Calgary Minute: Safety Hub, New Communities, and Child Care Regulations

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

This Week In Calgary:

• Today is Heritage Day. If you have the day off and are looking for some family fun, Heritage Park has a whole slate of activities and events planned. Council is also in recess this week, but the Calgary Planning Commission will meet on Thursday at 1:00 pm to discuss a few land use amendments.
  
  
• The City is seeking feedback from residents who live in the vicinity of major outdoor events. The intention is to develop recommendations to provide needed supports and services to “mitigate community impacts.” Hopefully, this engagement will not be used as an excuse for the City to behave like the fun police or to shut down more protests.
  
  
• A new safety hub, with access to police services and the Alpha House Society’s Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership program (DOAP), is now open in East Village. Crimes cannot be reported at the hub, but there will be uniformed officers and social supports available. The three-year pilot project is modelled after the Stephen Avenue safety hub.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Council voted not to refer Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra to the Police for his repeated failure to disclose a financial interest in a property. The vote failed on a 7-7 tie after Mayor Gondek and Councillors Demong, Penner, Mian, Dhaliwal, Pootmans, and Walcott all voted against. At least one Councillor said they voted against the motion because the Mayor told Council that the Integrity Commissioner had the power to recommend a referral to police as one of their sanctions, but chose not to do so. Only after the meeting was finished was it revealed that this was not correct, and the Integrity Commissioner does not have this power.
  
  
• A City committee unanimously approved a proposal to introduce business licenses for child care facilities in Calgary in an attempt to crack down on unregulated day homes. The changes mean day homes operating without provincial regulation will have to meet standards like first-aid certification and police checks for all adults in the home. If approved at a future, full meeting of City Council, new standards would be in place for 2023.
  
  
• Council gave the green light to five new communities, with three more on deck for approval at a later date. The approved communities, none of which require new capital funding, are located on the outskirts of the city and are called Lewiston, Belvedere West, Seton Ridge, Logan Landing, and Nostalgia. Will residents of Nostalgia get to pay the much lower tax rates we used to have in Calgary back in the day? Those were the days!

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