Calgary Minute: Secondary Suites, Street Lights, and a Chief Housing Officer

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

This Week In Calgary:

• Tomorrow, at 9:30 am, there will be a City Council meeting. Up for discussion is the Winter Maintenance Policy. Administration is recommending a fine of $150 for shovelling snow from your yard or driveway onto public right of way or onto bike lanes. Calgarians have expressed concern with the speed of snow removal service, so Administration is also recommending a faster 24-hour response so that high priority routes would be maintained within a single day. Council will hear a presentation from Administration on the results of their 2024 Spring Research into residents' opinions on City services and their perceptions of living here. According to the presentation, only 48% of Calgarians rate the current economic situation in Calgary as ‘good’, while the perceived value for taxes is down to its lowest level recorded across historical data - only 44% of Calgarians believing they get good value for their tax dollars.
  
  
• On Friday, the City’s calendar notes that space at 9:30 am is “Reserved for Wholly Owned Subsidiaries Annual General Meeting”. No agenda is available for this meeting yet.
  
  
• The City says it is significantly reducing its backlog of burnt-out street lights, thanks to efforts by Iconic Power Systems, which took over maintenance in late 2022. The City previously faced wait times exceeding four months, far surpassing the service level agreement of 14 days. Supply chain issues and contract monitoring inconsistencies contributed to the delays. Now, the backlog is under 500, down from 5,000.

Last Week In Calgary:

• A City Committee has advanced a proposal to incentivize building and registering secondary suites as part of the City's housing strategy. Qualified homeowners could receive up to $10,000 for registering their suite, with additional bonuses for accessibility and energy efficiency. The program aims to support up to 3,000 secondary suites in its first year. This incentive excludes backyard and laneway housing, focusing solely on secondary suites. The Committee's vote to forward the program to Council was 5-2, with Councillors McLean and Chabot in opposition.
  
  
• Calgary has created a new role, the Chief Housing Officer, to oversee the implementation of the City's new housing strategy. The new role will involve coordinating resources across various City departments and collaborating with non-profits, private sector entities, and other government levels. The City hopes that, similar to its downtown strategy, this focused approach will yield significant results. The position offers a salary between $140,000 and $210,000 annually, with the hiring process expected to conclude within a few months. Speaking of hiring, Tim Keane, who recently began his role as the City’s General Manager of Planning and Development Services, resigned just over a month into the job. The City announced on Tuesday that Keane stepped down due to personal and family reasons.
  
  
• Thousands of City workers have voted to authorize their union to take strike action after three unsuccessful negotiation attempts with the City. CUPE 38, which represents the City’s development workers, bylaw staff, engineering techs, water treatment staff, administrative workers, utility and construction technicians, social workers, urban planners, and Calgary Police Service civilian staff, said that 4,200 out of 5,600 union members voted, with 89% favouring a strike. Key issues include wages not keeping up with inflation and insufficient work-from-home flexibility. Negotiations have been ongoing since November, with mediation starting in March, but no resolution has been reached. If no agreement is achieved, the union may escalate to rotating strikes.

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