It’s a busier week at Calgary city council, with a host of meetings scheduled.

There’s a special meeting of council scheduled for Monday, a strategic meeting of council on Tuesday and the Community Development Committee on Wednesday.

Special Meeting of Council – Monday, April 25

This meeting is for the council approval of the City of Calgary’s 2021 Annual Financial Report.

It’s required for the City to make its annual audited financial statement available to the public by May 1 each year.

The report shows an increase in the net financial asset position of $759 million.  It also shows an annual surplus of $1.111 billion, “meaning enough funds were raised in the year to afford the total cost of providing services and a contribution to investment in new capital assets in the year,” the city report said.

The city will also receive the external auditor’s 2021 year-end report.

Strategic meeting of council – Tuesday, April 26

The strategic meeting of council will focus on a climate discussion.

There are few details as the agenda says it’s a verbal presentation and discussion.

There is also a closed session discussion about energy and greenhouse gases.

Community Development Committee – Wednesday, April 27

There are a few items at this meeting that will garner interest.

Regulated taxi meter increase

First up is recommended 15 per cent increase to the city’s regulated taxi meter rate. LWC spoke to Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal and he said with the costs to operate increasing, it only made sense to propose a rate increase.

City cabbies haven’t had an increase on the maximum meter rate for eight years.

Corporate affordable housing strategy

There’s a second-quarter update on the city’s affordable housing strategy, and with it comes an attachment on areas for the city to investigate moving forward.

Admin recommendations are for the committee to endorse further investigations into these options. They want a revised corporate affordable housing strategy ready by fall of 2023.

Opportunities in Housing – City of Calgary by Darren Krause on Scribd

Odds and ends

• The first step in the City’s “problem properties project” is to transfer vehicle enforcement from the Land Use Bylaw to the Community Standards Bylaw. The city said this will make it easier to deal with problem property vehicles more effectively.

• The committee will get an update on mobility trends and the City continues to recover from the impact of Covid-19.

• The city will get a report on flood mitigation and resilience. It outlines several different flood projects, including the Sunnyside Flood Barrier project.  Administration is recommending the committee request that the mayor, on behalf of council, communicate to the province the significance of updated flood hazard area maps and the new reservoir on the Bow River.