Cuts to post-secondary education hurt Calgary

I, like many Albertans, am concerned about the recent cuts to post-secondary institutions made by the provincial government. And, as mayor, I think that those cuts can be very damaging to our city. Those cuts have now led to significant programming cuts proposed at Mount Royal University (and it is possible that other post-secondary institutions will follow suit). In response to this, I wrote a letter to the Mount Royal University Board of Governors today.

Here is that letter:

April 17, 2013
Mr. Richard Shaw
Chair, Board of Governors
Mount Royal University

Dear Mr. Shaw,

It is with great concern that I read of the recommendation coming to the Mount Royal University Board of Governors for vertical program cuts. I have been on record as saying that the provincial government has made a terrible error in its post-secondary education policy – great cities need great universities and great universities need government support. No doubt these actions have made your life very difficult. However, I would encourage the leadership of MRU to stand up to the provincial government on behalf of its students, faculty, and community, rather than capitulate to the government’s bad policy. Surely there are alternatives. Sometimes tough times call for innovative thinking—a characteristic that MRU has in abundance.

It was not quite two years ago that I had the opportunity to return to Mount Royal University for one of the first times since being elected Mayor. The occasion was the groundbreaking for the Bella Concert Hall, designed to be a world-class facility for the performing arts in our city. Its location at Mount Royal was fitting, given that it is – was – home to a premier music performance and theatre arts program. In fact, education rooms were included as part of the facility’s design so that students could learn and perform in the same incredible venue. I was very excited about the Taylor Family’s donation and MRU’s commitment to building what would certainly become a treasured performance space in our city.

So you can imagine my dismay when I heard the news that MRU is considering cutting some of the very programs that this venue was designed to support—and without apparent consultation with the community. These programs are critical for the development of Calgary’s cultural offerings and eliminating them severely inhibits our ability to attract the best and brightest to our city from around the world. I also hope that other potential donors will not be put off by the possibility that the intent of their generosity may be lost to provincial politics.

Similarly, denying internationally-trained nurses access to a good life in Canada, reducing the number of nurses overall and reducing much-needed engineering student spaces is bad public policy for this province. The associated loss of professionals is a major blow to Calgary.

I look forward to your innovative ways of preserving these programs as much as I look forward to seeing future MRU students take the stage at the Bella Concert Hall.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Naheed K. Nenshi
Mayor and Associate Professor at the Bissett School of Business (on leave)

cc: Board of Governors, Mount Royal University
cc: Thomas Lukaszuk, Deputy Premier and Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education
cc: The Hon. Alison Redford, Premier and MLA Calgary-Elbow

Letting sunshine in at City Hall improves Calgary

I write a regular column in the Calgary Herald. Here is the full text of my April story: 

Since becoming your mayor, I have been working on increasing openness and transparency at the City.

This is important — openness is an essential element of trust. In Louis Brandeis’ famous dictum, “sunlight is the best disinfectant” (he was only speaking rhetorically — please don’t rely on sunlight on any open wounds. It doesn’t work).

In addition, I believe that openness helps us make better decisions.

I’d like to share three things we've done to improve openness at the City. We've made openness one of the core values in our Transforming Government initiative, we're instituting new guidelines for elected officials, and we've strengthened the role of the city auditor’s office.

Since 2010, we've been engaging in a massive process of organizational change among all 20,000 of my colleagues at the City of Calgary. Transforming Government includes such initiatives as Cut Red Tape ($1 million, the equivalent of 35,000 hours of citizen time, saved so far), Cultural Transformation (working at the grassroots to encourage innovation among City workers), and zero-based reviews of all department budgets (parks and roads are up next).

All of these are based on the key principle of putting the citizen at the centre of all we do, and sharing all information we can.

Three simple examples:

The most-visited page on the calgary.ca website is the one that shows snow plows and road conditions in real-time, and, with changes to how we plow, compliments now outweigh complaints.

When a water main break closed Crowchild Trail last year, we brought the public into every stage of the repair process (including videos of the actual break), allowing people to plan their lives. Traffic disruption, as a result, was merely bad, not the utter chaos expected.

Finally, we have transferred staff in transit to a new customer service function, and one of their core goals is to share more information about reliability statistics and performance targets — when we meet them and when we don't (we usually do and strive for continual improvement).

