Calgary Minute: Transit Recovery, Event Centre, and Park Smoking Ban

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

This Week In Calgary:

• There will be a meeting of the Community Development Committee on Tuesday at 1:00 pm. The Committee will focus on the Calgary Climate Strategy – Pathways to 2050 report. If you're worried that sounds expensive, you're right. Administration are proposing the following mechanisms to pay for the climate action: Property taxes, municipal climate tax, off-site levies, franchise fees, user and service fees, bonds, climate bonds, tax incentives, direct incentives, loans, and more.
  
  
• A brand new grassroots school choice organization is bringing their 23-stop education tour to Calgary tomorrow evening. The Alberta Parents’ Union is an organization of Alberta parents advocating for the best possible education for all Alberta students - whether that be public, separate, francophone, alternative, charter, independent, or home education. Their in-person town hall event, which you can register for here, takes place at the Cedarbrae Community Centre at 6:30 pm. Check them out if you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, or just a taxpayer interested in education policy.
  
  
• On Thursday, the Calgary Planning Commission will meet at 1:00 pm to discuss three land use amendments. There will also be a confidential discussion about the Westbrook Local Area Plan. The Event Centre Committee meeting that was scheduled for June 1st has been cancelled. The next planned meeting of the committee is currently scheduled for July 4th.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Calgary Transit officials shared a number of initiatives with Council as part of a recovery strategy intended to address recent disorder on public transit and encourage ridership. Reduced fares in August and September, restoration of pre-pandemic service levels, and upgrading CCTV cameras are among the initiatives. Presently, only 59% of those who were using transit regularly pre-COVID are continuing to do so.
  
  
• The City has recruited executives from the commercial real-estate sector to help get an event centre deal back on track. The City’s Planning and Development Manager said there is still no definitive commitment or timeline for a new agreement. However, the Stockton Heat, an affiliate team of the Calgary Flames, will be relocating from California to Calgary for next season, perhaps indicating that at least someone believes a deal could be made?
  
  
• A Council Committee supported a plan to ban smoking and vaping from City parks and pathways. Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra said he supports the initiative as a way of “having as few people addicted to nicotine as possible.” There could still be designated smoking areas for festivals and events, but these would be intended as a transitional measure until an outright ban is put in place. The plan will be discussed at an upcoming Council meeting.

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