March 4, 2009 - Nobody could accuse the City of Calgary of being timid in its infrastructure program.

During a speech yesterday, mayor Dave Bronconnier confirmed that Calgary is moving forward with a huge five year infrastructure program and significant investments in core City services: “In addition to core services, strategic investment means infrastructure. Over the next five years, our capital budget is $6 billion, with over $2 billion in this year alone. To put it into perspective, the recent federal infrastructure stimulus program is $4 billion to be invested over the next two years, across the country. So that investment this year, for all of Canada, will be about the same as City Council’s investing here. Our program will mean much needed infrastructure gets built, and at the same time as giving a ‘shot in the arm’ to our local economy. This infrastructure investment over the next five years will create or sustain over 51,000 person years of employment – over 16,000 person years this year alone.”
 
Bronconnier also noted that “In transportation alone, we’ve invested over $2.5 billion. We’ve built fourteen interchanges, added bridges, widened roads, and built new paths. We didn’t do that because we like pouring concrete – you don’t build interchanges for cars, you build them for people. It’s about quality of life. Giving people back their time for their priorities rather than being stuck at a light on Glenmore & Elbow, Glenmore & 19th Street or Crowchild and 50th, and so on.
We’ve invested heavily in transit too: Over 70 new LRT cars, with another 38 on the way. We’ve expanded the LRT system in all directions. After 30 years, we’re moving forward with the West Leg, which will make the train a real option for almost 150,000 more Calgarians. When the West leg is complete in 2012, we’ll have doubled the size of our LRT system in a decade.”