Thank you to everyone who spoke at council, contacted your city councillors, posted to social media and put forward written submissions regarding the 11 new communities. Your actions have had an impact.

Two years ago, Calgary City Council approved 14 new communities when growth projections showed we only needed 8. This resulted in an additional $55 million in costs each year to our city, and a month later, we found ourselves needing to fight $60 million dollars of cuts to city services for the city’s most vulnerable.  

Your action has contributed to this. 

The final decision on these communities has been moved to November 2nd. The week before Council begins the budget debate. This will more accurately tie the decision regarding these communities to the budget impacts they will have. 

We are asking you to keep taking action, to ensure that development is balanced with the need to care for our City’s most vulnerable, to preserve public transportation, and to strengthen our communities during this time. 

 

We are asking you to:

1. Attend our fall assembly on October 29th at 7:00 pm – your presence will communicate our shared strength which the Council needs to take into account while making decisions. You can register for our assembly and receive the zoom link by going to: https://www.calgarycommongood.org/calgary_alliance_for_the_common_good_fall_assembly.

 

2. Continue to write and be in contact with your City Councillor. The key messages they need to hear are that we as citizens want them to prioritize:

1. Preserving services that keep our city strong.
2. Preserving and restoring public transit.
3. Addressing policing issues by expanding the Police and Crisis Teams and also by expanding the Indigenous Liaison Program through creation of an Indigenous Liaison Officer in each of the Police districts. 

 

3. Be in contact with your city councillor, and make it clear to them that we are calling on them to prioritize listening to citizens and not solely to the developers who are paying for their re-election campaigns.

On Monday, citizens had an opportunity to speak to City Council only after the Council provided developers the opportunity to speak for over 6 hours. From the perspective of many of us watching the Council meeting, most City Councillors were not even listening at the time citizens were allowed to speak, as only Mayor Nenshi and Councillor Farrell gave responses and had questions for the public. When you are in contact with your City Councillor, ask them if they were listening when citizens spoke at Council and if so, what key points citizens made.