The Capital Region Board (CRB) unveiled its list of transit priorities and four projects with major implications for St. Albert are on the list.
The board met this week to consider the draft items and will vote on a final list on Nov. 12, in order to meet a provincial timeline.
The board has been asked to create a regional transit priority list for projects that could receive funding through the province's Green Trip program. The province will make the final decision when applications are finalized in November, but the CRB is expected to carry weight in that decision.
The 24 municipalities submitted their wish lists for transit projects to the CRB, which will now screen them, select priorities and submit them to the province.
In total there are more than $6 billion in possible projects, but the province has said there is a total of only $2 billion available from the fund, province-wide.
The Capital region is eligible for as much as $800 million, but it is unclear over what term the province can disperse funds.
The CRB responded by taking the projects municipalities had submitted and ranking them in order with only 14 projects on the list that could receive the funding.
St. Albert LRT, park and ride
The extension of the LRT line from NAIT to St. Albert is on the list, as is the south park and ride location, the north park and ride location and transit corridor study for the city.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he was pleased with the first run of the list, but he emphasized the CRB's transit committee, of which he is chair, hasn't even reviewed the list.
"This hasn't even been reviewed by the transit committee yet. It should be stamped 'draft squared,' because it is truly just a first cut."
Coun. Len Bracko, a vocal proponent of bringing LRT to the city, said he was pleased with the list.
"I am very happy to see the ones that have been funded and Edmonton's priorities with St. Albert."
Bracko said the sheer number of projects that have been left off the list shows just how much work there is to be done on transit in the region.
"The first Green Trip program is a start, but we need Green Trip number two and three and four."
Other projects on the CRB's list included new buses for Strathcona County and the City of Leduc as well as design work and land purchases for an LRT line from Lewis Estates to Millwoods.
Crouse told the CRB on Thursday that St. Albert wants bus purchases moved off the funded list in favour of more infrastructure projects.
It is a question of fairness to the municipalities that have already invested in their transit systems, he said.
"If you look at Edmonton, Strathcona and St. Albert, we have invested a lot of money to get the buses that we have," he said. "I don't look at it as necessarily fair to municipalities that are coming in at this stage that are looking to buy buses to start their transit system with Green Trip, when we didn't buy our buses through Green Trip neither did Edmonton."
