'I'm here to represent Calgarians': Calgary mayor discusses Green Line, re-election plans in year-end interview

Jyoti Gondek, mayor of Calgary, discusses the future of the Green Line LRT project, her plans to seek re-election and more with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Alberta’s transportation minister recently announced the province's take on the Green Line project.

The plan builds off a third-party report and eliminates tunneling downtown, extends the LRT all the way to Shepherd, and keeps the same budget of $6.2 billion.

Let’s start on the province pulling the wraps of its own green line plan. How did the details land with council? Is there enough here to put the project back on track?

Jyoti Gondek: We didn't actually get any information about a report until 7 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 13. I know that report was submitted to the province on Dec. 2, so we waited for 11 days to find out more about it. Unfortunately when we were given our briefing, we had no materials in front of us so it was just a verbal briefing.

We then had to wait another 14 hours to actually get the report in our hands. Unfortunately the report and the very brief financial summary have both been labeled confidential, so we're in a bit of a bind right now.

We have a council meeting where we were hoping to share things very publicly and transparently, and now we're asking permission to either have that report released or to give us the ability to release it. I wish I could tell you more, but at the present time the province hasn't given us that ability without breaking that confidentiality.

MH: To what degree does the plan address concerns raised that led to the downtown tunneling decision in the first place? Do you have any clarity?

JG: What I can tell you is that the provincial government on Sept. 3 said they could no longer support an alignment that included tunneling, and it took us about two weeks to get them back to the negotiation table to tell them that we really need this project. And if not tunneling, what were they proposing?

That's when they agreed they would hire a consultant to bring us either an at-grade or elevated alignment. We waited patiently for them to bring that to us, and we've now had since Friday at 10 p.m. to look at what they're proposing.

As you can imagine, we need to have a better look at it. We need to discuss it as a council. There are many, many questions that we still need to ask, the fundamental one being, who's going to bear the risk on this?

In other provinces, you would have a provincial transit authority that would take on the risk and the delivery of a project of this size. That's what we've been asking for. That still remains uncertain. So more questions right now than answers but we will review everything that's before us in due course.

MH: The minister duration stated the ball is now in the city of Calgary's court. Is it? Is it a take it or leave it proposition? How do you see council moving forward now?

JG: The ball is not in anybody's court.

The decision to have the province come back and talk to us in September really led to a point where we have a working group where we are collaboratively trying to address how we do a north to south transit spine. We have been working in tandem, doing joint releases on how far we've gotten.

We were quite surprised on Friday to see a press release come out from the provincial government basically saying we now have to make a decision. We ultimately can't make a decision without having further conversations about what's in that report.

Let's not forget, there's three partners that need to fund this. We don't know how the federal government feels about it. Frankly, we don't know how the overages and funding are going to be covered. So this is not a decision Council alone can make. We need to do it in partnership.

MH: If the plan the province has put forward comes to be, how do you envision Calgarians reflecting on the project in 10 years', 20 years' time?

JG: We need to get this project done. It's really important to ensure that people in the north and the south are well connected, not only into downtown but into their respective neighborhoods as well.

Whatever we do today needs to stand the test of time. That's why it's so important for us to review what's before us very carefully.

MH: The feeder main crisis was certainly a challenging time for the city and for council to respond to. What do you feel Calgarians should keep front of mind in the wake of that shared experience?

JG: I think the biggest thing that Calgarians and our partner neighbours in the region need to keep in mind is that without all of your hard work and your commitment to saving water, it would have been really tough to get through this situation.

I want to express my gratitude once again, that when the world spotlight was on us, we really pulled together. We showed that we have grit and determination and that when the chips are down, we will always band together.

Thank you to everyone who conserved so much water that we were able to get through that emergency.

MH: You have announced plans to seek re-election.

Given the turbulence of your first term, from over the past year - recall petition, divisions within Council, struggles with the provincial government, or things like the Green Line - what's driving your decision to run again?

JG: Anytime there's big work to be done in the city, you can't take a populist approach. You really have to demonstrate leadership and dig deep to make good decisions, to make the right decisions.

If we look back at then-Mayor Ralph Klein, if he had caved to populism and said that we shouldn't have an LRT, we would not be as strong as we are as a city. If Mayor Bronconnier at the time had said, you know what, I don't like the criticism that I want to redevelop East Village. If he had caved to public pressure at that time, we wouldn't have a culture and entertainment district and a beautiful east side of downtown.

There are things that we needed to invest in as a council, we needed to make sure our infrastructure was strong, that our public safety was top notch, and that we were investing in transit. The work that we've done to make those investments is sometimes hard for people to take because it impacts property taxes, but they were the right decisions for the future of our city.

MH: You've identified that you will run as an independent. How do you do that successfully? How do you compete against parties that are now building up?

JG: I would say that the beautiful part about municipal government for all this time is that it's been independent. That you can count on your local representatives to actually engage with the public, look at the data and the evidence and make solid decisions on behalf of Calgarians.

We don't have a party whispering in our ear what the party wants us to do. We have Calgarians coming to us and saying, this is what we need in our city.

I'm quite concerned that party politics would be the absolute death of independent representation at the local level, so I have no interest in partaking in that. I'm here to represent Calgarians in public service.