After approving its wish list of regional transit projects, the Capital Region Board (CRB) now wants the provincial government to start dispersing promised Green Trip grant dollars.
The board approved a prioritized list of transit projects for the Capital region that includes four projects in St. Albert.
The list is meant to serve as a guide to the provincial government when it starts handing out grants under the Green Trip program. It includes 33 projects at a cost of more than $6 billion, well in excess of the $2 billion promised for Green Trip.
The Capital region is expected to receive $800 million from Green Trip, with municipalities expected to pay a third of costs, meaning a total of $1.2 billion in projects could be on the board's funded list.
Fifteen make cut
Those financial pressures meant only 15 of the 33 projects made the final list going to the province.
The St. Albert projects include a $30-million park and ride and future LRT station on the south end of the city, plus a $6.2-million park and ride in the north.
The city would also receive funding for a LRT alignment study, along with a broader study that would look at possible station sites and other transit issues along St. Albert Trail.
Mayor Nolan Crouse, current chair of the CRB transit committee that produced the list, said the province has made it clear that it will be nearly impossible for a community to get Green Trip funding without support from the regional board.
"The minister was very clear that they wanted to make sure there was Capital Region Board support for any project that comes forward."
The Green Trip program was first announced in July 2008 and municipalities have waited a long time for details.
The application deadline was Nov. 30, but earlier this week that was rolled back to Jan. 31, 2011.
Crouse said he is growing skeptical about the province's commitment to this program. The province promised $2 billion, but only $70 million was been placed into the 2010-11 budget. Projects have to be well under way or completed before funding is paid out.
"I just hope that it is not a delay just because there is no money that has been budgeted for it. I hope the money is in the provincial coffers to do this."
Tammy Forbes, a spokesperson for Alberta Transportation, said some municipalities, especially with newly elected councils, asked for more time.
"It was just something that some municipalities asked for and the minister was willing to accommodate."
Crouse said he would also like some more certainty about how many years the province will take to roll out the funding.
"The Capital Region Board has been skeptical that there is very much cash available for this initiative so we will see when ultimately the first announcement comes out what the time frame is on the entire plan, the entire $800 million."
Other regional projects on the list include LRT lines in Edmonton and money for bus purchases in Leduc and Spruce Grove, two municipalities that currently don't have transit systems.
When the list was first unveiled in September, Crouse said given Edmonton, St. Albert and Strathcona County have invested millions of their own money getting transit services going, he felt provincial money should not go toward fleet purchases.
Crouse said his position hasn't changed, but this was something other regional players wanted to see.
"I have an obligation to sit at a larger table, too, and what the larger table asked for at the regional transit committee was for support," he said. "The buses is a little bit of a stickler for me, but on the other hand I had to be supportive of the regional transit committee [which] looked at it on a broader basis."
