Calgary Minute: Issue 372

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

📅 This Week In Calgary: 📅

• The City of Calgary cannot actively campaign for Alberta to remain in Canada, though its elected officials can, Council heard at its June 30th meeting. Mayor Jeromy Farkas asked Administration during question period what legal authority the City has to advocate for Alberta remaining a Canadian province, ahead of October's provincial referendum asking voters whether Alberta should stay in Canada or begin the legal process toward a binding vote on separation. Lynne Davies, the director of the City's legal department, replied that the Municipal Government Act allows the City to research the potential impacts of secession, or commission a third party to do so, but said the law is unclear on how the City could frame or publish those findings without implicitly promoting an outcome. She added that individual members of Council are free to campaign for or against the referendum question. Farkas later told reporters the municipality should be allowed to take a firmer stand, alleging the pro-separation campaign is backed by foreign interference and "dark money", and claiming that a quarter to a third of the bots engaging on social media come from jurisdictions like Estonia and Russia. In May, he held a news conference criticizing the provincial government's decision to include the separation question on the fall ballot, arguing it threatens investor confidence in Calgary regardless of the outcome.
  
  
• The Beltline Neighbourhoods Association is aiming to launch a pilot project in the summer of 2027 that would close part of 17th Avenue S.W. to cars, likely between Fourth and Eighth Streets and possibly limited to weekends. The association had hoped a car-free stretch would happen this year after releasing a survey suggesting broad support, but public art director Peter Oliver says the group is moving at the pace businesses are comfortable with, and an announcement is not expected until next spring. Oliver claims the closure would affect only a small percentage of parking in the area and could boost local businesses while cutting traffic noise. The City says there are no plans in the works to pedestrianize part of 17th Avenue, noting a program of this scale would require significant planning and strong support from local businesses. Ernie Tsu, who heads the Alberta Hospitality Association and owns Trolley 5 Brewpub on the affected stretch, says he can't see the pilot happening without a definitive plan for executing it safely, pointing to ongoing disorder on Stephen Avenue, where Calgary police recently announced increased foot patrols for the summer. Inglewood tested car-free Sundays on part of Ninth Avenue S.E. in recent years, but the program was dropped after most businesses opposed it and some reported that sales took a hit.
  
  
• Public safety is also a focus across the transit system, where Calgary Transit has added 34 new peace officers, bringing the city's total to 212, after a graduation ceremony at the Mewata Armoury. Cory Porter, deputy chief of transit public safety, says the goal is to restore public confidence in the transit system, and that the new officers are arriving at the perfect time with the Calgary Stampede underway. CTrain service is running 24 hours a day until the morning of July 13th, and Calgary Transit says additional Stampede safety measures include extra security guards, an enhanced partnership with the Calgary Police Service, additional peace officer patrols throughout the system, and officers stationed at the Erlton/Stampede and Victoria Park/Stampede stations at all times. Council approved a $9-million investment in Calgary Transit safety through the 2026 Budget, including additional security and community outreach. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583 president Mike Mahar welcomed the new officers, saying transit has been running short-staffed for a long time and that more visible deterrents are something the union welcomes. The City says the CTrain is one of the busiest light rail systems on the continent, with more than 150,000 passenger trips every weekday.
  
  
• Marda Loop businesses and residents say monthly maintenance on the neighbourhood's new permeable paving stones is taking away street parking just as the area recovers from years of major construction. The City installed the stones last year on 18th Street S.W., 19th Street S.W., and 36th Avenue S.W. to help manage stormwater drainage, but businesses were recently informed the stones require two to four days of maintenance every month from May to October, with no street parking during the work. Marie Guechi, manager of Al Frache's Flowers, says customers picking up large floral arrangements have to carry them to another street, and some have stopped visiting the store altogether because they couldn't find parking nearby. Resident Paige Knight says she can't park within a block and a half of her own house during the work, even though her partner is awaiting a hip replacement. The City claims it is phasing the work to avoid blocking any business for the entire period, and says maintenance will drop to twice a year or less once the warranty period ends in 2027. Altadore Dental owner Sean Pack describes the situation as the last straw after years of construction disruptions, questioning whether the paving stones were worth installing when the asphalt they replaced required far less maintenance.
  
  
• Residents of Albert Park and Radisson Heights are petitioning the City to re-evaluate a housing development planned for the Franklin LRT station's park-and-ride lot in southeast Calgary. The six-storey project, led by affordable housing provider Onward Homes, would deliver approximately 350 apartment units on the lot south of Memorial Drive, with about half rented at below-market rates to seniors, low-income families, and tenants with disabilities. It would be the first CTrain park-and-ride lot converted into a transit-oriented development, one of the tenets of the housing strategy Council approved in 2023, and the previous Council unanimously supported the project's rezoning in November 2024, with a development permit submitted in June now under review. Neighbouring residents argue the development would remove 400 parking stalls and worsen traffic and parking congestion in the area. Petition organizer Ida Stanley disputes the City's claim that the lot is only 50%-60% full on average, and says the roughly 200-stall lot north of Memorial Drive that the City recommends instead is similarly full, meaning commuters are being asked to use the CTrain more even as it becomes "impossible to use". Community association board member Les Burton says the City's parking data was collected before transit ridership rebounded from the pandemic, and questions why the housing couldn't be built elsewhere. Similar conversions are being explored at other CTrain stations, including Westbrook, while the Calgary Municipal Land Corp. examines the feasibility of the Anderson, Fish Creek-Lacombe and Dalhousie park-and-ride lots.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

While the City can research and report on the potential impacts of Alberta separating from Canada, it cannot actively campaign for either side of the upcoming referendum under current provincial law.

Individual Councillors, however, are free to publicly support or oppose separation.

Do you think municipalities should be allowed to campaign for or against Alberta separation, or should they remain neutral? Should Councillors be allowed to campaign in either direction?

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