In terms of the work we have done as elected officials, I have tried to be as open as possible. For example, I bring issues to council without preordained conclusions and let the debate flow (this sometimes leads to incredibly long council meetings, but such is the price of democracy), and I have, since being elected, voluntarily posted online my detailed office expenses and lists of everyone I meet in my office.

In the absence of established rules, I did this disclosure voluntarily. But I realized that it would be helpful to have mandatory policy. I am very pleased that two city committees have overwhelmingly endorsed my proposals on new ethical guidelines for elected officials. Council has already passed new policy on what members of council may do in election years — rightly fettering our ability to use our offices for campaign purposes and moving toward a more level playing field for challengers.

Council will soon consider two of my other proposals — one for overall ethical guidelines, including disclosure of our expenses and people with whom we meet and one governing disclosure of gifts. Both passed unanimously at committee.

Finally, we need to make sure we are always staying honest, and that’s why we've invested in a more effective auditor's office. You may recall that in 2010, there were a number of problems with the function of the city auditor, and an external review found many areas where significant improvement was required and ruled that we “did not conform” with international standards.

A new review was required in five years, but our new auditor, Todd Horbasenko, and his colleagues felt they were ready after two, and I am very pleased to announce that an independent third-party has given our audit office a stellar assessment. This is significant.

There is, however, one more major issue on which I need help from the provincial government: ensuring fair and clean elections through campaign finance reform.

In the absence of legislation, I call upon all candidates to voluntarily abide by stricter rules. I did so in 2010, and will do so again in 2014: I will disclose the names of all donors throughout the campaign, I will cap my spending, and I will not keep any surplus — win or lose — for future campaigns. (I also refrained from any fundraising in the first two years of my mandate).

Changes like this mean we may not see as many attention-grabbing headlines as in the past. It’s the right thing to do. We will continue to let that disinfecting sunlight in and work at creating a more open and transparent government.

- Mayor Naheed K. Nenshi

Interview: Community-building on an urban scale

Recently, Mayor Nenshi had an interview with L'Arche Canada publication "A Human Future" to discuss how political leadership can encourage community-building in our cities. Here is the latest edition of that publication featuring this interview.

- Posted by Daorcey from Mayor Nenshi's team

Mayor Nenshi's meetings: March 2013

Below is a list of external meetings hosted by the Mayor during the month of March 2013.

For an explanation of why this list exists and who is on it, please visit our post about highlighting accountability in the Mayor's Office.

March meetings included:

• Raj Sherman, MLA, Alberta Liberal Leader - March 1, 2013
• Jonathan Huckabay, Chief of Staff - March 1, 2013
• Kathy McCormick, CHBA, Calgary Region - March 6, 2013
• Luanne Whitmarsh, OASPOC/Kerby Centre – March 6, 2013
• Elizabeth DesCamp, OASPOC/Calgary Family Services – March 6, 2013
• Judy Shapiro, Calgary Jewish Federation – March 6, 2013
• Israeli Consul General D.J. Schneeweiss – March 6, 2013
• Michael Mazur, Israeli Consulate – March 6, 2013
• Leslie Turcott, Victorian Order of Nurses – March 11, 2013
• Karen McCulloch, Victorian Order of Nurses, Calgary – March 11, 2013
• Janet Soles, Odgers Berndtson, March 14, 2013
• Clement Lanthier, Calgary Zoo – March 14, 2013
• Lindsey Galloway, Calgary Zoo – March 14, 2013
• Troy McLeod, CPA – March 14, 2013
• Matt Ostergrid, Federal Liberal Party of Canada – March 15, 2013
• Bob Rae, Federal Liberal Party of Canada – March 15, 2013
• Arlene Perly-Rae, Federal Liberal Party of Canada – March 15, 2013
• Don Braid – March 21, 2013
• Egil Bjornsen, Norwegian Consulate, Calgary – March 21, 2013
• Ambassador Mona E. Brother of Norway – March 21, 2013
• Mike Flynn, Urban Development Institute – March 21, 2013
• Karin Finley, Urban Development Institute – March 21, 2013

Note: Individuals listed above have given permission for their names to be posted by signing into the Mayor's Office.

- Posted by Daorcey from Mayor Nenshi's team