Several sitting Calgary city councillors believe they can remain ‘amenable to persuasion,’ though most held a strong position on citywide rezoning during Calgary’s 2025 municipal election.

With the first week of Calgary’s rezoning repeal public hearing wrapping up, Calgary city councillors have heard from roughly 300 citizens with varying perspectives on the issue, largely falling into the following categories: For repeal, against repeal, or neutral (perhaps modify).

That falls along the lines of many councillors; Mayor Jeromy Farkas ran on a repeal and replace platform, while many of the Communities First candidates – Couns. Kim Tyers, Andre Chabot, Rob Ward, and Dan McLean – along with Couns. John Pantazopoulos, Mike Jamieson and Landon Johnston largely ran on a full repeal.

Others, like Couns. DJ Kelly and Harrison Clark favoured a ‘modify’ approach. Couns. Nathan Schmidt and Myke Atkinson were generally against a repeal of citywide rezoning. Coun. Andrew Yule said he didn’t really campaign on either.

City hall watchers will know the phrase “amenable to persuasion” well. It’s often referred to as being part of the province’s Municipal Government Act (MGA – 2024). Only, it’s not. At least not directly.

Through interpretation, the MGA only prescribes that public hearings are meaningful and that public input is taken into consideration. The courts have interpreted it to describe the expectation of fairness in weighing the public’s concerns, and councillors being open to changing their minds.

“Courts have recognized in the past, including the Supreme Court of Canada, that [councillors] are in a sense politicians and you don’t come to all of these decisions with a completely blank slate,” read an excerpt of comments from Calgary’s city solicitor, and included in a court decision on the previous citywide rezoning hearing.  

“And you may have formed opinions before you get here.  But what you need to do is once you are here and deciding this [is] have an open mind and be amenable to persuasion.”

What would councillors need to hear to change their minds?

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that, throughout the public hearing, many of the councillors have asked pointed questions to citizens in an attempt to poke holes in their presentations – particularly those that oppose their currently held point of view on the subject.

In some cases, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has had to interject during councillor questions, as it turned into more of a debate with public members.

To some, that may appear very obviously not amenable to persuasion, so to speak.

For many of the councillors, there was a very clear mandate to repeal citywide rezoning – it’s what their respective campaigns were based on.

In the spirit of being amenable to persuasion, LWC asked councillors what it would take to change their mind on the issue. In true political fashion, many councillors embraced the listening part of the past week’s discussion. Others didn’t.

“I would have to see a solution that works for Bonavista, Parkland, and neighbourhoods within Ward 14,” said Coun. Landon Johnston.

“I haven’t seen that yet, so you’re right. We’re amenable to the second, right, but as of right now, I mean, the sentiment is that it’s going to be repealed. And going forward. It’s what we do next.”

Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos acknowledged that when you’re coming into any decision, a councillor has a preconceived notion based on what they believe to be the facts.

“I think this is what’s really important about a public hearing, because as you door-knock in your certain community within your ward, you hear certain things, and of course, it helps formulate your decision,” he said.

“But now you’ve got people from across Calgary. So, I think part of that is truly coming with an open mind and coming in and saying, ‘OK, this is what I believe to be true. How do I need to challenge that?”

Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward said he wasn’t sure what it would be that he needed to hear to change his mind on a repeal of citywide rezoning. His response came early in the proceedings, and he expected there to be other ideas that came forward.

“I’ve heard some good arguments so far. I’ve heard there are people with obviously income issues or access issues that perhaps rezoning could help them with,” he said.

“Is there, is there another path to help them with that? Is there another solution? I think there might be.”

Asking the wrong question

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson said that there’s a problem with the question in that they’re asking councillors to choose yes or no to a repeal. 

“I think that this is the problem with how these things often get framed, it’s this side or that side, and… it’s about the nuances of the issue,” he told LWC.

“For something like citywide rezoning, we shouldn’t be talking about it on a yes or no, repeal or not. We should be getting in and listening to community and getting in and actually looking at the nuances of the issue and making the adjustments that need to be made to satisfy what we’re hearing through this public hearing process.”

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said this question came early on in the term, as a repeal was what many of the councillors voted on. He said more work should have been done before putting something forward, so it didn’t come down to a binary choice.

“From that point of view, (other councillors) heard repeal at the doors, and that was what it was that they put forward. That’s what we have here,” he said.

I think that having a more nuanced conversation, as we’re hearing from people, they’re open to other options that that would allow us to build neighbourhoods back to closer to their historical population peaks, in a way that neighbours would like, and that may, even, for that matter, to allow us to be fully in compliance with the (Housing Accelerator Funding) as well.

“Unfortunately, this is what was brought forward to us, and the way that the legal process works, it means we have to have this conversation with this public hearing.”

Mayor Farkas said that, though he campaigned on a repeal and replace, the public hearing process was essential.  

“It’s not just a legal requirement. It’s not just a box to check,” he said.

“It is genuinely important for us to listen to Calgarians and to hear from them, their hopes, their fears, their challenges with their neighbourhoods.”