City council adjusted its Green Trip priorities on Monday, moving an LRT study from number eight to number four on its top-10 list for the $800 million in transit funding the province has pledged to the Capital region.
Coun. Len Bracko brought the motion forward. It passed with only Mayor Nolan Crouse opposed.
The project in question is a study into a potential LRT line within St. Albert. Bracko is hoping that making this a higher priority locally will also put it high enough on the list of priorities compiled by the Capital Region Board so it qualifies for government funding when it becomes available.
“This is like winning the lottery and not going down to pick it up. If we don’t go after it someone else is going to get it,” Bracko said.
Council first passed its Green Trip priority list on Aug. 23. That list had a south transit centre as the top priority. Number two was a transit corridor framework study and number three was a north transit centre. Those all remain intact.
The previous number four was the purchase of buses, followed by a satellite transit garage.
Bracko believes the buses and satellite garage will be unneeded if St. Albert pursues an LRT line from its south edge to downtown.
Edmonton is on track to extend its LRT to NAIT by 2014, with most of the money coming from the Green Trip program. Edmonton has identified a preliminary route to St. Albert’s borders but has no formal plan yet for building the line.
“If we can be shovel ready when Edmonton does theirs, we have a better chance of getting it done,” Bracko said.
He put forward another motion Monday to include $1 million for the study in council’s budget deliberations this fall. That motion passed with Crouse and Coun. James Burrows opposed.
“My idea is to save a million dollars of the taxpayers’ money until probably two or three years from now, until we know for sure that the LRT is at NAIT and then we can proceed with a study on it coming to St. Albert,” Burrows said.
Crouse also felt the city has enough on its plate and doesn’t need to study the LRT right now.
“My only issue was just, one step at a time here. We don’t have time or money for that yet,” he said.
