My Priorities

We must ensure the right people are at the table to be able to take meaningful action. We must rely on the expertise of the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee (CAUAC) and Indigenous leaders, while bringing together city administrators, Councillors, and private and non-profit community members. We need people who have lived experiences to help shape our future, and we need truth before reconciliation.
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At the same time, we cannot just depend on a working group. We must make this a part of our everyday conversation, building awareness around how each and every citizen can play a role in creating a shared future of awareness, healing, understanding, acceptance, and collaboration.

City leaders must help build connections and equip young people with the knowledge to ensure the horrors of our past do not reoccur in our future. To do this, we must strengthen our collaboration with local school boards and post-secondary institutions to create an environment of understanding and shared learning. The past cannot equal the future.

Together, we can create rich learning opportunities and deeper understanding for young Calgarians through story sharing with Indigenous youth and elders, Indigenous speakers’ series, student exchanges and project collaborations.

There also needs to be more focus on giving Indigenous youth a large-scale platform to share their talents and big ideas, to make connections in their passion areas, and to meet potential mentors, collaborators, funders, and sponsors. Through partnerships with the private sector, we can create a robust long-term program to provide opportunities for Indigenous youth to pursue their dreams, and help influence and build a positive and inclusive future for all Calgarians.

Public safety and the economy go hand-in-hand. The continually declining economy in Calgary has led to deteriorating public safety. We need economic diversification more than ever. This can no longer be a conversation without action.

Frontline workers are increasingly having to deal with multiple issues of not only crime but social disorder. Mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, abuse, and antisocial behavior occur on a  daily basis. These issues are straining the system and preventing resources from being allocated to proactive or preventative measures. We need the right resources working on the right problems. We need our first responders to be trained, resourced, and supported accordingly.

From a funding perspective, I feel it is critical to have our emergency services personnel at the table during budget development as they know best where the gaps, pitfalls, and overlaps occur. Nobody is asking for a blank cheque. That is not the answer. However, we need to trust our emergency service personnel to help identify how to better fund their areas. We need to ensure they are receiving the funding they need to protect citizens and to properly address the complex issues they are facing on a daily basis.

We need to ensure that there are appropriate systems of accountability in place to ensure funds are going where they are needed most, and that root causes of issues are being addressed. Our collective safety and wellbeing depend on it.

Our first responders do a great job in facing all the different challenges of life in a modern city. The different departments need to continue to use metrics to analyze performance, use information management to be more efficient, and to continue to push for a more diverse workforce. Further examination is needed to determine where there are opportunities to add expertise in de-escalation and service delivery.

City Council must support progress in these areas.

Estimates suggest that 17,000 families in Calgary are at immediate risk of experiencing homelessness because of their level of income.

Lower-income individuals and families often need to make compromises to find or keep housing they can afford. These compromises may pose health and safety risks for these individuals and families.

‍For Calgary to thrive, it needs to be accessible to all.

Housing is not only fundamental to people’s quality of life, it’s also a smart investment.

Proactive investment has proven to be much more cost-effective than emergency responses to homelessness. It costs more to ignore our housing problem than it would to fix it. Consider the estimate that homelessness alone costs the Canadian economy over $7-billion per year. While the Government of Canada invests $119-million annually to address homelessness through the Homelessness Partnering Strategy (provinces and municipalities also invest), this is not sufficient to address the problem and as a result has not led to a noticeable reduction in homelessness in Calgary.

Calgary must continue to expand on the different types of affordable housing options for individuals and families. We need supportive, emergency, and transitional housing for people in need. Cooperative housing and non-profit housing for those looking to secure safe, affordable, and sustainable housing. Private developers also have a role with purpose-built secondary units, secondary suites, and rent to own. Furthermore, Calgary needs to partner with impact investing organizations as this will lead to predictable, long-term funding while at the same time generate additional revenue sources for the city's tax base.

The location of affordable housing must work hand in hand with public transit and other amenities. Planning must also take into consideration the service needs for Calgary’s diverse residents, including newcomers and Indigenous people. Accessibility requirements must be taken into account when designing new structures or retrofitting existing buildings, and this means people with lived experiences must be part of the solution.

We know we can't fix the affordable housing crisis on our own.

In Canada, affordable housing policy is defined by the Federal and Provincial governments who also provide funding for building and maintaining affordable housing properties. This is detailed in the Municipal Government Act, so the responsibility for affordable housing technically rests with the province. Calgary needs to be more involved and active in solving affordable housing issues. Accessibility, predictability, and reliability are critical in supporting our vulnerable and under-employed citizens. The City of Calgary needs to take a stronger stance in working with the Provincial and Federal Governments to ensure funding is secured and policies are in place to address housing issues.

