Budget primer: Council's fiscal plan for Calgary

On November 9, Calgarians will get their first look at the proposed 2012-2014 business plans and budgets from The City of Calgary.

Unlike previous years, the material in this proposed budget should be no surprise for Calgarians and City Council. Instead, it is the result of a massive public engagement program that had more than 23,000 Calgarians engage in the budget planning process since February 2011. After three months of engaging citizens and City employees, City Council received a full report on what Calgarians want to see in a future budget for our great city. Once Council heard from citizens, it unanimously passed a three-year fiscal plan for Calgary (pdf).

This brief two-page document sets out Council's vision for Calgary for the next three years. It is built upon input from Calgarians and is the foundation for the future budget discussions Council will have in the coming weeks. The above image summarises Council's priorities in the fiscal plan. 

Essentially, the plan is built to manage "growth to become 'a great place to make a living; a great place to make a life'". To do this, there are six key parts to the plan:

• Ensuring every Calgarian lives in a safe community and has the opportunity to succeed
• Investing in great communities and a vibrant urban fabric
• Moving people and goods throughout the city efficiently and sustainably
• Making Calgary the best place in Canada for a business to start and flourish
• Becoming a more effective and disciplined organization
• Changing the rules of the game to ensure better financial capacity

Of course, every one of those areas has specific actions associated with each. Please view or download the pdf of the document to see the specifics yourself.

Tomorrow's proposed budget is Administration's proposal to City Council on how the City can achieve this fiscal plan while also limiting the property tax increase to the cost of inflation plus growth. Once available on November 9, all citizens will have opportunities to provide feedback via public information sessions or directly to City Council on Monday, November 21.

 - Daorcey from Mayor Nenshi's team