Green Line Surface Plan, Budget Leak & Landfill Fire — Calgary Tuesday

🏛️ Government & Politics

1. Executive Committee backs surface Green Line through downtown on 10 Ave S.W. The committee voted 12-1 Tuesday to prefer a surface alignment down 10 Avenue S.W., ending at a station between 1 and 2 Street S.W.; Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness was the lone dissent. Project officials said this option is the only one that fits the current budget after 22 alignments were studied between 2016 and 2024.
2. Coun. Landon Johnston apologizes for leaking confidential budget documents and says he would do it again. Johnston admitted handing closed-door budget documents to Global News showing a scenario with up to a 20% property tax increase and told reporters he would break the rules again; council cannot sanction him because provincial law changes removed that power.
3. Business Council of Alberta urges vote to ‘Choose Canada’ ahead of Oct. 19 separatism referendum. The Business Council, representing more than 130 CEOs, warned the Oct. 19 vote would create “massive uncertainty,” with president Adam Legge calling separation a “risky gamble.”
4. Separatist leader Jeffrey Rath faces a $109-million U.S. debt claim. Delaware funder Diriba Investments LLC alleges Rath and RathPC defaulted on financing tied to litigation, seeking nearly $109 million plus interest and costs; University of Alberta insolvency expert Roderick Wood called the claim “very, very serious."

Environment

1. Landowners seek court review of Alberta Energy Regulator’s orphan well levy funding. Ecojustice is representing landowners Dwight Popowich and Teresa Patry in a Court of King’s Bench judicial review that challenges AER “chronic underfunding” of the Orphan Well Levy; the levy for 2026-27 is $154.56 million while total cleanup costs are estimated at $1.66 billion.
2. Firefighters worked overnight to contain an ongoing fire at a southeast Calgary landfill. Fire crews continued overnight operations at the southeast Calgary landfill site on Tuesday, according to the report of an ongoing containment effort.

📰 Also Today

• NAIT breaks ground on $779-million Advanced Skills Centre, adding 5,500 student spaces.
• Alberta landowners launch legal challenge over amount collected to clean up orphan wells.
• Business leader calls separation a ‘fiction’ for Alberta’s promised independence.
• Federal government approves testing birth-control vaccine on wild horses in Alberta.
• Alberta man retraces steps after waking from coma following traumatic brain injury.
• Parents push back on classroom screen time in growing ‘techlash’.
• Elks erased 18-point deficit, beat Stampeders 38-28 in Calgary on Labour Day.
• Montreal Alouettes re-sign receiver Charleston Rambo, who has 115 catches for 1,393 yards.