Kourtney Penner

Yes

Kourtney recognized that renters are under significant stress and require greater supports. She noted that the City has already contributed $10 million to the United Way to help individuals with urgent needs such as utility payments. She also emphasized that the City can play a role in encouraging innovative approaches, such as promoting energy-saving measures, which can help reduce costs for renters in the long term.

Kourtney stressed that land is a key factor in addressing the housing crisis. What the City is able to contribute is land, while the provincial and federal governments need to provide the funding required for building non-market housing in Calgary. She is currently part of a core housing team working on these issues. As part of our discussion, Kourtney suggested that one way to improve how land is allocated would be to change the non-market sale process so that housing providers could first identify the type of housing they want to create, and then the City could match that with an appropriate parcel of land, rather than starting with land availability alone. She underlined that rezoning remains an important part of this process.

Rob Ward

Survey Response:

Yes

Affordable housing is a serious issue, and I agree the City has a role to play—but we need to be clear about what that role is. The provincial and federal governments are responsible for funding rent supports and social housing programs. The City should not be duplicating these responsibilities with taxpayer dollars. Instead, my role as Councillor would be to advocate strongly to other levels of government to ensure Calgary receives its fair share of funding, while also supporting local nonprofits and housing providers who already deliver these programs more effectively.

Where the City can make a real difference is by ensuring land-use decisions make sense. That means:

• Prioritizing growth near transit corridors, major roads, and underused commercial areas where infrastructure already exists.
• Avoiding blanket rezoning that overrides community input and creates uncertainty for homeowners.
• Making surplus City-owned land available for housing projects where appropriate, but with clear conditions that ensure accountability, financial responsibility, and community benefit.

At the end of the day, the City should focus on removing barriers, improving permitting timelines, and maintaining the core services that make Calgary an attractive place to build. But it cannot become the developer, banker, or landlord—that’s not sustainable and would only drive up property taxes further, making affordability worse.

Alex William

Yes

Reiterated his experience of the frustration from taking three months to find rental accommodations.

How will you work with us to expand and better coordinate rent supports for
renters in crisis?

• • will ensure that renters have the protection they need
  • make it easier to legalize suites and to determine how to do that
  • will investigate the possibility of backyard suites
  • will advocate for rental protection
  • will advocate for resources available for renters to access
  • will advocate for programs, incentives education, funding that is needed to
    support renters

Alex was asked what he thought about developers who promised significant affordable
housing units in a building and then cut the number of affordable units in half or more.
Alex said that work needs to be done to sort out the holes and plug them in the system.

How will you ensure that sufficient land is made available for affordable housing
and zoned appropriately, and, before being released?

• • Rezoning (to R-CG) the city is a good start
  • non-market housing providers have been investigating the use of the
    under-utilized land in the city
  • work with private homeowners
  • look at a new plan for Macleod Trail which has access to transit and could
    be developed to provide housing integrated with businesses
  • different options for housing within communities