saying that it represented more of a wish list of items<\/a> from a variety of City of Calgary business units and other partners.<\/p>\nNow, in what\u2019s likely to be the final strategic meeting of council before budget documents are released to the public in early November, councillors will have to determine how they want this chapter of the four-year cycle to play out.<\/p>\n
Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark said that he believes the leak puts a certain amount of pressure and perhaps a bit of fear in city councillors, stunting a potentially productive conversation on Calgary\u2019s needs. He said there are legacy deficits, including Calgary\u2019s reported $50 billion infrastructure funding gap over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only implication that I\u2019d be really worried about here is that we avoid doing that work because of fear of the repercussions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never ever any intent to deliver a 20 per cent property tax increase. That work was preliminary and months ago, and we are now working to tailor that down and discern what it is we can actually do to help clear some of this off our books.\u201d<\/p>\n
A question of confidentiality<\/p>\n
Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward said that if nothing else, the budget leak shone light on a conversation about how much of Calgary\u2019s budget information needs to be provided in-camera or tagged \u2018confidential.\u2019<\/p>\n
He said that having the documents noted as confidential means that even ward office staff aren\u2019t privy to the information. That\u2019s hamstrung his team\u2019s ability to prepare for the budget deliberations ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to open up the conversation about what should be confidential and what shouldn\u2019t. In my opinion, I think it should be open because if it\u2019s not, my staff can\u2019t do any work on it,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving my staff scramble eight days before we have to start budget deliberations, I don\u2019t think is right. I would like to see stuff be open so that my staff can actually do their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward said he thinks, by now, Calgarians have at least a basic understanding of the city\u2019s infrastructure deficit. Now it\u2019s a question of how they deal with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I don\u2019t see any harm in having that discussion in public because then it opens the door to have public input be a part of that discussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ward said he, like many other councillors, will be hosting public town halls on the upcoming city budget to gather people\u2019s perspectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to understand what\u2019s important to residents and what isn\u2019t important to residents, and what they think is a fair tax increase; we need to get some sort of public perception on this,\u201d Coun. Ward said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for us to just make all the decisions on our own, while we are elected to be leaders, public input should never be ignored, and it should be included as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt said that he thinks the leak was a distraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I see this is that as a council, we have a lot of tough decisions to make coming up that\u2019s not easy, and I think that the leak served as a distraction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt, perhaps, in some ways served as a way to distract from some people taking responsibility for those tough decisions by making this conversation about transparency, and that is not how we should be doing our job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public session, or behind closed doors<\/p>\n
All three councillors believed that more of Tuesday\u2019s conversation will likely be done in the open. Schmidt, however, said that not all of it should be. He said that when talking about personnel, unions, and other different functions of certain units, it should be confidential.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no other entity in the world that I can think of that has these discussions out in public because some of this stuff needs to be carefully protected until the time when it\u2019s ready to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s risk involved with that, and we have to manage this city effectively as the governors of the city, and it won\u2019t be managed as effectively if we can\u2019t do our jobs, and this prevents us from doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun. Clark said that he believes much of the conversation will happen in public, but inevitably people have to understand that some of the discussion has to happen behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that we want to keep it a secret,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just means that we want to position ourselves to be able to deliver the best possible outcomes for Calgarians, and sometimes that means keeping that information in that room.\u201d<\/p>\n
With more of it in the open, however, Clark thinks some councillors will hold their views private.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was always my frustration with the leak. People will withhold their perspectives, their intentions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will withhold, and they will withhold like their sense of responsibility. There is work to do, and it\u2019s not easy. You did not come here for the easy ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt said there won\u2019t be any fear for him. He recognized that the large property tax figure wasn\u2019t connected to any meaningful information, and that it was preliminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number that speaks to me the loudest is, you look back to 2014, service satisfaction levels were hovering above 80 per cent and now, at times, they\u2019ve dropped below 60 per cent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat number speaks to me because we\u2019ve seen that when Calgarians rank what they want to see from us, low taxation is not at the top of the list; they want to see us get them results for what they see as issues in their city.\u201d<\/p>\n
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