CALGARY — City planners this week unveiled ambitious renderings for a new YMCA and public library at the West District development, a gleaming community hub that officials say will cost $90 million and require only the minor logistical step of locating $90 million.

The facility, scheduled to open in late 2029 or early 2030, will feature a pool, a fitness centre, and a library — three of the four things a municipality is constitutionally required to promise before an election and quietly defer afterward. The fourth, a transit connection, was described by planners as "aspirational."

"This is exactly the kind of forward-thinking investment communities deserve," said a city spokesperson, gesturing at a poster board featuring smiling families rendered by a software package, none of whom will be alive by the time the funding is secured. "We're confident the funding gap will close once we identify a way to make a public good profitable, which our research team assures us is any decade now."

Provincial officials, who fund libraries through a grant formula last meaningfully updated during a previous geological era, congratulated the city on the announcement while declining to commit a single dollar. A spokesperson for the province noted that libraries remain "a municipal responsibility," a phrase that in Alberta has the same legal force as "good luck."

Residents of the West District, a neighbourhood currently consisting of a roundabout and the promise of future amenities, expressed cautious optimism. "By 2030 my kids will be in high school," said one homeowner, "but I'm told the splash pad will be lovely for their children." Planners confirmed the splash pad was, regrettably, in the half of the project most likely to be cut.

The timeline assumes no cost overruns, no shift in provincial priorities, and no discovery that the entire $90 million could instead be redirected toward a parking lot for a sports arena. City council has scheduled a ribbon-cutting ceremony for 2030 and, as a contingency, a second ribbon-cutting ceremony for the rendering.