Nenshi’s message to premier hopefuls: ‘honour commitments already made’

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Calgary’s mayor had some strong words for UCP leader Jason Kenney and anyone hoping to become premier in the spring election.

Naheed Nenshi was responding to questions Kenney raised during a Facebook live session Wednesday over the Calgary MLA’s support for the Green Line LRT project.

“When I was the Federal Minister responsible for southern Alberta in the spring of 2015, I announced a $1.5 billion dollar federal commitment for the Green Line that was supposed to go 40 kilometres, I think with 25 stops, all the way from Seton in the extreme southeast, all the way up to the far north of Calgary,” Kenney told one of his supporters (Doug from McKenzie Towne).

“And then it took the NDP three years to come forward with an equivalent amount of money, $1.5 billion dollars, by now diminished against inflation and they said it was because of the carbon tax.

“And the NDP announced three years later, their billion and a half dollars for an LRT that was half as large, so with respect Doug, I don’t know if you guys would be thrilled with what the NDP and city council have done.”

Kenney suggested politics around the council table compressed it to the core of the city.

“All I know is, if I’m premier, I’m going to pick up the phone and say ‘where is the 40-kilometre long Green Line that I put the money out there for?’ So yes to the Green Line, the full Green Line, not the half that the NDP has committed to,” he said.

READ MORE: Ottawa making good on promise for Calgary’s Green Line LRT funding

Nenshi told reporters Thursday over the noon hour, it’s important that anyone who wants to run for premier has thought about these issues and is well informed.

He’s calling on the UCP leader and counterparts from other parts to have a plan for Calgary and to honour commitments already made.

“It is a little bit surprising to me, I’ve met with many, many leaders of the opposition and many leaders of other parties and this is the first time that we’ve had a leader of the opposition that has not yet responded to multiple meeting requests,” said the mayor. “He seems to not understand what the Green Line is or how we got here, and if he hasn’t been reading it in the newspaper, I’m very happy to provide a full briefing.”

The Calgary mayor calling it a very “Trumpian” move and adds it would be very easy for him to explain it to the Calgary MLA.

“I would say that the federal government made a commitment just before an election, and they were fully made aware that we hadn’t done any of the engineering work and yes they wanted to announce it before an election, but the numbers were very rough,” explained Nenshi. “And when the numbers became less rough, they changed.”

The mayor says if Kenney wants to take credit for making the decision [on the Green Line as a former federal minister}, he should take credit for making the decision without the technical documents in front of him.

“The provincial funding for the Green Line, the RFP (Request for Proposal) that is going out, the construction that has begun, the land assembly that has already happened is contingent on a one-third, one-third, one-third roughly split between the city, the province and the feds, all three of those are required to move forward and the province’s one-third is being funded by the carbon tax so anyone who wants to be premier has to say how they are going to fund stuff that is already underway,” Nenshi said.

He adds if there is no carbon tax, it will mean the city could be left with big holes in the ground because work is already underway.

“Basically we’ve got to find …. you know everyone who wants to be premier, and I’m not just picking on him, everyone who wants to be premier has to talk about what they’re going to do for Calgary and in particular, how they are going to honour commitments already made, contracts already signed, work already done and people buying houses based on what they think is going to happen there so this is really important,” he said.

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