Budgets have to be discussed in the open

The future of Calgary will be determined during the budget process. Over the next six months, we are going to be making important decisions about the city in which we want to live: its services, infrastructure, and the taxes that pay for it.

That’s why I feel it’s so important that all Calgarians be involved in this process as well, whether it be in public forums (on this week) or online via Our City. Our Budget. Our Future.

At the same time, my City Council colleagues and I have been having public discussions about the challenges of budgeting in a city that has so many great services but also needs to carefully watch the money it spends.

At my request, the City’s Chief Financial Officer this week presented to Council a broad overview of the budgeting challenges ahead of us. Part of that was the revenue required to fund our growing city. For this, we were presented with a wide range of scenarios.

On one end of the spectrum, we were presented with a scenario where we freeze property taxes over three years and are faced with a budget shortfall of $90 million annually that would require deep cuts. On the other side of the spectrum, we could maintain the status quo in services and operations, thus requiring a cumulative 23.6 per cent tax hike over the next three years.

I believe that neither of those options is appropriate.

I strongly suspect we will come to something in the middle. It will likely involve adjusting services and reducing waste. We also need to get our City costs under control and change how we deliver services (for example, reducing how much we pay external consultants). We also need to look at all our revenue sources.

I can’t stress enough that we are not making any decisions right now. Your City Council first needs to hear from you over the next months. Hence the current massive engagement program on the city budgeting process. What services do you most value at the City? What could be changed? What needs our attention right away? What can wait?

A healthy city is a city in which we can have these types of conversations in with everyone and in public. Let’s keep these conversations going.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi