Final southwest BRT meeting depends on civil behaviour, Nenshi says

Calgary's mayor is holding out the possibility that there could still be a public meeting on a controversial new southwest rapid transit route after previous events were marred by rowdy behaviour.

Naheed Nenshi cancelled all public meetings on the project after city staff said they were mistreated at a meeting in February.

The southwest bus rapid transit (BRT) proposal is a 22-kilometre bus route from Woodbine to the downtown core. It's designed to take some pressure off of the south leg of the LRT by increasing bus usage. Some of the plan includes dedicated bus lanes to reduce traffic congestion in peak times.

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The $40-million project is due to be discussed at a council committee meeting on April 20.

Nenshi says if people can be civil at that meeting, a final open house might still be held.

"If that happens and all of the questions are not adequately answered on the 20th and we want to do a more focussed session where I can be assured that city staff will be safe, I don't have a problem with that," he said.

"The real issue though is that the questions that are being raised are all questions that I hope will be answered on the 20th."

Allan Hallman, who speaks for Ready to Engage — the citizens' group the mayor singled out for sparking the unruly behaviour — says he would support a move to have a public engagement session with affected communities.

"That includes the budget, that includes the state of the natural gas pipeline under 14th Street and a whole host of other ... a ridership study, we've never seen a ridership study so yeah, we would welcome more public engagement," he said. 

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