Calgary city councilors had several questions about the procurement process for the Green Line LRT project following concerns from some residents over the involvement of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin.
The questions came as part of an update from the city’s executive committee Tuesday from Green Line project officials.
SNC-Lavalin, as part of a consortium of five other companies called CSIX, was awarded a contract last November to become the delivery partner for the LRT mega-project.
Other companies in the consortium include Aldea Services Inc., Altus Group, Mott MacDonald and Turner & Townsend.
According to project officials, CSIX will be tasked with supporting the builder of the first phase of the LRT line with commercial management, technical support, project control and construction management.
The Montreal-based firm announced its participation in Green Line in a press release last week, after announcing the company’s involvement in November.
SNC-Lavalin says the City of Calgary has selected the firm to work on Phase 1 of the Green Line LRT project
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Ward 13 Co. Dan McLean said his office has received calls from residents with questions about the procurement process for the project.
“SNC-Lavalin is a very controversial company and so they were concerned about how the selection process was done,” McLean told reporters. “To be clear, I share those concerns.”
The company has been involved in some political controversy in Canada in recent years.
Last year, SNC-Lavalin was ordered to pay nearly $30 million to Quebec to settle criminal bribery charges related to bridge work in Montreal.
In August 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found by Canada’s Ethics Commissioner Violated the Conflict of Interest Act Following revelations that Trudeau improperly influenced former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to offer her a deferred prosecution agreement in a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin.
Green Line CEO Darshpreet Bhatti told councilors that the City’s principles are transparency and fairness when selecting partners to bid on City of Calgary contracts.
Bhatti said the consortium was vetted through an independent review to determine conflicts of interest or legal issues that would make the companies ineligible to bid on city contracts.
Bhatti told the committee, “We look at things as a whole in terms of what the city’s policies are, legally and legislatively, are they in line with the needs of not only the province but Canada at large. Huh.” “They have to go through the process and if they are evaluated in a way where they score higher than others, then from a fair and transparent point of view, we will have to give them the contract.”
The Mayor of Calgary also clarified that city councilors are not involved in the selection process.
Jyoti Gondek told reporters, “The council did not select him, the council only provided the direction to complete the project.”
McLean said he was pleased with the answers Green Line officials provided.
“They’re committed to transparency and that’s all I see,” McLean said.
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new road closures and underground work
There will be another road closure in the Beltline area near Victoria Park as underground utility rehabilitation work continues to make way for a future LRT tunnel.
According to Green Line officials, the next major road closure will be the intersection of 11 Avenue SE and Olympic Way, which is expected to begin in March.
Last year, Olympic Way and 12th Avenue SE remain closed So crews can install new deep and shallow utility lines so that existing lines can be removed in the future when tunneling begins under the downtown core.
The Green Line tunnel is expected to run under 2nd Street SW and Bhatti said preparatory work is underway by third-party providers in the downtown core to prepare for the relocated utility lines.
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“Because we’re removing stuff from 2nd Street, we not only have to keep it at 1st Street and 3rd Street SW, but we have to connect it at all these cross streets; So you can see work everywhere,” Bhatti told Global News. “We’re making sure that once the work is done, there’s really nothing for the shallow utilities that will remain on our alignment in the downtown piece.”
Green Line officials urged businesses affected by the construction to contact their Business Support Program team to provide feedback and receive updates as the project progresses.
The utility transfer work is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
The $5.5 billion Green Line project is divided into phases, with the first phase running from Sheppard under the downtown core to Eau Claire in the city’s southeast.
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