Calgary Minute: CPS Review, Housing Funding, and East Village Amenities

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• The Calgary Planning Commission will meet on Thursday at 1:00 pm. Also on Thursday, and also at 1:00 pm, the Green Line Board will meet. No agenda is available for either meeting yet.
  
  
• The Calgary Police Service is set to undergo a third-party review of its workplace following concerns about persistent issues like harassment and bullying, as well as recent public allegations. The Calgary Police Commission acknowledges that, despite previous efforts at reform, problems persist, prompting the need for a more comprehensive evaluation.
  
  
• A new public washroom and pickleball court are being built in Calgary's East Village community. The project features a uniquely designed 3,000-square-foot facility with universally accessible stalls, a handwashing area, and a fenced-in pickleball court. Managed by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), the facilities will operate year-round. The washrooms will replace the older ones from 2012, which were closed by CMLC in 2022 due to increased upkeep costs and social issues. Completion of the new facility is expected by late fall.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Two affordable housing projects in Calgary received a funding boost from the federal government's Rapid Housing Initiative. Hope Heights in Crescent Heights will offer 35 rental units, with some reserved for single mothers and their children, while another project in Killarney will provide 29 below-market rental units. The Hope Heights project has secured $11.632 million in funding, including $7.4 million from the Rapid Housing Initiative, $2.1 million from a federal-provincial housing agreement, $1.26 million from Hopewell Residential, and $872,975 from the City of Calgary. The Killarney project has received $12.8 million in funding, with $8.3 million from the federal government, $3.4 million from a federal-provincial housing agreement, and $1.1 million from the City of Calgary. Sounds like a huge pile of cash for just 64 new units...
  
  
• One of Calgary’s top bureaucrats has resigned from his role. Josh White, Calgary’s Co-Chief Planner and Director of Regional and City Planning since 2022, is leaving to become Vancouver’s new General Manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability. White played a key role in developing Calgary’s housing strategy and simplifying planning policies. Before joining Calgary’s municipal government, he served as a Senior Policy Adviser to former Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
  
  
• The City Clerk’s office said it is preparing to receive the results of the petition aiming to recall Mayor Jyoti Gondek - potentially a large task given that recall rules state that the signatures must be on paper. The process involves hiring election clerks to count and, where necessary, verify signatures. The City will count all submissions, but public updates won’t be provided during the 45-day processing period. If the petition meets the threshold of 514,284 signatures, the City will verify the signatures using a statistical sampling method, checking 369 randomly selected signatures against criteria to assess validity. The petition’s organizers must submit the signatures by April 4th.

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