Calgary Minute: Household Income, Deerfoot Trail, and an Electric Fire Truck

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

This Week In Calgary:

• Council is back from recess. The first meeting on the agenda is a meeting of the Executive Committee at 9:30 am on Wednesday. The Committee will hear an update on the Green Line Board’s progress. According to the Board’s report, the Request for Qualifications closed on June 23rd and things are on track to release a Request for Proposals in Q3 of this year.
  
  
• Councillors Jennifer Wyness and Sonya Sharp will bring forward a Notice of Motion at the Executive Committee meeting, relating to Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra’s recent ethics investigation. The Notice of Motion would direct administration to refer the investigation to the Calgary Police Service and the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
  
  
• The Audit Committee will meet on Thursday at 9:30 am. No agenda is available for this meeting. Later in the day, at 1:00 pm, the Calgary Planning Commission will meet to discuss several land use amendments.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Transportation Minister Prasad Panda said the public-private partnership model for funding the upgrades to Deerfoot Trail is off the table. Pricing volatility and high inflation in the construction industry make the approach “not economically viable.” Upgrades will apparently still go ahead during this construction season. The Province is working to identify which areas of the highway are most congested in order to prioritize the upgrades.
  
  
• Calgary’s Fire Chief said negotiations were underway with an American manufacturer to bring an electric fire truck to the city. A test in a cold climate is needed for the trucks, which can run on batteries for 24 hours. There is a diesel motor as backup, in case it isn’t possible to return to the station for the required 90-minute recharge. We note that no cost has been disclosed for this program...
  
  
• Statistics Canada released new information showing that, while household incomes have declined in Alberta, Calgary is still the province’s front-runner. Despite a $5,000 decline since the last census, Calgary households have the highest after-tax income in the country. The average household income after-tax was $87,000 in 2020, down from $92,000 in 2015. Canada's median after-tax household income is $73,000.

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