Kourtney Penner

Yes

Kourtney highlighted that the City should review its hiring policies and examine how services are delivered in order to create stronger pathways into stable employment. She spoke to the importance of pensionable jobs and opportunities for advancement into higher-level roles, as well as expanding partnerships with organizations like the Youth Employment Centre. She emphasized the need for the City to lead by example in its employment practices, considering a social procurement lens, and ensuring that internal job opportunities are more accessible to staff who currently cannot apply for city-contracted positions. Kourtney also raised the question of whether all jobs are being assessed solely on financial terms (aka impact to budget) or whether the quality of those jobs and the opportunities they provide for workers are also being considered.

Rob Ward

Survey Response:

I believe this conversation needs to be a two-way dialogue, not a single pre-determined outcome such as ending all contracting. Contracting decisions affect budgets, service delivery, and long-term workforce planning, so it’s important to fully understand the impacts before making changes.

As a Councillor, I would first seek input from City Administration on how contracting is currently being used, what services are impacted, and what alternatives exist. From there, I’d be open to working with community partners, including your organization, to explore strategies that create more entry-level opportunities for youth and equity-seeking groups, while ensuring taxpayers receive good value for their dollars.

If your group has a draft strategy, I would welcome the chance to review it—it would help speed up the conversation and highlight where we share common ground. While the role of a Councillor isn’t to draft strategies for third-party groups, it is to listen, collaborate, and help shape policies that reflect the needs of all Calgarians.

Alex Williams

Yes

Absolutely work on job strategy for equity seeking communities.

Alex supports the city not contracting out as many jobs including entry level e.g. snow
removal and cleaning. Some points he mentioned: The City in general has better
unions and benefits than the companies that they contract to. From a city perspective,
initially it might look like they are saving money but:

Having different companies do something like clearing snow results in less
efficiency, lower overall quality and inconsistent quality. A lot gets lost and the
city losses control.

If the job is not done correctly in the first place, then city residents can/will call
311 (e.g. poorly cleared transit stations or bad snow removal) and the city
may have to redo the work at increased cost.

Need to increase small business by reducing barrier to start new businesses and
increase reward (may be more federal / taxes)Mixed housing reduces the stigma of subsidized housing etc.