The results are in! What you said about the City budget

From March 3 to 21, The City of Calgary asked Calgarians to help find the right balance between investing in quality public service and keeping tax rates affordable.

Click here to view the full report (PDF) of what Calgarians told us.

The responses we received provided rich and robust feedback to consider. The information gathered covered a wide-array of opinions and ideas and, when the engagement streams were consolidated together, several key themes and some consistent priorities emerged.

Transit:
An efficient and reliable public transit network was identified as a top priority consistently across engagement input streams.

Affordable Housing:
This emerged as a priority across input streams, expressed as impacting everything from cost of living, to social isolation, to job talent attraction.

Other Transportation:
While public transit emerged as a priority on its own, it is clear that how Calgarians get around is a top-of-mind priority, specifically in regard to vehicles, pedestrians and bikeways with noticeably different responses based on geographic location gathered through postal codes.

Other Community/ Urban Planning:
Community safety, local parks and amenities, and urban sprawl were commonly recurring priority choices.

Efficiency/ Effectiveness:
There was an expressed desire for improved demonstration of spending efficiencies in municipal service delivery, particularly regarding the desire to see better communication about efficiency and effectiveness.

Taxes/ Tax Rates:
There was an expressed preference to maintain service levels, even if accompanied by tax rate increases. There was also recognition that property taxes could be a burden to those with lower or fixed incomes. Also noted was the need to better inform and demonstrate where tax dollars are spent.

As directed by Council, the representative and inclusive engagement program ensured there was a broad awareness of the opportunities to participate, gave citizens multiple ways to participate that best suited their lifestyle, and 'went to where the people are' including community events, malls, parks and farmer's markets.

• Representative engagement included ideation for citizens representing various demographics and geographic areas, and focus group sessions for business, social agencies and community representatives.
• Inclusive engagement included online discussions, in-person discussions, open ended comments, and priority tools and budget simulation both online and at events.
• Civic Partners were engaged through an ideation session and City Administration was engaged to provide ideas on finding efficiency and collaboration.

The complete Action Plan engagement report is available on the Action Plan website and contains the strategy, implementation, engagement reach and participation, and engagement results including preferences by geography (ie: a ward-by-ward comparison).

Next Steps

• The Action Plan 2015-2018 engagement program results provide rich input from Calgarians that, along with other information sources, give Council necessary information from citizens to aid Council in determining their Strategic Plan for 2015-2018 on May 5, 2014. On this day, Council will also set suggested tax rates, utility rates and user fees.
• The results are also given to City Departments and Business Units for consideration as they develop their four-year business plans and budgets.
• Business plans and budgets will be coordinated into The City’s Action Plan 2015-2018, and publicly released in early 2014 November.
• Citizens and stakeholders can provide comments and thoughts on the consolidated draft Action Plan 2015-2018 in mid-November. There is also a final opportunity for citizens and stakeholders to appear and present at Council’s Public Hearing at the beginning of business plan and budget debates, starting 2014 November 24.
• City Council will debate the proposed Action Plan 2015 – 2018 from November 24 through December 5, 2014.

Meet the new Mayor (for a day)

There's something different about the Office of the Mayor today... and it might have something to do with who's in the mayor's chair.

Judy Tran--a 17-year-old grade 12 student at John Diefenbaker High School--is this year's winner of Youth Central's Mayor for a Day contest. Thanks to her winning essay about the three things she'd like to improve at The City of Calgary, she spent the day with Mayor Nenshi and City staff to share her ideas and learn more about the business of government.

In her essay, Mayor (for a day) Tran said that she'd want to improve customer service at Calgary Transit (her idea: more heated bus shelters!), improve and beautify pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and invest in more cultural spaces for artists.

Over the course of day, Judy met with representatives from the various City departments that would be responsible for implementing her ideas. In these meetings, she learned about what's happening at The City and City representatives learned more about her ideas and perspective--especially as a pedestrian and cyclist who uses Calgary Transit regularly and is passionate about culture in Calgary.

The Mayor for a Day contest is a partnership between the Office of the Mayor and Youth Central. It is part of Youth Week--a week of events, workshops and fun for youth in Calgary.  

Mayors Nenshi and Tran meet with the students of City Hall School

My thoughts on the murders in our community

In honour of Lawrence Hong, Josh Hunter, Kaitlin Perras, Zackariah Rathwell, and Jordan Segura, flags on all City buildings/properties/facilities will remain at half-mast until sunset the day of the last funeral.

On behalf of all Calgarians, my sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of the five young people who lost their lives so senselessly this morning. My thoughts are also with the University of Calgary as it deals with the impact of this loss to its own community. Our city is one of the safest in the world, and so when we are faced with such violence it can affect us in a very profound way. Every Calgarian is shaken to the core by the loss of good young people just getting started in their lives.

If you are struggling with this horrible news, please call 211 to be connected to resources that can help you. If you are faculty, students or staff at the University of Calgary, support services are available in the University of Calgary Wellness Centre classroom MSC 370. Please do not be afraid to ask for help. The community is here for you.

It is natural to speculate when these types of events occur. We want to know what happened, who was involved, and why the outcome was so horrific. Those details will come out in time as my colleagues at the Calgary Police Service continue their investigation.

For now, I just ask that you take extra care to respond to those around you with kindness and compassion. We all might need a little more of that today.

And, in particular, if you have university students in your life, please give them an extra hug today and let them know you're there for them.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi

Proclaiming the Year of Reconciliation

Late last month, the final national event for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was held in Edmonton. I was proud to attend and bear witness on behalf of all Calgarians.

The history of government policies toward our Aboriginal peoples is a sad one. Through reconciliation, we will not right the wrongs of the past, but we will be able to come together to build a better future for us all.

As part of the national event, I proclaimed, on behalf of City Council and the Citizens of Calgary, The Year of Reconciliation. This is the first time The City of Calgary has made a year-long proclamation; it is a significant gesture for a significant period in our history.

Proclamation

Whereas: The Story of Moh’kinsstis says that before there was the place we call Calgary, the First Peoples were stewards of this land. At the confluence of two rivers, the lifeblood of our city, our cultures converged and our story began;

Whereas: The first European settlers did not honour the unique culture of our Aboriginal ancestors. Aboriginal people were isolated from their traditional and spiritual ways. This is exemplified by the many thousands of Aboriginal children who were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to residential schools, but is also evident in many other examples of disenfranchisement;

Whereas: The effects of government policies toward Aboriginal peoples have had a tremendously negative impact on our city and country. Canada has been denied the benefit of the contribution of First Nations to our collective history. Our story cannot be complete without listening to this voice;

Whereas: Reconciliation is an opportunity for us to advance with a greater understanding of the historical impacts that have shaped the experiences of Aboriginal people to date. It will not right the wrongs of the past, but is the start of our journey, together;

Whereas: The City of Calgary will use the lessons of reconciliation to continue the work we have started through the Listening Circles of the Calgary Urban Aboriginal Initiative, the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, the imagineCalgary Plan, and the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative to ensure that our Aboriginal population has a meaningful role within our community, as full and equal participants in our city’s quality of life;

Whereas: It is essential that Calgarians of every culture and tradition walk on a shared path paved with opportunity, recognizing that we are connected to each other and to this place, where our collective spirit generates enough for all.

On behalf of City Council and the citizens of Calgary,

I hereby proclaim March 27, 2014 – March 27, 2015 as:

The Year of Reconciliation

[signed]
Naheed K. Nenshi
Mayor

This proclamation was also supported with letters from Tourism Calgary, Calgary Stampede, and Calgary Economic Development.

Video: Flood resiliency and spring preparations

The City of Calgary is committed to helping Calgarians recover from last year’s flood and prepare for the possibility of future floods.

On Wednesday, April 9, Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Bruce Burrell, Director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, and Rick Valdarchi, Program Manager with Water Resources outlined the status of our ongoing flood recovery initiatives as well as how we’re preparing for the possibility of future flooding.

Beginning Monday, April 14, Calgarians are invited to visit calgary.ca/floodprep for the latest information on flood preparation, river and stream flow advisories and community information sessions. In the meantime, Calgarians can visit calgary.ca/floodrecovery for other flood mitigation updates.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Director Bruce Burrell:

Program Manager Rick Valdarchi and Mayor Naheed Nenshi:

595 parking spots added downtown over 3 years

Between 2011 and 2013, 595 (net) on-street parking spots were added in the downtown area. This number is larger than the parking spots potentially created by building another Convention Centre parkade. Most new spots are created by adding angled or "off peak" parking. See last year's update for more details.

The Calgary Parking Authority and City of Calgary's Traffic Engineering division are actively looking at adding even more on-street parking throughout downtown.

To download a PDF version of this map, click here.

Response to out of context reporting in the Calgary Herald

A Calgary Herald article by Jason Markusoff published this evening is inaccurate, out of context, and insulting. Although the reporter personally contacted me on two occasions today, he did not ask to clarify comments I had made at a public meeting. I understand he did contact a member of my staff, who could not comment because he hadn't been in the room himself and could not immediately reach me as I was in meetings.

Had the reporter actually asked me to clarify, I would have told him that I was not referring to any politicking occurring at the memorial service for Jon Lord. Indeed, I was honoured to attend such a dignified memorial for such a great man, and I thought all of the speakers--family, friends, and politicians--spoke beautifully and touchingly about Mr. Lord's amazing life and achievements. It is irresponsible to invent a story without obtaining the facts.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi

[UPDATE: This Calgary Herald article explains the out of context reporting.]

Mayor Nenshi named one of the 2014 GOOD 100

GOOD Magazine has found Mayor Nenshi to be one of the "GOOD 100" people in North America. Nicknamed "The Sleepless Civil Servant", Mayor Nenshi's response to the 2013 floods and his focus on citizen engagement through programs like 3 Things for Calgary are what make him one of the top 100.

You can read the full article here.