Calgary’s mayor wants to strike while the iron is hot and convene council to make a clear statement about the city’s endorsement on Alberta remaining a part of Canada.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas, in speaking with media at an event Wednesday in northwest Calgary, said that he’d seek an item of urgent business or a potential special meeting of council.
It comes two days after the NDP locked up the byelection win in Calgary-Shaw, in a race that some believe was a ballot box question on separation.
Further, a new report from the University of Calgary School of Public Policy shows it would cost tens of billions in separation costs and hamper Alberta in the long term if it were to separate.
The report said that the cost to establish a new country would be between $50 and $170 billion in the first five years. These are costs in addition to the impact on economic growth and the province’s current fiscal position.
“It has been a great opportunity for the school to help inform Albertans on such a critical issue. From the start, we were afforded full independence and academic freedom with this project, which was successful under a compressed deadline,” said Martha Hall Findlay, director of the School of Public Policy.
“The work includes some of the most comprehensive economic and fiscal data available, analyzed objectively by our team of experts led by Dr. Tim Sargent.”
Mayor Farkas said that he applauded the work of the University of Calgary.
“It’s a real validation and vindication of what many of us, I would describe myself as a skeptic on separation, have stated in that there’s huge upfront costs that have been identified to Alberta going it alone,” he said.
Independent Alberta isn’t viable, Mayor Farkas says
Mayor Farkas said that the UCalgary report puts real meat behind what other business groups, including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce have said, about the impact of separation on Calgary and Alberta.
This most recent information and report, though, is a huge warning sign about the economic damage that separation poses. So, in the coming days, I will be anticipating either to add as urgent business or to call an individual special meeting of Calgary City Council to seek council’s endorsement of Calgary remaining at the center of a strong and united Team Canada,” the mayor said.
“This is the latest straw in the camel’s back that really means that all of us at this point in time need to get out to vote.”
Not everyone on council agrees.
In a memo to fellow councillors, obtained by LWC, Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers said she wouldn’t support a special meeting of council. Other councillors have told LWC that they support Tyers’ position.
She said her own view is that Alberta is stronger as a part of Canada – however, her position on the special meeting isn’t based on her personal views on the matter.
“As elected officials, we represent all Calgarians, including those who hold a wide range of views on provincial and federal matters,” Tyers wrote to her fellow councillors.
“While individual members are free to express their opinions and advocate for the positions they believe are in the best interests of their constituents, I do not believe it is Council’s role to convene a special meeting simply because a topic is politically significant or generates strong feelings.”
Tyers went on to write that special meetings should be reserved for extraordinary circumstances requiring urgent municipal action. She said that a special meeting was not called for the Bearspaw feeder main break, which was a municipal emergency.
She said a provincial referendum is not a municipal emergency and doesn’t require an urgent council decision.
“This matter does not meet that threshold,” she told her colleagues.
The next Regular Meeting of Calgary city council is Sept. 22, at which time an urgent item could be put forward. It would require councillors to approve it as urgent in order to make it on to the agenda.
