall that the city's calculations differ. "We now understand that the portion that the government is going to take from Calgary property taxes is going to be up at around six per cent," said Gondek. "So that means that you're going to see probably an additional $9 or so on your property tax bill to help cover this education tax that the provincial government is seeking that's above and beyond what has already been budgeted by the city." CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance for clarification, but did not receive a response by deadline. Low-income transit pass funding maintained Budget 2025 also maintains its funding for Calgary's low-income transit pass that was subject to some turmoil last year, after the province made the decision to cut the funding, only to restore it just 24 hours later. "We were concerned that that was going to disappear in this budget, and it's such an economic driver for our city and so important for Calgarians who live in poverty to get around," said Meaghon Reid, executive director with Vibrant Communities Calgary, a poverty reduction advocacy organization. Reid says the organization is pleased to see that funding commitment maintained in this new budget alongside the new lower tax bracket, as she believes these measures "are going to help folks from an affordability perspective as well, particularly lower income earners." She added the organization is pleased to see budget investments in Calgary's Blue Line LRT, which is also part of provincial funding that was announced previously. And while Calgary's mayor says she's relieved to see that the low-income transit pass will be funded to the same level it was last year, she also maintains the province should be responsible for funding that initiative as a whole. "I would argue that low income and support for people that are low income is the responsibility of the provincial government, yet it is your local government that is covering the lion's share," said Gondek. The mayor added the low-income transit pass is in greater demand than ever before, and that while she's grateful provincial funding has remained static, she's concerned about the position this puts city council in as Calgary continues to grow. "We know that people are struggling with affordability. We also know that about 275 people a day are moving to our city and a proportion of those folks will need to access the low-income transit pass," said Gondek. "If [provincial funding] doesn't keep up with inflation and population growth, it is underfunding." Worst-case tariff scenario Alberta is forecasting it will end the next fiscal year with a $5.2 billion deficit, but that number could climb to $8.7 billion under a worst-case tariff scenario. U.S. President Donald Trump's most recent threat is that these tariffs — which are 10 per cent for Canadian energy and 25 per cent for all other exports — will be coming on Tuesday. What's more, this is the first deficit budget for an Alberta government since the 2020-21 fiscal year, presented during the early days of the pandemic. Alberta's debt is forecasted to reach $83 billion by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year. Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, told CBC News on Thursday that she believes this budget "struck the best balance that it could" in light of tariff threats and inflationary pressures. "We have to balance everything, one against the other," said Yedlin. Other key takeaways for Calgary under the Alberta government's 2025-26 fiscal plan include: $2 million decrease in capital for the Glenbow Museum renovations, which will now be funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. $485 million over the next three years for Deerfoot Trail upgrades, a provincially owned and maintained highway. $225 million over three years to fund various school projects across Alberta, which was part of an initiative previously announced by the provincial government. It includes the planning and design of 18 new school projects in Calgary and area. $45 million over three years for the new Office of the Chief Medical Examiner building. Funding for the Airdrie Regional Health Centre will begin this year, with $3 million going to planning and design over the next two years.