Contrary to what some candidates will tell you, the city is capable of finding savings without having to simply raise tax rates. Every business that I have been involved in has efficiencies that can be realized. It’s amazing what can happen when the right people are at the table asking the right questions.
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An example of this is the  Solutions for Achieving Value and Excellence (SAVE) program. SAVE was designed to increase service efficiency and effectiveness of the city by reducing the cost of government and helping the City get value for every dollar spent. It has been a success so far, saving $26-million in 2020 as highlighted by Ernst & Young who oversees the program. This is the accountability that we need and should expect.

We need to find even more ways to save throughout the city budget and, with my experience, we can do it in a responsible manner.At the same time, Calgary’s infrastructure gap keeps widening. The city’s infrastructure status report showed the funding gap has increased from $5.7 billion in 2017 to $7.7 billion in 2020. We need to hold the Province to their previous financial commitments. We can no longer afford to send forty percent of our tax base to the Province without sharing the financial responsibilities of maintaining our capital infrastructure. If we don’t act soon, this burden will be left to future taxpayers. Furthemore,  If we fail to address this issue there will be an increased risk of service disruption, higher maintenance costs, and — most importantly — safety concerns.

The Province needs to do their share, and we need to hold them accountable. Municipal politics is about municipal issues. It is not about political ideologies, it is about providing Calgary taxpayers with the services we pay for. Calgary needs to be governed by Calgarians, not ideology that is outdated and ineffective. Municipal politics should not be a stepping stone for provincial or federal political gain, it should be about us, our neighbors, and our future.

Kudos to the City of Calgary for trying to keep zero tax increases while maintaining the same level of services. However, the unpopular reality is that we can’t keep property taxes below inflation forever without seeing cuts to frontline services like police, fire, rescue personnel, and critical infrastructure maintenance.

So what can we do to prevent tax increases but retain services?

One major fix is to change the funding equation. As it stands, two-thirds of residential property tax goes to pay for city services while the other third goes back to the province, which has its own means, beyond assessment-based property tax, to raise revenue.

The City is being stuck with the bill for an increased number of services. According to some experts, Calgary is now responsible for about 61 different services for its residents, which has gone up relative to the other orders of government over the last three decades.

‍We need to sit down with the Province and get a better deal for Calgary and Calgarians.
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We must have a serious conversation with our neighbouring cities who take advantage of our tax-funded public infrastructure (recreation facilities, roads, transit, housing, and airport infrastructure) while enjoying tax breaks in their own jurisdictions.

Lastly, City Hall has done well with its equity investment in Enmax. The city made a surplus of $98 million from its investment. We need to expand these types of relationships. We need to attract more private investment to help spread out the tax burden. We can no longer afford our current public/private investment ratio - this needs to change.

We must offer fair, market-rate compensation — not more — to attract and retain talented, capable employees.
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Morneau Shepell and the Wynford Group did a review of Total Compensation for City Employees in 2020. The reviewers found Calgary was “generally competitive with the combined competitive market and is slightly ahead of the public sector and slightly behind the private sector for base salary.”

We hear a lot about supplementary pension plans. Most City employees (88 per cent) do not participate in a supplemental pension plan and if they do, they pay into it.

I support what Council did in late 2019 when they ended the practice of paying out large retirement bonuses to compensate for vacation time over the employees career. That was the right thing to do because there was no evidence that it helped attract or retain employees.

People, not politicians, should be in charge of setting compensation and benefits for the City Council.

We need to give the experts on the Council Compensation Review Committee the respect they deserve and honour their recommendations. Compensation is largely based on the Alberta Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) calculation.

I am a strong supporter of the Green Line and am pleased to see that it will finally be moving forward. It is two years overdue.

The Green Line is the largest public infrastructure project in Alberta’s history and it will kick start our economy by creating 20,000 jobs. I want to put people back to work, both directly and indirectly.

In addition to the badly needed economic stimulus in the near term, the Green Line brings future benefits like increased business activity and higher home values in the communities that surround the LRT.

Transit connects all of Calgary’s different business centers. Labour mobility increases economic activity by enabling workers to access jobs and employers a larger pool of workers. Strong public transit will connect the residential communities to the places they study, work, and play.

We need to think of all the externalities that come with public transit, such as reduced costs for road maintenance and the lower health care costs associated with traffic accidents. It’s also key to reducing our carbon footprint and the costs of climate change.
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The Green line is a major investment that will transform the future of our city. It’s expected to give 65,000 Calgarians an easier, greener, more affordable way to get where they want to go.

Improved transit is not going to eliminate traffic on roads. However, there is data to show that high-quality transit provides a viable alternative to driving, especially highly congested roads. Increased public transit will take pressure off major arteries like MacLeod Trail and Deerfoot Trail.

Road maintenance is a major and growing financial expense. Ring road construction has not even been completed across the city and we are already spending $48 million to maintain, improve, and widen it. City of Calgary workers do well to fill potholes, but they never stop coming and it is dependent on the weather. Costs to maintain our roads are only going to increase, and we need more efficient, economic, and environmentally friendly ways to move people in a timely and reliable manner.

