Calgary’s mayor pleased with federal budget

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi appeared to be pleased with what he heard out of Ottawa in terms of the federal government’s fiscal plan for the year ahead.

“By and large, in terms of what the cities in Canada are looking for, this is largely a good news budget,” said Nenshi. “We are seeing a number of commitments on infrastructure that we have heard in the past, but have actually made it into the budget. What’s going to be very important is for the cities, particularly for Calgary, to be able to work with the provinces. A lot of this are bilateral agreements, and as you know there have been some misunderstandings or controversies about these bilateral agreements in the past, in terms of how much has to go to municipalities. We’re looking forward to working with the government of Alberta.”

Nenshi says the big headline for him was the historic commitment to housing across the country.

“We’re very, very, very pleased to see $11.2 billion dollars over 11 years to help solve the issue of housing across the nation. This really is a very historic commitment from a federal government.”

According to the mayor, when the funds start flowing he’s confident they’ll be able to make a difference with the 4,000 people on the wait list at Calgary Housing Company, and 19,000 households in the city living in sub-standard housing.

“Other good news on transit. On the one hand, we did see the loss of the tax credit for people who are buying monthly bus passes. It’ll be a shame to see that go. The government’s argument here is that it hasn’t been particularly effective in driving ridership, and they’d rather invest that money in better public transit. That’s their decision to make. I’m sorry to see it go but I’m very pleased to have the investment in better public transit,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with putting more money into people’s pockets, in helping people who are making the right choices. That said, we know the number one driver of people taking transit is that transit is convenient and reliable, and we will invest in making sure transit is convenient and reliable.”

The sliding scale for low income riders will be put in place next week, and when asked about city-led incentives, he replied they’ll be announcing the city’s plan in the coming weeks and months.

Nenshi says the funding announced for transit Wednesday should mean $1.5 billion to the city for the Green Line. He’s also been given commitments as recently as today for an additional $450 million they promised for the LRT.

He says they now have the commitment made during the election in a budget, allowing them to move forward on the much-needed piece of infrastructure. He’s hoping they’ll be able to talk with the province about their one-third by the summer.

The mayor says he was pleased to see the commitment to disaster mitigation, and they’ll continue to work with the province to use whatever funding they can get to build more upstream resilience.

“I should imagine that Calgary has a better claim on disaster mitigation work than just about anyone else,” he said.

“And just a small thing for me, one thing I’ve been advocating for is a small set aside within the infrastructure money specifically for social infrastructure purposes, for recreation, amateur recreation facilities, for cultural facilities and so on. And I was very happy to see they did take my advice. I’m just going to say it was my advice, and set aside $1.8 billion dollars for that.”

“As a former pundit, I can analyze lots of different parts of this budget. But as the mayor, I’m really looking at the impact it has had on the city and I have to say this federal government has been remarkably open to having discussions prior to the decisions being made. So there actually weren’t a lot of surprises,” he said. “I really like that collaborative aspect of it. I like the fact that immediately from leaving the House of Commons floor, the two key ministers who work with cities, the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of Social Development, got on the phone with all the mayors to explain and answer questions.”

Nenshi says the only thing he would have liked to see is more of a commitment being made in fighting the opioid addiction. He saw some money, but would like to know the details surrounding it, and adds it’s going to have to flow fast.

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