Survey Responses:

Question 1.1:

Do you think municipal taxes should:

a) Reduce in absolute terms
b) Reduce in real terms (grow, but slower than inflation)
c) Reduce in relative terms (grow, but slower than inflation plus population growth)
d) Stay the same (grow, but only in line with inflation plus population growth)
e) Increase a bit (grow in line with the city’s Municipal Price Index)
f) Increase more (grow faster than the city’s Municipal Price Index)

Answer 1.1 [Choose One]:

a) Reduce in absolute terms

Question 1.2:

Comments?

Answer/Comments 1.2:

The entire 7 years of the Nenshi Regime have seen skyrocketing Property Taxes for both residential and commercial properties. And the constant proliferation of utilities rate riders. We need to grow the economy by lowering the take of taxes and reducing the number of non-mandated causes the City has involved itself in under the identity politics tribalism Nenshi has devolved our City down to.

Question 2.1:

Would you vote in favour of allocating any tax dollars or giving any subsidy towards a new stadium/arena?

Answer 2.1 [Yes/No Only]:

Yes.

Question 2.2:

If yes, how much and in what form would these taxes take (direct cash, land, subsidy, indirect, etc), and why do you support public dollars being directed towards a corporation?

Answer/Comments 2.2:

50/50% split, with the Flames leasing the building from the City for 35 years.
I do not favor the use of the CFL, as the taxes diverted from the surrounding business goes only to the district involved and further burdens the entire of the remaining taxpayers. No property taxation (this is our premier sport, would we property tax the special Olympics too?)

I think of the Arena as a necessary type of civic bonding glue.  A building capable of holding far more regular citizens than the entire staff of the City. It is a reminder to all that the City is a delegated Servant of the citizens who make up the bulk of the City.  And having a building for other realms of citizen action other than government action is both symbolically and physically a reminder of that Servant Relationship.

    It is threatening to a #Socialust Administration, to have one building in town that dwarfs the size of the civic government itself. And it restores at least occasionally, the proper sense of proportionality between a representative government, and the greater public it serves.

#Socialust Politicians are not members of the economically productive class, but from an intelligentsia that produces negative human capital. This stems from their negative attitude towards those with productive capacity to advance the civic economy.  Their education is in the ‘soft’ subjects of the politics of resentment, skilled in fostering hostility towards producers.

     They ooze Redistribution not Production by proliferating ethnic and urban fad identity movements. The Subversion of the good of the whole to the conflicting dynamics of tribalism.

Question 3.1:

Recent research on Calgary’s City Council found that council spends nearly a quarter of its’ time meeting in private (in camera). Do you agree that this is too much time spent in private?

Answer 3.1 [Yes/No Only]:

Yes.

Question 3.2:

If so, what would you do to fix this? Which topics do you believe should be discussed behind closed doors and why?

Answer/Comments 3.2:

Only personnel matters that need to be confidential or land sale negotiations. The average mean of in camera meetings in Canada for cities is 7% of the meeting time and that should be our maximum of time spent, if not lower.

Question 4.1:

From the $470,000 Blue Ring, to the $236,000 for a “Poop Palace”, and now another $500,000 for Bowfort Towers, council has consistently failed to engage with Calgarians about which public Art projects their tax dollars are spent on. Do you support continuing to use taxpayer dollars to fund art projects for the city?

Answer 4.1 [Yes/No Only]:

Yes. 

Question 4.2:

If yes, why do you think council and administration have repeatedly failed on this issue, and what guidelines should be used to ensure Calgarians are happy with the results in future?

Answer/Comments 4.2:

I have been in Council when most of these issues were discussed in the last four years and have criticized both the amount of subsidies and groups qualifying for them. The Public Art selection committee has been particularly elitist and seems to prize offending public sensibilities by choosing the ultra-uber and outrageous. Not only is the Art misplaced, but it adds nothing to the Public appreciation in these stated examples.

Question 5:

How can council support small businesses?

Answer 5:

We need to free them from the shackles of excessive taxation, regulation, and punitive parking rates in the Core. The police patrols of the business districts must be increased, the Community Standards Bylaws enforced (Google Broken Window Theory) We must encourage business to diversify and find their uniquely gifted specialties (proper division of labor – via Ludwig Von Mises economics.) 

We need to withdraw the City from competing with local business and get it back into its mandated realm of governance. Sub contracting more efficiently where private enterprise can best us. Lowering utilites rate riders, stop slush fund kickbacks from Enmax overcharging.

Question 6.1:

Do you support the current plan for construction of the Green Line?

Answer 6.1 [Yes/No Only]:

No.

Question 6.2:

The construction of the Green Line was approved based on a cost-benefit analysis that assumed the project would be completed two years earlier than now projected, and at a lower construction cost for the entire line than is now estimated for half of the line. If the costs increase again or the project is further delayed, would you continue to support it, and why?

Answer/Comment 6.2:

I think by the time the first half is built, which will provide no viable ridership at all, the technology of the autonomous vehicles will soon overtake the need for mass transit. As we see, mostly empty buses most of the day, the bus system is already overbuilt and under utilized.

We are better off doing the extensions by buses until we can see the ridership and the funding. The concept of TOD underlying it all is going to be leapfrogged over by new technology. I am all for encouraging the far more economically dynamic use of the automobile and truck.

Question 7.1:

In July, City Council voted against a motion to hold a referendum/plebiscite on whether Calgary should bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics bid. Do you support holding a referendum / plebiscite on whether Calgary should bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics bid?

Answer 7.1 [Yes/No Only]:

Yes.

Question 7.2:

Why do you support/oppose a public vote? Should the results of a vote should be binding?

Answer/Comment 7.2:

Unfortunately, it would be far more expensive apart from a municipal election. Such a vote by provincial law cannot be made binding on the Council.

The Olympics are possible only with a speedy resolving of the Arena issue and a massive cut back of City expenses, programs, and staffing (about a 1/3 staff cut needed).