Calgary Minute: Stampede Struggles, Mandatory Masks, and a Drug Reform Proposal

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

This Week In Calgary:

• This afternoon there will be a Green Line Committee meeting. Council plans to hire a Board to manage the Green Line construction project and they will also receive a confidential verbal update from administration.
  
  
• On Tuesday there will be a Priorities and Finance Committee meeting in the morning, and a Council Compensation Review Committee meeting in the afternoon (which is only scheduled to hear two secret reports).
  
  
• On Wednesday morning there will be a Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development meeting. On Wednesday afternoon there will be a Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services meeting. On Thursday afternoon there will be a Calgary Planning Commission meeting.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The cancellation of Stampede has hit local businesses hard when they're already down. Bookings and foot traffic are down significantly during what is normally a very busy time of year for many bars and restaurants.
  
  
• Mayor Nenshi is considering implementing a mandatory mask bylaw for Calgary. He told the media that the City could make masks mandatory in all public indoor spaces within two weeks if more Calgarians don't wear face coverings. The Calgary zone, with nearly 1.4 million people, has about 228 COVID-19 cases, with 15 in hospital, and 3 in intensive care - putting the City well below the 50 cases per 100,000 people level that is being used as a benchmark by the province to indicate a low level of risk with no additional restrictions being needed.
  
  
• Calgary Police have joined calls for Canada to decriminalize personal drug possession as a means of protecting vulnerable populations. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has proposed increased access to health care, treatment and social services to divert people away from the criminal justice system and a national task force to research further drug policy reform.

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