Calgary Minute: Electronic Voting, Calgary Police, and Even More Spending

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

This Week In Calgary:

• This morning there will be a Combined Meeting of Council. Council will review several items, including transit ridership, a mid-year risk management update, and the agenda item we're most excited about - an update on Council's implementation of electronic voting for Councillors during council meetings! If we're lucky, the hundreds of hours a year we spend building our data set to track how your councillor votes can be reallocated to the creation of funnier emails! Cross your fingers, people!
  
  
• On Wednesday morning, there will be a meeting of the Standing Policy Committee on Utilities and Corporate Services. The Committee will be reviewing the findings of the Alberta Collaborative Extended Producer Responsibility Study. So, if you're interested in watching Council make a bureaucratic mess of something that could be easily solved using free markets and prices, tune in!
  
  
• On Thursday morning, there will be an Audit Committee meeting, and in the afternoon, there will be a Calgary Planning Commission meeting. The Audit Committee will review a Strategic Update for Finance on Budgeting and Risk, and the SAVE Program Preliminary Results and action items. The Planning Commission will review several Land Use Amendments.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The City of Calgary reviewed the Calgary Police Commissions' efforts on Anti-Racism, Equality, and Inclusion. While the meeting mostly served to showcase the terrifying amount of Marxist rhetoric infiltrating Council and Administration, Councillor Farkas' also sent a clear message to frontline officers: "I do not think the foundation of your work, your passion, your professionalism and your career is racist. I cannot sign on to this idea policing is fundamentally racist. Are there racist cops out there? Absolutely. We have to bring the hammer down on them. But the rest is nonsense." Hear! Hear!
  
  
• Another week, another brazen episode of politician knows best. Mayor Naheed Nenshi put his foot in his mouth, telling restaurant and bar owners that they should try to keep outdoor dining going. Actual business owners were quick to point out that it's more complicated than it sounds - which is the polite way of reminding the Mayor about a silly little thing called winter.
  
  
• Calgary Economic Development announced they will be spending another $8.2 million of your tax dollars on a SAIT program to "develop tech talent". That sounds fine on the face of it, but last time we checked, higher education is a provincial responsibility and Calgary residents and businesses already pay provincial taxes. When will Council finally decide to focus on *their* jobs, rather than everyone else's?

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