Calgary Minute: Election Gerrymandering, Pet Rules, and another Taxpayer-Funded Junket

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

This Week In Calgary:

• There is a Strategic Meeting of Council today. This is the first council meeting after the province released its new budget, so expect to hear some complaining. Councillors will also be receiving a public update on current economic events.
  
  
• On Wednesday there will be a Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development meeting. The committee will be reviewing the TwinHills Outline Plan, a Policy Review on Tiering and Securities, the Establishment of a Downtown District, a Guidebook for Great Communities, and the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan.
  
  
• On Thursday there will be a Calgary Planning Commission meeting. The Committee will be reviewing a series of Land Use Amendments for Tuxedo Park, Springbank Hill, Royal Vista, and Belvedere.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Calgary Councillors were busy last week cementing their incumbent advantage with a Ward Boundary review. The City's policy requires an independent non-partisan panel to review ward boundaries as is done federally and provincially, so Council just changed their rules. They made it so that only "major" reviews require the independent panel, and they get to decide on "minor" changes. The problem? Their "minor" changes are nothing of the sort - with even City Staff themselves calling the proposed changes "deliberately provocative". This is an anti-democratic, self-serving move on the part of Council that shouldn't be allowed to proceed.
  
  
• Council claims it had to raise your taxes by 7.5%+ last year because they've already cut to the bone and couldn't possibly find any more savings in their budget. Yet, it turns out that there was $90,000 left in the budget for a taxpayer-funded vacation - sorry, *trade delegation* - to India for the Mayor, Councillor Chahal, and the Mayor's team.
  
  
• Speaking of priorities, the City of Calgary is currently looking for public input for its review of the Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw. Some boffin at City Hall has decided that the City's "Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw", passed only 12 years ago, is out of date and that *this* is what City Staff should be spending their valuable time on right now. Is this really a priority?

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