Calgary Minute: Election Day, Patio Permits, and Fireworks Back On

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

This Week In Calgary:

• Today is Election Day! If you're over the age of 18, are a Canadian citizen, and an Alberta resident, you can cast your vote today! Full details of eligibility criteria are listed here on the Elections Alberta website. You must vote at your designated polling place, all of which will be open 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your designated polling place using your postal code here on the Elections Alberta website. If you have questions or have trouble navigating the Elections Alberta website, please just reply to this email and we’ll help out if we can.
  
  
• You will need to prove who you are to vote, and the main way to do this is using a valid government-issued ID that includes your photo and your address. Alternatively, you may use two pieces of ID with a combination of information, and in certain circumstances you may be able to vote using an attestation instead. A full list of acceptable ID types are listed here on the Elections Alberta website.
  
  
• Our friends at the Alberta Institute have a section on their website where you can confirm that you've voted and then share that with your friends on social media and by email to encourage them to vote too!

Last Week In Calgary:

• We had a big victory! The City of Calgary reinstated the annual Canada Day fireworks display. After Councillor Kourtney Penner took to Twitter to basically call anyone who wanted the fireworks back on a racist, Calgarians rallied around our petition. We attracted a lot of media attention, and thousands of you wrote to your Councillors to demand an end to the nonsense! As a result, ten Councillors - Sonya Sharp, Jasmine Mian, Jennifer Wyness, Dan McLean, Andre Chabot, Sean Chu, Evan Spencer, Terry Wong, Raj Dhaliwal, and Peter Demong - signed on to a Notice of Motion to reinstate the fireworks. The following did not sign on to the motion - Mayor Jyoti Gondek, and Councillors Richard Pootmans, Courtney Walcott, Gian-Carlo Carra, and Kourtney Penner. Thank you to everyone who helped us keep the pressure on! Despite the win, we'll keep the petition up until the decision is fully, 100% officially confirmed, so if you haven't had a chance to sign yet, you can still do so here.
  
  
• For the third straight year, the City of Calgary has waived permit fees for patios. Originally, the fees were waived to help restaurants recover from pandemic closures, but the program has stuck around. The City is working to improve accessibility by adding ramps and boardwalks, as some of the patios are located in public parking lanes. New applications are being fast-tracked.
  
  
• A huge sinkhole appeared out of nowhere in a road in the neighbourhood of Cranston. The City said that a broken drain valve in a nearby park caused the issue. Thankfully, there was no damage to any nearby homes, and there were no disruptions to water or sewer services either. There is no timeline for fixing the problem, but the City said it’s a high priority.

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