City projects at risk
Amid a steady torrent of federal and provincial ministers’ comments casting doubt that any new dollars will come Calgary’s way anytime soon, Mayor Naheed Nenshi signalled Wednesday he has no clear Plan B.
Last week, council gave the initial OK to a $13-billion, multi-decade list of transit projects, including the southeast and north-central LRT extensions. There’s no money saved for a single metre of extra rail line, or for about half the city’s 10-year transportation infrastructure list.
Meanwhile, Nenshi said Wednesday the provincial negotiations toward a city charter for 2013 need to get “back on the rails.” Last week, he called on Premier Alison Redford to step in, and a month ago Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths doused hope of Calgary getting new taxing powers.
This week, two more dollops of discouraging news. Jason Kenney, Calgary’s top federal minister, rebuked Nenshi’s protests about the city not getting its fair share. Then, provincial Finance Minister Doug Horner revealed Wednesday that because of flaccid energy revenue projections, Alberta’s cabinet must be “very aggressive in reining in and restraining our spending.”
Energy Minister Ken Hughes called it a “long-term problem.”
So what’s a mayor to do if he’s already accounted for virtually all infrastructure money his city is getting from now until about 2017, and with no clarity on what comes beyond that?
There’s no civic do-it-yourself plan.
In a year-end interview Wednesday, Nenshi showed no sign he’ll relent in the fight for a better financial deal from other governments, which he’s fought since Day 1 as mayor, essentially picking up where Dave Bronconnier left off.
Nenshi said the lack of provincial money next year isn’t a major concern, since there’s a lot already getting built and funded in coming years, including the airport tunnel and large new rec centres in southeast and northwest Calgary. He’s concerned that once projects such as those finish up and big provincial grant programs like the Municipal Sustainability Initiative end, the “cupboard’s bare,” and the city remains dependent on other governments’ largesse, if any comes.
“That’s why the discussion about taxing powers is an important discussion. It’s not about grabbing more money today,” Nenshi said. “It’s about grabbing predictability today, so that we know what we’re going to have 20 years down the road, and we can start to build giant projects now like the purple line, which could be $5 billion now instead of waiting until we’ve got $5 billion in the bank.”
(The purple line is his term for the southeast-north central LRT leg, to be connected with a tunnel under Second Street S.W.)
Pressed on how to proceed without any new funding system, the only real possibility he floated was the option to halt building.
“If we cannot fix the system, then we as Calgarians have to have a very big conversation about: so what do we do now? Do we go without ... or do we find some other way to go?”
He’s not made clear exactly what fundraising powers he’s asked for, from government levels he argued are flush with Calgary taxpayers’ money — but are mired in deficit and having trouble paying their own bills.
He’s reluctant to tack more levies onto property tax, although Calgary may consider selling off land or assets they don’t need in the future, as it’s doing with some heritage properties like the Hose and Hound pub building, Nenshi acknowledged. But there’s not nearly enough to start building LRT extensions, and “you can’t burn the furniture to heat the house.”
Borrowing more? The city is comfortable building on credit, but only if it knew what grants or other money was coming to pay that back, the mayor said.
“Well, find me the money,” Nenshi said. “It’s all about finding the money.”