City council turns down LRT construction compensation proposal for Stony Plain Road businesses

Construction on Edmonton's Valley Line West LRT on Aug. 19, 2024. (Brandon Lynch/CTV News Edmonton)

Edmonton city council has decided against compensating businesses affected by west-end LRT construction.

Councillors at Tuesday's meeting at city hall turned down the idea of providing payments of $2,500 to business owners along the route of the Valley Line West LRT on Stony Plain Road.

The business owners had recently told councillors such payments would not make a meaningful difference to their finances but would show support from the city.

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Coun. Andrew Knack, whose Ward Nakota Isga encompasses much of the $2.6-billion construction project being built by Marigold Infrastructure Partners from downtown to Lewis Farms, had proposed the $250,000 grant program for businesses along the major west-end roadway and has previously proposed other such compensation programs.

He said he would support a citywide program but chose to narrow it to Stony Plain Road in this case because of how much businesses there have been affected, "the greatest level of impact by any major construction project that I've seen in my time on council."

"There are many businesses that have been waiting a long time to see even just the roads and the sidewalks completed, and it's taken much longer than planned," Knack told media on Tuesday at city hall.

"What's so unique is that the complex parts of the Valley Line West project are actually on schedule if not ahead of schedule. It's the roads and the sidewalks, particularly in this stretch of Stony Plain Road, (that are behind).

"(Businesses there) have been just hit hard, and I think if there was anywhere to start this — to show that this is a program that can work — it's probably for this area, even though I think at this point, there is a case to be made citywide."

Councillors who opposed the program say city finances are too tight to fund something that's not considered a core city service.

"If it was meaningful, I would have looked at it, but I don't think this is going to be having a meaningful impact," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi told media.

"Plus it does set a precedent, that expectation that we compensate businesses everywhere when they're impacted by construction, whether they are neighborhood renewal, whether the Yellowhead expansion or 50th Street bridge overpass on 82nd Avenue. I don't think we have the financial capacity to do all of that."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson