Committee had an opportunity to have an in-depth workshop with Administration, and by the end of the day Administration presented a solidified, updated Stage 1 route option to the Green line Committee. These changes will help address construction risks, cost and customer experience concerns of the project.

One of the most surprising and positive aspects of the route update is the 21 Kilometer BRT enhancement from 16 Ave to Northpointe. This will spark noticeable changes, as enhancements will directly increase customer service quality and comfort for riders, while addressing challenges of congestion and delays by creating better transit priority. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact your City Councilor, even if it is just to congratulate them. 

Updates to the Stage 1 alignment include:

• 21 Kilometers of North BRT enhancements
• A surface alignment on Centre Street N and a surface station at 16 avenue N
• A bridge over the Bow River
• A surface station at 2 Ave S.W. in Eau Claire
• 7 Ave underground station
• An underground alignment on 11 Ave in the Beltline, and an underground station at 4 Street S.E.

You can take a look at the full presentation, including what Administration has studied, what has changed, and what to expect at : Here

These changes will allow us to maximize ridership, directly connect people to the core, the Beltline and the Entertainment District. We will be able to facilitate future expansion to the north and south of The City, while the BRT enhancements will improve transit for residents in the north.  The Green Line is Calgary’s largest infrastructure investment to date, and is designed to be both a transit system and a platform for development, one that will shape our city. Providing efficient service and connection to destination throughout the city, and areas where people can live affordably with access to amenities, services and sustainable mobility options.

I want to assure you that we are still committed to the full scope of the Green Line LRT project, and will eventually extend the project from Seton to 160 Ave. Work is continuing to advance the functional planning, land acquisition program, and funding opportunities for stage 2.

So our next step is to engage with the community.  We welcome you to provide us with your feedback, and you can do that by visiting https://engage.calgary.ca/greenline. The online engagement period will be from January 29, 2020 to March 9, 2020. You can help us ensure we are building the highest value transit system for Calgarians. You can also watch for in-person engagement opportunities from March 1 – March 9, 2020

I feel proud to say that we have done our utmost to bring credibility and confidence back to this project. Over the next two months, we will see more of the studies and incredible work that has gone into a project as exceptional as this, especially being rebuilt and put back to where we can make a decision in March. I think it will be the right decision. While some will say that it is unfortunate that the line will not, at the moment reach to Seton; I will continue to fight for Ward 12, but not to the detriment of the rest of the city. We need to look at this project in its entirety, and for what it accomplishes for the future of Calgary. As we move forward, we will remain focused on making this the best possible transit system it can be.

How did we get here?

There have been conversations about an LRT to southeast Calgary since 1983. While some preplanning had taken place, there was no meaningful progress to make a southeast LRT a reality until after 2010. Most importantly, there was no funding for the project. Without funding, there was no way forward.

During my first term I successfully passed a Motion that saw a feasibility study conducted for the southeast LRT. This study looked at what the alignment would look like, where the stations would be and how the line would integrate with our communities. Subsequent studies also realigned the north portion from the Nose Creek valley to a much more logical location on Centre Street. These were the first real steps for the Green Line as we know it today.

I kicked off my second term by successfully encouraging a majority on Council to support committing $52M annually for 10 years to the SE Transitway. The plan was to start with a bus dedicated service and eventually transition into full LRT once more funding became available. In the spring of 2015 I convinced Council to shift our focus from a dedicated bus service to a full-fledged LRT in hopes we could attract investments from other orders of government.

So where did that get us? In the summer of 2015 we secured a $1.53B funding commitment from the Government of Canada. I played a key role in lobbying for that commitment. Later in 2015 I successfully brought forward a Motion that saw Council shift our $52M annual commitment from 10 years to 30 years – this totaled $1.56B in local funding for the Green Line.

2017 may have been the busiest Green Line year of all. Council approved the vision, alignment and station locations for the full project and approved Stage 1 of the project which extends from 16^th Ave N to 126^th Ave SE. This was followed by a funding commitment of $1.53B from the Government of Alberta in July.

So, to recap:

Since I was elected in 2010 we completed a feasibility study of the Green Line, approved the full vision for the project, approved Stage 1 for construction and secured $4.65B in funding from three orders of government.  At long last we can point to a firm date on a calendar when LRT will be coming to southeast Calgary! That’s a tremendous amount of progress in 7 years, and I keep hearing from Ward 12 residents that we need to keep pushing.

But there are areas where we have come up short

Folks in southeast Calgary have been starved for better service for a very long time. For many, the LRT can’t come soon enough. But we need to reconcile that this process takes time. The construction period for the project is 6 years at minimum. A project of this size and scope also requires extensive study and consultation. If we want to integrate this project properly into our communities, we had to take the time to talk to the people who live there – and that’s exactly what we did.

We also aren’t pushing Stage 1 as far to the north or southeast as we had originally hoped. That is in part to many of the decisions that Calgarians told us to make, specifically in downtown. If we are going to proceed with this project, there was an understanding that we should find a way to do it right the first time. But that has come with sacrifices, especially in the suburbs.

There are some folks out there that are suggesting we are only building half the line at a higher cost than initially projected. That’s an inherently misleading comment. While Stage 1 is half the length, we cannot ignore that it incorporates all the most costly and complex components of the project. I’ll use the analogy of building a house. In Stage 1 we are pouring the foundation, doing the framing, putting a roof on the house, building the master bedroom, building the kitchen and the bathrooms. We are going to need to add some living space and additional bedrooms very soon, but that won’t be as costly or as complicated as what we are taking on in Stage 1.

What comes next?

I believe there is value to be found in Stage 1 of the project. The procurement and contracting component of this project could help us find some additional value in the original funding envelope. I believe that we should place a premium on bids that commit to building more of the line while still offering the highest quality product possible. It is an additional $300M to bring the line from Shepard Station to McKenzie Towne Station. I believe that is something I believe we can accomplish in Stage 1.

We also need to set our sights to the next stages of the project. Should funding come available, I believe additional stages could be taken forward concurrently with Stage 1. That could mean staggered openings in the north and south that expand the service shortly after we open Stage 1 in 2026. Council will need to identify the next stages and start thinking about how to pay for them. These are the discussions that we need Calgarians to be front and centre for.

I sense a strong appetite from Calgarians to keep pressing forward with the Green Line. But moving forward means unlocking additional funding. Before we go down that route, I wanted to take the time to hear from Ward 12 residents on how they wanted to proceed.

During this campaign my team and I ha been asking the $23.7M question. I wrote about what that means in a blog article earlier in the campaign.

My team and I knocked on over 25,000 doors and surveyed more than 4,000 Ward 12 residents. And what did we hear? 90% of Ward 12 residents want to see $23.7M dedicated to the Green Line.

Based on that feedback, here is my commitment:

If I am successfully re-elected I will work with Council to bring forward a Motion that dedicates the $23.7M in tax room to the Green Line. Committing this funding over a 30-year period would give us more than $700M for the Green Line. That funding alone would go a long way to stretch the line further into our communities. If it successfully brought additional investments from other orders of government, it may allow us to come close to completing the full vision.

Now is the time to keep pushing forward. We started this process 7 years ago, and I believe we are coming close to finishing the job.

According to the study Calgarians are actually quite well off in comparison to other major urban centres around the world. Here are some of the Calgary stats:

• Calgary drivers spent 15.7 hours in peak hour traffic last year. Calgary ranks 159^th of all cities surveyed for the amount of congestion that driver’s experience.
• Calgary is the 9^th most congested city in Canada behind Montreal, Toronto, St. John’s, Ottawa, Vancouver, Quebec City, Victoria, Edmonton and Hamilton.

View the full scorecard HERE

While this information paints a positive picture on Calgary’s congestion issues, we cannot be complacent on our need to make meaningful investments in our transportation network. A comparative study gives us an idea how we stack up against other cities – it does not suggest we aren’t without problems.

There are a lot of ideas out there on how to tackle congestion issues. Earlier this week I read an interesting article that provided some ideas on how to encourage a more sustainable transportation network: http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/how-it-works-road-congestion-and-design

This article talks about how modern traffic engineering principles can be appropriately applied to address congestion issues. The article states that nearly all experts agree that simply adding new lanes can actually cause more congestion problems. How? It’s called induced demand. Induced demand points to a marked increase in the consumption of a good after supply is increased. If all we do is build roads, all we will likely do is attract more traffic. Adding more capacity on our roadways can be part of a solution, but it cannot be the only action. Adding more lanes to a roadway and expecting congestion to reduce is like buying a larger pair of pants and expecting to lose weight. I’ve tried it – it doesn’t work!

If we really want to see meaningful reductions in congestion we need to establish greater efficiency in our transportation network. This means having robust infrastructure that can stand the test of time, offering diverse transportation options and embracing innovative new approaches to traffic flow management. Calgary is often referred to as an auto-centric city. This characterization is often cited as a negative, but I don’t see it that way. What we need to come to terms with is that providing additional transportation options can enhance the transportation experience for everybody – especially motorists. We must always be mindful that transportation is not about moving trains or buses or vehicles – it’s about moving people. I fundamentally believe that people will choose the path of least resistance to get to where they need to go. That path could be in a vehicle, on a bus, on a bike or even on a train. That diversity of options is critically important.

I talk a lot about the need to improve our public transit infrastructure, but I am also a big proponent of continued investments in our roadways. Let’s look at the current Deerfoot Trail Study as an example. We are looking at some engineering solutions to address some of the pinch points that contribute to some of our congestion issues – that’s great! But that isn’t all we are doing. The study isn’t just about looking for ways to make Deerfoot wider; it’s about finding ways to make Deerfoot better. That means looking into things like real-time digital traffic updates, variable speed limits and high-occupancy vehicle lanes. These are all components that could contribute to ensuring we have a transportation network that is efficient, convenient and safe.

When we think about our congestion issues, we need to look to the future. One of the biggest parts of our future is the Green Line LRT. Green Line LRT offers commuters with a choice. An option like the Green Line could remove significant numbers of vehicles from Deerfoot every day while freeing up road capacity for people still make the decision to drive. That is potential for a significant reduction in congestion without building a single new lane on Deerfoot.

I believe that our existing LRT network has played a big role with how our congestion compares to other major cities. We have one of the highest performing LRT networks in North American and it is certainly the gold standard here in Canada. We designed a network that focused on moving as many as people as possible in a way that was quick, safe and convenient. We made getting the LRT out to where people live a significant priority. The Green Line will double our LRT network and reduce city-wide congestion by 10-15%. That’s a huge win for Calgarians!

Your time is valuable. Time spent stuck in traffic is dead time. It has an economic cost, an environmental cost and it has a cost on your quality of life. As a city we have done a decent job managing our congestion issues, but we still have room to improve. By making strategic investments in our transportation network we can ensure that you get to decide how best to use your time – that’s an idea that I will always support.

• Calgary’s population is 1,235,171 which is an increase of 4,256 from 2015 (an increase of 0.36%)
  • These are similar growth rates to what Calgary experienced in 2010
  • 0.36% is the lowest rate of growth Calgary has experienced in the last 26 years.

• The fastest growing community in Calgary is Mahogany which increased by 2,040 residents.
  • Two other communities in Ward 12 were in the top 6 fastest growing – Auburn Bay in 4th place grew by 1,368 residents and Copperfield in 6th place grew by 1,137 residents
• Ward 12 now has a population of 109,384 which is an increase of 6,322 from 2015 (an increase of 6.13%)
  • Ward 12 has the highest total population increase and rate increase in all of Calgary

• Ward 12 has the highest number of dogs in Calgary with 16,813
  • The next highest is Ward 14 with 12,075
• Ward 12 also has the highest number of cats in Calgary with 6,723
  • The next highest is Ward 9 with 6,638

You can find the full census results by clicking here.

We have Councillors that support every suite application, we have Councillors that oppose every suite application and we have Councillors somewhere in the middle. The only thing Council seems to be able to find any consensus on when it comes to secondary suites is that our process needs to change.

Earlier this week I brought a Notice of Motion before Council. The Motion was a product of numerous meetings with my colleagues and members of the public to try and find some common ground. This was not about finding a perfect solution; this was about working towards a broader compromise that better served Calgarians.

As we moved into debate I heard colleague after colleague thank me for bringing this Motion forward. Despite their congratulations, they all proceeded to tell me that for a number of minor reasons they were not prepared to support my Motion and that Calgarians would have to settle for the status quo.

Despite my best efforts and my continued call for compromise, my Motion ultimately failed 7-8. You can see a copy of my Motion and the supplementary documentation below.

To say that I am frustrated right now would be an understatement. We appear to be stuck in a circular process where progress is impossible. Council candidates that ran in the 2013 election assured Calgarians that the next Council would get this issue right and take a needed step in the right direction. The next election is right around the corner and we hear members of Council singing the same tune again, “certainly the next Council will get this right”.

How many more Councils is this going to take? How many more times are we just going to keep kicking the can down the road? When are we going to accept the responsibility that Calgarians have given us to work together and find solutions to problems facing our city?

Earlier this week we sure heard a lot about how my Motion was flawed and why my colleagues couldn’t support it. While I accept the criticism, I also counter with a challenge to my colleagues. Why don’t we work together to put ideological dogma aside and carve a new path forward for secondary suites? This might mean you won’t get things entirely your way, but that’s life. Solving the secondary suite puzzle is going to mean some give and take.

Unfortunately for Calgarians I have the sense that Council will not be revisiting major changes to our process until after the 2017 Municipal Election. Yet again we seem to have found a way to dodge the responsibility that Calgarians have placed on us and yet again we are hoping that someone else will make this decision.

When it comes to secondary suites, you deserve better than this Calgary.

I believe that Calgarians have a right to feel safe on their residential streets.  Appropriate speed, appropriate signage, better pedestrian, cyclist and motorist infrastructure and user attentiveness are just a few factors that contribute to making our streets safer.

We are making progress towards making our streets safer.  If we look at the data we can see that we have seen a reduction in fatalities on our roads since 2013:

While these trends are certainly positive, I believe there is more that we could be doing.  In January of 2016 I brought a Notice of Motion to Council that I felt would improve residential traffic safety even further.  Below is a copy of my Motion:

My Motion made a request through the Calgary Police Commission that the Calgary Police Service (CPS) consider the development of a residential traffic enforcement strategy.  This strategy will focus on high risk residential areas, utilize citizen feedback and place emphasis on better public awareness.

I believe that addressing this issue is multi-faceted.  Motorists are not the only user of our residential streets that have a responsibility to make roads safer.  Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians must all be willing to do their part.

In order for this plan to successful we need to focus on enforcement, education and the ability for the public to provide feedback.  All of these elements are built into the report that CPS presented to committee this week.

You can find a full copy of the report by clicking on the image below:

Here are a few of the highlights:

• The CPS Traffic Section currently utilizes a model of automated enforcement (red light/speed on green intersection cameras, and mobile photo radar units) and several teams of manned traffic enforcement. The Section will enhance these functions by refocusing resources to form a team that combines automated and manned enforcement dedicated exclusively to residential traffic enforcement.
• The Section will engage with the community in regularly scheduled Traffic Safety Town Halls and collect and analyse the information from these events. The Section will also communicate the results of these meetings and work done to address identified traffic safety issues. Traffic statistics for each Ward as well as data on Traffic Service Requests will be provided online.
• CPS will continue incorporating traffic safety education into the Start Smart Stay Safe program curriculum. This has program has made traffic safety education available to all schools in the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District.

I am very pleased with this report and the positive impacts it could have on our communities.  I look forward to seeing this report approved by Council and implemented prior to the start of the next school year.

When I first joined Council in 2010 the population of Ward 12 was just over 67,000.  Today that number is over 103,000 and still growing rapidly.  New communities in southeast Calgary are some of the most dynamic in the entire city, but are still lacking some of the basic amenities the rest of Calgary enjoys.  Southeast Calgary still has plenty of room for new development, and the demand for better public investments will increase.

While there is still a lot of work to be done, we have made some meaningful progress in southeast Calgary.  Over the next month we are going to see the official opening of the Remington YMCA in Quarry Park, the official opening of the New Brighton Regional Athletic Park and construction beginning at the Seton recreation facility.  We will also welcome the opening of the Great Plains twin hockey rink facility to the north of Glenmore Trail.

We are also continuing to see meaningful progress on the Green Line LRT.  When I joined Council in 2010 the most optimistic plans had the Green Line LRT available to southeast Calgary in the late 2030s.  Today we are looking at having a phase of LRT operational by 2024.  The Green Line LRT is Calgary’s most important infrastructure project.  Over the last year Council has made tremendous progress on the Green Line.  Through our efforts we have been able to advance the timeline for this project by better than a decade.  This is great news for folks in southeast Calgary that have had to patiently wait for this important public investment.

Growth doesn’t come without cost.  The City collects property taxes by fixing a mill rate to the assessed value of a property.  Properties that increase in value compared to the rest of the city pay more and properties that decrease in value compared to the rest of the city pay less.  The figure below shows differences in tax increases across the city for 2016:

Many of the new communities in Ward 12 are seeing larger comparative tax increases than the rest of the city.  As more community amenities come on-line in the years to follow, this trend is likely to continue.  Better community amenities and services in southeast Calgary make Ward 12 a better place to live and will likely increase the assessed value of your home.

This is going to lead to some challenges for folks that live in southeast Calgary.  While the value of your home increasing could be a positive thing, it often means you are facing a higher tax burden without directly receiving more income.  Other orders of government are able to generate revenue through income taxes.  Revenues increase as income does without seeing changes in the tax rate.  The same is true with your property taxes.  The changes to the rate may be minor, but the dollar value can change with the assessment of your home.

Today we are hearing from Calgarians that Council needs to explore measures to provide Calgarians with tax relief during these difficult economic times.  This is feedback that Council needs to take very seriously.  Council must be prepared to have an open discussion on how to find savings in the budget that can be passed along to Calgarians.  We need to make decisions that address our current economic realities, but we still need to act in the best interests of Calgary’s future.

I want to have a frank discussion with my colleagues about the key differences between needs and wants.  When it comes to needs, I can’t think of a more glaring need than the Green Line LRT.  There are costs that can be cut and savings that can be passed along to Calgarians, but it must not be at the expense of the Green Line.  How as a Council can we go back to the fastest growing area in the city and tell folks they need to wait another 10-15 years for an LRT line?  That is simply unacceptable.

The Green Line is at a critical juncture.  Administration is currently working with the Government of Canada on an application to secure the federal government’s contribution to the Green Line LRT.  Productive conversations with the province are also ongoing in hopes to secure their funding support.  All of this was made possible with an initial dedication of funding by The City of Calgary.

What message would we be sending if we decided to take City money off the table?  How can we expect to attract funding from Ottawa and Edmonton if we suggest the Green Line isn’t a priority?  The consequences could go well beyond the Green Line.  Council indecision on our infrastructure priorities could have significant impacts on future funding partnerships with the federal and provincial governments.

There are other options that Council can consider to offer Calgarians tax relief in the shorter term.  Our Fiscal Stability Reserve (Calgary’s rainy-day fund) currently has $374M in un-allocated funding.  These are funds that could certainly be used to offset tax increases in the short term for Calgarians.

Think about this from the perspective of a household.  If you were fortunate to have some savings, would you choose to skip a mortgage payment or would you tap into your savings to navigate through a rough patch?

We have an opportunity to respond to Calgarians feedback without mortgaging our future.  I am committed to finding a way to work towards a 0% tax increase for Calgarians in 2017, but I will not do so at the expense of giving southeast Calgary what the public investments they deserve.

The City of Calgary and Alberta Transportation are currently taking forward a comprehensive study to explore what improvements are needed on Deerfoot to better serve motorists.  A study of this scope hasn’t been done in 20 years, and Calgarians are ready for some meaningful solutions.  This isn’t a study solely focused on making Deerfoot bigger, it’s also about making Deerfoot better.  Addressing pinch points at Anderson, Southland and Glenmore is critical, but we also need to identify how to better manage traffic flows and move Calgarians.

More information about the study can be found at Calgary.ca/Deerfoot

There are numerous public engagement opportunities coming in June.  To supplement these sessions, I have partnered with my south Calgary MLA and Council colleagues for a town hall event:

The Deerfoot study team and the Green Line team will be giving presentations, and then we will turn it over to the public for their questions.

Deerfoot really matters, and I hope that many of you can join us for this great engagement opportunity!

The City is looking to find ways to reduce the amount of food and yard waste that ends up in our landfills.  Half of the residential waste collected is compostable material.  A pilot was conducted on the green cart program and it was shown to reduce household garbage by 40%.

Many materials that are going into the black bins will be more appropriately placed in green bins.  The green bin program will allow for materials like bones, bread, meats and pet waste to be composting which is currently not effective through backyard composting.

This video provides some great information on Calgary’s landfills:

As mentioned above, Calgarians will receive their composting kits in 2017.  The composting kit consists of:

• A green bin for curb side pickup (similar to the current blue/black bin)
• In-home green bin to conveniently collect composting materials
• Compostable paper bags that can be moved from the in-home bin to the curb side cart.

There were conversations about a possible opt-out for this program at Council.  Council ultimately decided against an opt-out.  If an opt-out had been available the monthly charge for the program would have been significantly higher, or the program would need to be further subsidized through the tax base.  If the program was more heavily subsidized through the tax base, Calgarians would have ended up paying more for the program.

With the anticipation of less waste ending up in black bins, pickup for the black bins will occur once every other week.  This will save The City $10M a year by 2018.  These savings are being transferred to reduce the fees on the green bin program.

Calgary is beginning to face some serious landfill challenges.  Organic materials are taking up valuable space in our landfills and can cause some serious environmental impacts.  By creating this composting program we will be able to free up more space in our landfills.

At the current rate, we would need to explore purchasing more land for additional Waste Management Facilities in the not so distant future.  This could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.  Composting allows us to remove these items from landfill and find better uses for the organic materials.

The Shepard Waste Management Facility will be collecting the composted materials.  The bio-material component of the Shepard facility is operated by a private contractor.  The private contractor will be able to sell the composted material for a profit and will be able to reduce the operating cost that they charge The City.

Many Calgarians expressed concern when the blue bin recycling program was introduced a number of years ago.  Now Calgarians are recycling much more frequently and the blue bin program has become a normal aspect of our lives.  The same will likely be true of the green bin composting program.  This program has the potential to save The City significant money in the long run and provide a more environmentally responsible approach to waste management.

This program is really about The City keeping the bigger picture in mind.  Currently there are roughly 20% of Calgarians that take forward some kind of household composting.  This program will offer a greater composting capacity to that 20% and also find a way to conveniently engage the other 80% of Calgarians that are not currently composting.  Finding a way to limit our environmental impacts and reducing household waste is a good thing for Calgary.

If you would like more information on this program please visit calgary.ca/greencart

Green Line Digs In

On Monday the Green Line team unveiled the early findings from their city centre public engagement.  The City has proposed a number of different options on how the Green Line would connect the southeast leg to the north central leg.

The preferred option is to use a deep tunnel to get through the downtown.  While this does come at a higher upfront cost ($500M more than any other option), it will have the least impact on existing infrastructure.

While the tunnel option could lead to savings down the road, it may have an impact on the length of the project in the initial construction phase.  With a set budget, the most expensive option through the downtown means that we may not be able to build out fully to the terminus points in the north and southeast.  Currently Council direction requires that the Green Line LRT include access to the downtown and the maintenance facility.  The maintenance facility will be located at Shepard Station by 130^th Avenue SE.

More information will be coming to Council over the next few months.

Property Tax Increase   

The Government of Alberta released their budget on April 14.  Over the last week The City has been working diligently to identify what impacts this budget will have on local governments.  One item that has been identified is a sizable property tax increase by the provincial government.

Your property tax bill is broken into two components.  Roughly 60% of your bill goes to The City while roughly 40% goes to the province.  The City collects property taxes on behalf of the province, and the province sends in a requisition once their budget is confirmed.

For the 2016 tax year, Calgarians saw a 3.5% increase from The City on their property taxes.  The City typically estimates that the province will have a matching increase, and more often than not this holds true.  This year the province has taken roughly a 10% increase, nearly three-times what we had anticipated.   The 10% increase from the province and the 3.5% increase from The City translates into roughly a 6% increase on your tax bill.

The province has decided to increase the cost of education to be paid for by the property tax.  For 2016/17 the province indicated they will collect about $2.414B in education property taxes which is roughly an increase of $153M from 2015/16 (a 6.8% increase).

Unfortunately we had very little notice that the province was considering an increase of this size.  The province can ask for an increase on their property tax portion, and The City is unable to refuse them.  Premier Notley has suggested the increase on Calgarians taxes is not an increase in the rate, but rather an increase in the assessed value of Calgary homes.  Having looked at the impacts on Calgary home values during these difficult economic times, I’m not sure I agree with that explanation.

Council will be making a decision in June on what to do with a surplus that was identified in the 2015 City of Calgary operating budget.  Returning the surplus to tax payers certainly is an option, especially in the face of a hefty increase from the provincial government.

Committee Sets a Record

I currently serve as the chair for the Standing Policy Committee on Transportation and Transit.  On Wednesday we set a new record for the longest committee meeting.  We kicked things off at 9:30am and didn’t hit the final gavel until nearly midnight.

There were a number of high profile items on the agenda:

Pedestrian Strategy – This transportation plans outlines some recommendations that could make Calgary’s streets safer for pedestrians.  The most notable recommendation is lowering the un-posted speed limit in residential streets from 50km/h to 40km/h.  The committee directed administration to carry out extensive public consultation to see if there is a public appetite for this kind of change.

BRT Update – Calgary Transit’s 30 year capital plan, RouteAhead, shows the top transit infrastructure priorities for Calgary.  You can read more about RouteAhead here: https://www.calgarytransit.com/plans-projects/plans.

An integral part of that plan is the Calgary Bus Rapid Transit (or BRT) network.  Some BRTs already exist in Calgary, like the 302 that serves southeast Calgary.  This plan outlines opportunities for additional BRT service, and in some cases constructs independent transit-only lanes to allow for faster and more reliable transit service.

The SW BRT has emerged as one of the highest profile projects in the BRT network.  Groups of residents in support and opposition of the project have expressed their views very vocally.  Individuals from these groups spoke before committee on Wednesday.  There were a lot of very valid points and questions raised.  Administration has recorded the questions asked at committee and will be providing a response by no later than July.

What’s Next for Calgary NEXT?

On August 18, 2015, Calgary Sports & Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) revealed a proposed concept for a new arena project.  The proposal was a hybrid of public and private dollars to build a state of the art facility in an area to the west of downtown known as the West Village.

In November of 2015 Council requested The City explore the feasibility of the West Village site.  CSEC initially estimated that the facility would cost roughly $890M.  While I do feel this figure is an accurate estimate, it does not take into consideration many of the ancillary costs that would be associated with making this site feasible.  Some of these additional costs include transportation network upgrades and environmental remediation of the long standing creosote contamination.

On Monday Council will be presented with a report from The City that outlines the feasibility of the West Village.  The early figures suggest that the total cost of the facility and associated costs could be as high as $1.8B with as much as two-thirds being paid for by public dollars.  The recommendation in this report suggests that the West Village site is not feasible.

I am looking forward to a robust discussion by Council on this report on Council.  If we are going to be dedicating public dollars to major projects, we need to make sure we are selecting the right projects.  Public funds need to used for public benefit, and it could be argued that this new facility only has marginal public benefit.

The creosote contamination is something that Council will need to discuss in further detail.  It is not in the best interests of this great city to have a large section of our inner city core undeveloped on blighted land.  East Village is a great example of how we can transform blighted land into a thriving inner city redevelopment.  West Village could be the same, but we need to address the current conditions.

You can find out more about Calgary NEXT and see a copy of the report by visiting: /General/Pages/CalgaryNEXT.aspx