Peter Demong, former Calgary City Councillor for Ward 14, used to say to me, “There are no new ideas, just new councillors.”
When Calgary City Council moved forward with their new four-year strategic priorities, I had to ask, were there any new ideas? Or just more of the same?
According to the current Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston, it’s more of the same.
“I understand you’re (administration) coming up with different ways of monitoring and seeing what’s successful with this council’s direction. But, I mean, it just seems like we’re rearranging words around that the last council had,” Johnston said.
“What are we going to do specifically different, or, I guess administration… what are you guys going to do differently that is actually going to produce results?”
I don’t understand the question. Councillor Johnston shouldn’t be looking to administration to know what they’re going to be doing differently. Council should be looking toward each other. City administration follows Council direction. So how is it possible that a Council so critical of its predecessor gave essentially the same direction to administration?
New council, but no new ideas – but there were some notable exclusions in council’s new stated strategic priorities.
Financial sustainability is not a priority.
Housing affordability is not a priority.
While individual councillors may hold these as values, it sends a powerful message about how this council collectively plans to steward this City when housing affordability is no longer a measure they intend to take responsibility for. As governors of the City, I can’t even begin to understand how financial sustainability was missed.
Balancing the city council trade-offs
The job of a city councillor is to measure trade-offs to make decisions. It will be very challenging to assess whether they’re making a good decision if they’re not measuring whether people can afford to live in their homes, or if a decision is in the best interests of our long-term financial security. If affordability and financial sustainability aren’t top of mind, what is? Campaign promises?
Which is what makes Councillor Wyness’s critiques of the four-year plan ring so true: “I really do want [financial sustainability] as a metric on here, because without a financially sustainable city and the economy today, you’re going to struggle.”
As they say, if you’re not measuring it, how will you manage it?
Calgary has some big bills on the horizon. The elevated downtown segment of the Green Line has not been planned and priced out, and it is excluded in the most recent infrastructure gap report, which has Calgary transit needing $10.4 Billion over the next ten years. Major housing affordability decisions lie ahead with council’s attempts to repeal parts of the Housing Strategy – such as bringing back exclusionary zoning and cutting funds from the downtown conversion program.
It just raises a painfully ironic question: How can a council that spent eight days trying to save you $8 a month not include financial sustainability and housing affordability as priorities?
How can a Council governing a city where the price of a single detached home has tripled over the last generation, not be interested in measuring housing affordability?
Over the next six months, this council will test its priorities. Will they abandon the priority of balanced growth with a repeal of rezoning and a return to exclusionary zoning on the horizon? Let’s see how far abandoning housing affordability really goes for this Council.
Will they approve more sprawl communities while diverting money from local infrastructure needs?
How will they make transit sustainable while focusing on the preservation of our car-centric city? As Coun. Dan McLean reminds us that there’s a war on cars, and he is here to defend them!
Council’s actions moving forward will tell the story of whether affordability and financial sustainability are real priorities, not just buzz words used but never meaningfully backed up.
The only problem is, according to their strategic plan, this Council won’t be looking deeply into whether or not people can afford to live in this City.
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Peter Demong isn’t the I told you so type, but at least for me, his words ring true today:
“No new ideas, just new councillors.”
- Courtney Walcott is LWC’s newest columnist, providing insight and commentary on local municipal issues. Walcott is a former Ward 8 councillor, teacher, and community advocate. His columns will appear twice a month.
