Calgary Minute: Budget Passed, Transit Service, and Bizarre CTrain Brawl

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

This Week In Calgary:

• The Green Line Board will meet on Wednesday at 1:00 pm. No agenda is available for this meeting yet, but we’re sure hoping for an update on the cost of a recent spate of taxpayer-funded propaganda videos touting the benefits of the Green Line.
  
  
• On Thursday, at 9:30 am, there will be a meeting of the Community Development Committee. No agenda is available for this meeting yet, either.
  
  
• The Calgary Planning Commission will meet on Thursday at 1:00 pm. Several land use amendments, as well as a development permit, are on the agenda.

Last Week In Calgary:

• After a week of presentations, public hearings, and deliberations, City Council passed its four-year budget. The final numbers mean that the municipal portion of your property taxes will go up by about 5.5%, but thanks to a smaller increase in the Provincial portion of only about 2%, the actual increase for an average household will be only 4.4%. As always, the City tried to make it sound like they were responsible for the 4.4% increase, rather than the higher 5.5% that's actually their responsibility. Watch your inbox this week for a detailed breakdown of the budget, amendments, and details on how your Councillor voted!
  
  
• Calgary Transit gave a presentation during budget deliberations detailing its staffing challenges. According to Calgary Transit, the delay in increasing service levels is not a budgetary issue and the addition of more than $20 million in the service’s operating budget over the next four years can’t help get things moving along any quicker. (Which begs the question, why are we spending an extra $20 million?) The service is short 800 operators and apparently it will take two more years for the frequency of buses and CTrains to increase.
  
  
• Speaking of transit, a bizarre brawl at a CTrain station involving a flare gun led to Councillors discussing a closed station system. The fight at the Marlborough CTrain station is just the latest in a series of violent incidents on LRT platforms. Councillors Andre Chabot, Jennifer Wyness, and Sonya Sharp want to see a pilot project limiting entry in known trouble spots to only those who have purchased a ticket. Back in May, Councillor Dan McLean wanted to explore a turnstile system for limiting entry. This issue continues to come up, and it’s way past time for action to be taken. Perhaps the reason people aren’t riding transit is that they fear being violently attacked?

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