Light at end of airport tunnel possible with provincial support say Alberta Liberals
Calgary – Calgary-McCall MLA and Alberta Liberal Transportation Critic Darshan Kang today called on the province to bring the Calgary airport tunnel saga to a conclusion by agreeing to fund the interchanges that the project will require.
Kang, who has been a tireless advocate for the airport tunnel, was reacting to news that a special session of Calgary city council will be held on Friday afternoon to decide the fate of the project, and that funding for the interchanges remains a question mark.
“Calgarians are frustrated that the provincial government has been unwilling to commit any dedicated funding for the airport tunnel,” says Kang. “If this important infrastructure project dies, it will be because of the province’s stubborn refusal to do its part.”
While Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette has suggested that the city use provincial dollars allocated through the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) to help fund the project, Liberal Municipal Affairs Critic Bridget Pastoor notes that municipalities have been continuously short-changed by the program since its inception in 2007. “I find it incredibly rich that the province wants Calgary to build the airport tunnel using funds that are still partially in the mail,” says Pastoor, who agrees that the MSI is an appropriate way to help fund the project if the province would only pony up all the dough it originally promised.
The province is in considerable arrears when it comes to the MSI, with municipalities having received less than a third of promised funding despite already being at the halfway point of the 10-year program. Pastoor says the Calgary airport tunnel issue is an excellent example of municipalities not being able to undertake long-term planning on account of MSI funding being far less than expected and grant allocations not being predictable and stable from one year to the next.
“It’s a no brainer that the province needs to ramp up MSI funding to promised levels if it is going to expect municipalities to fund major projects like the airport tunnel without additional support,” says Pastoor. “Until then, however, the province has a responsibility to shoulder its part of the load.”
The Alberta Liberal Caucus…There’s a better way.
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