The final piece in the funding puzzle for Calgary’s Green Line LRT project fell into place on Thursday morning after the province ponied up $1.5 billion for the first phase.

The city and federal government committed cash to the $4.1 billion project last month and were waiting on the province to join in.

Premier Notley met with the mayor and other dignitaries downtown to make the announcement.

“The Green Line project is about connecting Albertans , to work, to recreation and to home to spend time with their loved ones. This important investment will also create much-needed local jobs, support the quality of life in the City of Calgary and help to protect our environment now and in the future,” said Notley.

“I wanted to see and our government wanted to see the alignment finalized. We wanted to see a clear budget with well-established costs and so on and the City of Calgary has worked hard to provide that and we’re satisfied with what they brought forward and we’re happy to fund that,” said Brian Mason, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Infrastructure.

The 46 kilometre line is set to run from Stoney Trail in the north down to the South Health Campus and it will be built in stages.

Stage one will run from 16th Avenue north, under the Bow River, and down 126th Avenue S.E.

“The eight years of funding roughly matches the construction timeline, which means that the debt serving costs on the provincial government’s portion will be very, very small, which actually helps with the economics of the whole project in a very, very, very good way,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Mason says the province is committed to transit plans for both Calgary and Edmonton but will take it one step at a time.

“I want to assure Calgarians of our government’s continuing commitment to a progressive, urban vision and in particular to public transit throughout our urban municipalities in Alberta as a whole.”

The funding will come from revenue from the Climate Leadership Plan and stage one is set to be completed by 2026.

For more information on the Green Line, click HERE.