All aboard Alberta’s new passenger-rail plan

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The Alberta government says it wants the province running on rail in the decades ahead. This week, it announced it will create a master plan, eventually to be led by a “Metrolinx-like” Crown corporation, that will direct the building of passenger-rail projects between Edmonton and Calgary, their airports, other Alberta cities, and the mountains.

There’s a lot of potential good in the announcement. It could someday fill a need for intercity transport, and help Alberta meet climate goals. The government notes the province’s passenger rail is now limited to tourism-focused services (VIA Rail and Rocky Mountaineer) and light rail systems within Calgary and Edmonton.

“This is why people elect governments – it’s to do the things they can’t do in the private sector,” Premier Danielle Smith said, making much sense in the announcement on Monday.

“Expanding our roads, freeways and highways to be six, or eight, or 10 lanes all the way across is not always feasible, nor is it always wise.”

There are pitfalls and political complications, too.

The idea of bringing passenger rail back between Calgary and Edmonton – with a stop in Red Deer – has been a decades-long discussion in Alberta. The United Conservative Party is particularly keen, calling high-speed rail for the corridor “inevitable” in its October throne speech. And initiating a return to passenger rail between Calgary and Banff, in the manner one might arrive in the French Alps, has recently been a golden point of agreement between both the federal Liberals and some UCPers.

The Premier, it has been noted, really loves trains. She and her husband owned and operated a rail car restaurant in High River in her years between political gigs.

Ms. Smith is obviously in an Ontario state of mind as she thinks about the master plan for rail. She holds up Union Station and Metrolinx as examples of what she wants: A major transportation hub that joins rail, light rail and buses in the downtown cores, and one agency overseeing the planning of all. But of course, Ontarians might have something to say about 18-year-old Metrolinx, including concerns about project delays and cost overruns, and susceptibility to political interference.

Albertans will need to be on guard. There’s $9-million allocated for the development of the rail plan this year, but down the tracks, we’re talking billions in costs and millions in consulting contracts.

However, if you truly want to fully grasp Ms. Smith’s embrace of passenger rail, you must also understand how she wants to turn little ol’ Red Deer – that underrated municipality at the midway point between Calgary and Edmonton, which vies for third place in Alberta’s city size rankings – into the province’s next big centre.

Canada’s population is growing fast, and nowhere faster than Alberta. The province added more than 200,000 people to its ranks in 2023. We don’t know exactly how many newcomers ended up in the two big cities, but it’s a lot. For instance: of the more than 50,000 Ukrainian evacuees registered with Alberta Health as of February, 50 per cent listed their address in Calgary, 31 per cent in Edmonton, and three per cent in Red Deer.

The Premier believes there are 24 mid-size communities, including Red Deer, that could accommodate far more newcomers. “I’ve already challenged Red Deer to look at becoming our next million-person city,” she said. (The current population is a little more than 100,000.)

No matter how aspirational a population of a million people is, encouraging growth in places such as Red Deer isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But there’s another way to view it: The Premier might be trying to shift some of the spotlight away from Alberta’s two largest cities. This undermines the housing and service crunch that people, especially newcomers, are facing in Edmonton and Calgary, where they might want or need to be, for school, work, or family ties.

It comes as her government has been focused on legislation in recent weeks, specifically Bills 18 and 20, that formalize and consolidate provincial government powers. The highly criticized bills appear to be a broadside to pesky progressive politicians in Edmonton and Calgary, who’ve been adept at winning municipal elections.

The UCP government could have been talking about their forward-looking plan all week. But the twist on Tuesday was the province giving notice it was cutting the millions of dollars it contributes to the transit pass subsidy for low-income residents in Calgary and Edmonton. Haggling with left-leaning mayors is one matter – this was another. Facing a backlash from all quarters, the UCP quickly reversed its decision Wednesday morning. This was necessary, from a Premier who has long argued her brand of conservatism doesn’t include punching down when people are struggling with rising costs.

These transit passes, too, are important things that won’t be done by the private sector.