Calgary Minute: Urban Hens, Public Art, and Even More Spending

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

This Week In Calgary:

• Thanks to some cancellations, what was looking like a very busy week at City Hall will now be somewhat more manageable. Both the Strategic Meeting of Council planned for today, and the Standing Policy Committee on Transportation and Transit planned for Wednesday have been cancelled.
  
  
• That means the week at City Hall will start with a Priorities and Finance Committee meeting at 9:30 am on Tuesday which will, amongst other things, review the Terms of Reference of the City's corporate welfare slush-fund (officially, the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund). Interestingly, the new Terms of Reference add a requirement that all applications to receive grants from the fund must be made in writing - something you'd think would have already been expected for a $100 million fund, wouldn't you? Could this have something to do with the sudden departure of the head of the fund less than two weeks ago? Given this involves taxpayer money, if any of our readers have an inside tip as to what happened, feel free to email us what you know and we'll guarantee your anonymity.
  
  
• The Green Line Committee will meet at 9:30 am on Wednesday to discuss how to spend the $4 million allocated in the project to public art. Remember, everything the City builds must, according to City policy, include in its budget a percentage of money to be spent on public art. The latest plan by the Green Line fans is to spend the money on a garden. One question left unanswered... if the Green Line doubles in price again, does the City have to double the public art spending too? A Calgary Planning Commission meeting will also happen on Thursday at 1:00 pm.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The Repsol Sport Centre will be getting a new multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded makeover after a council committee approved a $45 million expansion. The City claims the facility is in need of a massive overhaul that could cost in excess of $100 million overall. So much for the cupboard being bare!
  
  
• Several changes to Calgary's responsible pet ownership bylaw have been made, including rules that would permit Calgarians to own "urban hens" in their backyards. Bad cluck for those wanting to own rural hens. Is this really a priority right now?
  
  
• Could this year's COVID-summer include enjoying a cold one in one of your favourite Calgary parks? Council voted 12-2 to relax liquor restrictions at yet-to-be-determined sites as part of a pilot project. The spots will require reservations, or some kind of first-come-first-serve system though, which seems a bit bureaucratic. We're still not sure why we need to pilot something that is perfectly normal in thousands of other cities around the world, but it's progress at least!

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