Calgary has an average transportation network, and it needs to be better. Many people do not have the luxury of owning a vehicle. They are expensive to buy and maintain, causing major financial strain. However, choosing to take transit over owning a car is not an option for many people, especially those in Ward 13, not to mention all of the citizens who are unable to drive for a variety of reasons. Transit has not caught up to all of the development that has taken place in many parts of Ward 13. In some circumstances riders cannot get to all corners of the city from Ward 13 on a 90-minute pass. This is unacceptable as it limits choice and freedom to choose where to work and go to school based on time constraints.

We have a long way to go to make public transit the transportation mode of first choice. However, there are enormous environmental, economic, and social benefits to creating a viable alternative to single-occupant vehicle traffic. Great cities are able to move all people, not just those who are able to drive.

The reality is, young adults are leaving to find jobs elsewhere. In a City of Calgary survey, 60 percent of 18-24 year olds said they’d leave to find “better job opportunities elsewhere.” This is not surprising considering the unemployment rate for this demographic hovers around 18%, which is twice the provincial average.

I recognize that the oil and gas sector has been the bedrock of our economy for decades. However, I agree with our largest energy companies that we need to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will require a massive transition in the kinds of jobs available and the skills required. We must move to immediately fund and scale short-term programs to re-skill workers to prepare for the jobs of the future.

Research by BCG, cited by Calgary Economic Development, indicates approximately half our workforce is at risk of automation in the next 20 years. We have world-class colleges and universities in Calgary, and we need to leverage their expertise in preparing our workforce for the future.

As City Councillor for Ward 13, I will be a champion for our city’s high school and post-secondary institutions. This means advocating to the Province for increased operating funding to create more student spaces, as well as working with institutions to create opportunities to expand work-integrated learning programs within the City of Calgary.

At the same time, there is room for growth in many other job-creating industries, such as our creative industries. In fact, the economic and strategic impact of Calgary’s creative industries cannot be overstated. Calgary’s creative sector supports nearly 28,100 jobs and contributes $2.7 billion in local GDP, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

The ultimate solution to our current issue of “brain drain” is to work together with other City Councillors and the Province to make Calgary an even better place to live. We need to continue to diversify the economy, revitalize downtown, promote inclusivity, and make Calgary a vibrant place to be.
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To do this, we need young people to be engaged in funding solutions and creating our future from the start. Traditional employment opportunities are changing at a rapid rate, and if Calgary doesn't start listening to our youth and addressing this head on, we will be in further danger of losing the vibrancy this city once had. Standing still in a world of rapid change is like walking backwards. Our young people have great ideas and are the key to moving our city forward. They deserve better from our leaders. Together, we can make Calgary a destination for talent, not a one-way ticket to somewhere else.

Not only is densification smart environmentally, it is also smart fiscally. From an environmental perspective, less resources are required to produce the same amount of usable space, thus reducing environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions due to the building cycle. From an economic perspective, densification produces more revenue per square foot of land used, provides population density to support small business – who also significantly contribute to city revenue, reduce pressure on emergency services, and limit expenditures associated with infrastructure costs. As incentives, we need to look at densification bonuses, covenants and easements, development charges and exemptions.

How we utilize energy needs to be reimagined. Calgary is blessed with an abundance of sunshine and, as such, needs to work towards introducing solar paneling into the built environment. Similar to the Town of Okotoks, Calgary needs to start looking at incentives for home owners to install solar panels to support energy production.

The Oil and Gas industry is the bedrock of Calgary’s economy, and will continue to be for the near future. But in the meantime, we need to be building towards alternate ways to produce energy and becoming a global leader in this endeavor. Major automobile manufacturers are starting to divest from combustion engines, which is a significant signal that Calgary needs to heed this warning. Calgary can, and should be the energy epicenter of North America, but needs to look beyond traditional sources of energy as a key economic driver. Not only does this make economic sense, it is an environmental imperative.

In addition, Calgary needs to do a better job of waste disposal. Our landfills generate significant amounts of methane gas, which is 50 – 100 times worse than carbon dioxide in relation ozone depletion. We need to look at all possible opportunities to capture this methane and use it for energy production. Also, we need to look for all possible opportunities to use waste prior to throwing it into landfills.

We need to look at our built environment to identify ways to capture rain water. From roof top green spaces to underground cisterns to rain barrels, Calgary can do a better job of capturing water. We also need to look at how we construct our roadways to mitigate flooding as a result of significant downpours and mountain run-off. We need to look at our public infrastructure in relation to water resources prior to development.
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As the climate continues to change, so too will our weather patterns and we need to be more water resilient than we currently are. Just because we are blessed with an abundance of water should not be a reason to not make water conservation a priority. We need to look at incentives for water reuse and capture, flood mitigation, green infrastructure, waste water management strategies, and landscaping and water run-off controls.