Edmonton's Capital Line LRT to extend south as council approves bylaw to borrow $585M
CBC
A new LRT line will link Century Park to north of Ellerslie Road in south Edmonton, but the City of Edmonton will be paying $242 million more than originally budgeted.
City council approved a bylaw Wednesday to borrow money to build the 4.5-kilometre high-floor LRT Capital Line extension. Originally, the city was to pay $343 million, but now it will spend $585 million.
At a meeting May 22 held in private, council approved the contract with Capital Line Design-Build Ltd., a member of the Ledcor Group of Companies, with AECOM as its design partner.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the city needs to invest in public transit in the south part of the city, the fastest growing community in Edmonton. He added that transportation is expensive for an average household.
"Affordability and access to quality public services is at the forefront of every decision that I make sitting in this chair," Sohi said.
"If we don't build mass transit, then we're continuing to force people to make choices, which are very, very expensive choices — which is to buy a second car or a third car."
The Capital Line extension includes an LRT underpass at 23rd Avenue, bridges across Blackmud Creek and Anthony Henday Drive, stations at Twin Brooks and Heritage Valley North and an operations and maintenance facility south of Anthony Henday Drive.
The project went to market in June 2022 to identify bidders to design and build the line. The city issued a request for proposals to the two shortlisted bidders in March.
The project is expected to cost $1.34 billion total. The federal and provincial governments are contributing $742 million combined through the joint Investing in Canada infrastructure Program (ICIP), said Bruce Ferguson, branch manager of LRT expansion and renewal.
"If the project was cancelled, then the city would lose all $742 million," Ferguson told council.
The intergovernmental collaboration is one reason Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford voted in favour of the project.
All three levels of government want an LRT, she said, but the federal and provincial governments "want it built within a certain spec."
Ward Nagota Isga Coun. Andrew Knack, who was a huge advocate for the Valley Line West LRT, also supports the expansion south to serve a growing population.
"We are seeing over and over and over again, across jurisdictions across the world, that trains just move far more people," Knack said. "There's no more efficient mode right now."
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.