Calgary Minute: Green Line, Parking, and Transparency

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

This Week In Calgary:

• The Green Line LRT will be discussed again during Wednesday's Transportation and Transit committee meeting. The City has completed a Risk Assessment of the project and let's just say we're rapidly approaching a five-alarm fire. They've identified 16 risks in total - one "Low", nine "Medium", and six "High". Project delays and budget overruns are categorized as "Medium" risks, but even "Medium" is defined as "will probably occur".
  
  
• The City is currently conducting a Residential Parking Permit Review and is accepting public submissions. You can have your say on the City's website - submissions are due Wednesday.
  
  
• The Minister of Municipal Affairs and other government MLAs will be meeting with Calgary Council on Friday. While this meeting is being described as a get-to-know-each-other session, we're hoping that there is also a serious discussion on how to get the City's taxes and spending under control. It's beyond time for the city and the province to start rowing in the same direction.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The City released formerly confidential documents showing that, despite claims to the contrary, Council was warned about the high risk that hosting the Olympics would have posed. For the 56.4% of us that voted against hosting the Olympics, this vindicating report comes as no surprise. 
  
  
• The Terms of Reference were released for the City's new, highly-anticipated Financial Task Force, and it's not good news. The Task Force will *not* be permitted to consider proposals to amend the City's Budget (ie: spending cuts). They *will* be allowed to suggest "new revenue options" (ie: higher taxes). What exactly is the point of a new Task Force that is only allowed to recommend doing the exact same thing (more taxes, more spending) that got the City into this mess in the first place?
  
  
• Last week we highlighted a proposal by Councillor Farkas to provide greater transparency around what happens at City Council meetings. While the proposal was attacked by several councillors it wasn't rejected outright and will be discussed further at a committee meeting next month.