Green Line LRT | ?m | ?s | Calgary Transit

Go Elevated or try for Underground?

  • Work with the province and go with the Elevated option

    Votes: 56 73.7%

  • Try another approach and go for Underground option

    Votes: 17 22.4%

  • Cancel it altogether

    Votes: 1 1.3%

  • Go with a BRT solution

    Votes: 2 2.6%
  • Total voters
    76
http://calgaryherald.com/news/local...-announce-funding-for-calgarys-green-line-lrt

Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating, one of the principal proponents of the line that will eventually stretch from North Pointe to Seton, said Wednesday that an announcement of funds from the province would allow planning to “shift into the next phase.”
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Hopefully when they do the planning for the next phase North, they'll do an extensive cost vs benefit comparison for all possible options - just as they had done for the the river crossing and Beltline. I realize that we ended up with the shorter line because of the tunnel under the river, but the option analysis came to realize that that was what was best for the future of the city. Let's hope they realize they should continue the tunnel North past McKnight for the best future of the Centre ST corridor.

So excited for this project to move forward.
 
Funding announcement a few minutes ago.

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From https://twitter.com/CBCScott?lang=en
 

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Eeeeek! So happy :D Finally fully funded, the largest single piece of transit infrastructure in Alberta history!
 
I've been away on vacation the last few weeks. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the provincial government funding announcement. I am indeed happy to hear that the Green Line will be progressing, but the financing has me queasy. The province is currently on some pretty weak financial footing and they've decided to throw even more money around with what appears to be little consideration.
 
Oddball said:
I've been away on vacation the last few weeks. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the provincial government funding announcement. I am indeed happy to hear that the Green Line will be progressing, but the financing has me queasy. The province is currently on some pretty weak financial footing and they've decided to throw even more money around with what appears to be little consideration.
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The carbon tax money has to go out the door to comply to the province's plan for it (revenue recycling into the economy). Money is fungible (a fancy way to say if you were going to spend money on the same thing with financing from another source anyways, it doesn't matter where the money comes from in the end). Effectively the province raised a dedicated tax to fund this project. Doesn't hurt the budget balance besides by taking up tax room. If it was going to be funded anyways, it helped the financial situation a bit, unless that 'found' money is then being spent on another thing.
 
Tax or debt. It doesn't really matter in the end. It's still our pockets. Tax has the upside of not requiring a stream of future interest payments, but taxes often have ways of outliving their original purposes. At least the money is going to an tangible infrastructure project rather than some nebulous special program with poorly defined objectives and rife with bureaucratic overhead.
 
darwink said:
Gotta pay if we want services and things.

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No argument, but we've gotta gripe about it if we want them held to account. :p The proper response when the government spends your money on something is never "thank you." It's "What took you so long, why isn't it cheaper, why is it so ugly, why is it in Edmonton and do it better next time.":mad:

tldr: re taxes: Canada Sucks, Alberta sucks too, moving our taxation regime in line with other provinces is the opposite of progress.

I'm not sure I like that graph though. The combined corporate income tax rate (federal + provincial) is 50%. Four other provinces have a marginally lower tax rate between 49% and 50%. Until the recent tax hikes, we were number 1 at 48%. When it comes to taxes Canada sucks and being middle of the pack is the opposite on an achievement. For perspective, the highest combined federal + state tax rate in the US is 47% in Iowa. In the 47 states (including DC) that have comparable tax systems (Texas, Washington, Ohio and Nevada levy a Gross Receipts Tax rather than an Income Tax) the best rate is 35% which is the Federal Tax rate. Both Wyoming and South Dakota charge no corporate income tax. Most of the rest are clustered in the low 40% range.

When it comes to sales tax we're better, but not the best. Our 5% GST rate is good enough for a 4 way tie for 7th best with the territories which also charge no territory level sales taxes. Four states charge no sales tax (Oregon, Montana, Delaware & New Hampshire), Texas an Hawaii also have lower rates.

Most US states also have not implemented carbon pricing and Alberta's carbon tax is more punitive from what I've read and more wide reaching because of the nature of our economy.
 
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You're using the personal tax rates there for Canada.
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Which might be important brain drain wise - but unless we lay off tonnes of the public sector with transferable skills (nurses, doctors) shouldn't be a big issue.

Corporate tax rates will only be an issue if the USA even enacts some weird tax reform, which seems unlikely.

Anyways, we are off on a tangent.
 
Oh, a Part I tax is sort of like a unified personal/corporate rate for flow through/personal corporations IIRC. The rate most corporations pay is 15%, which you add the provincial amount to.

The page itself says: "After the general tax reduction, the net tax rate is 15%."
 
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