Feds grant NDP wish with $583 million for Calgary ring road

The rare occurrence of NDP and Conservative politicians shaking hands happened Thursday afternoon in Calgary at the latest pre-election funding announcement from the federal government.

Overlooking southwest Calgary, Federal Minister of National Defence and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney announced the Tories were approving the NDP government’s request of $583 million for the southwest portion of the Calgary ring road.

Provincial Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Brian Mason said it allows the government a significant amount of capital it can now use for other projects, although those are not clear.

“That hasn’t been determined, but it certainly frees up an equivalent amount of money that was going to have to be spent on the ring road by the provincial government, is now available on other things,” Mason said.

The development of the west portion of the road is still undetermined and Thursday’s announcement stands alone.

“Not a direct effect on that particular project, but obviously the money is available for overall needs,” he said.

The federal government has given a deadline of 2022 for the southwest portion to be completed.

This is the second major transportation announcement by Kenney in the past two weeks, as last week he said the Tories would be giving $1.53 billion for the Calgary LRT Green Line.

The Conservatives have been doling out many funding presentations in recent days in Calgary and across the country, which has been slammed by the opposition as being purely election-driven.

Kenney said this isn’t about vote-buying.

“Why did we create the new Building Canada Fund and the national infrastructure component, the public transit stream in the past year or 18 months? Because we were on track to balance the budget,” he said. “So this is driven by fiscal realities, this is not a government that believes in pork-barrel politics.”

“This is a government that believes in economically important infrastructure investments in the context of balanced budgets and low taxes, we can walk and chew gum at the same time, that’s exactly what we’re doing here.”

As for Mason appearing with a federal Conservative minister just before an election, he said no problem with it.

“When somebody gives you that much money, you have an obligation to show up and say thank you,” he said with laugh. “And I am on behalf of the provincial government, very appreciative of this decision.”

As for the total cost of the project, Mason repeated his earlier statements about not releasing projections because he doesn’t want any influence on contractors bids.

He did say however that some estimates of it being $5 billion are “way high.”