Calgary Council approves wage cut and privatizing some services
Posted Nov 20, 2019 1:46 pm.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — By the end of a late-night meeting at Calgary City Hall on Tuesday, councillors had approved several measures that may reduce some costs.
First, wages took the focus as councillors considered either freezing or reducing the wages of public employees – receiving near-unanimous approval in a vote of 14-1.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi cautioned that while they “can’t suck and blow at the same time,” it may be worthwhile to bring this position forward during negotiations.
Though he did want to stress it is not all doom and gloom in the city.
“Things have slowed down a little bit since the provincial election, ironically. But in fact, it’s much better. Unemployment is a full two points lower, business startups are higher, business failures are lower, and the GDP continues to grow,” said Nenshi.
City staff also warned it would be a bit of a fight and this may cause labour headaches, but it still worth considering.
“I think we would be remiss not to at least ask them, and it’s to minimize staff reduction,” said City Manager David Duckworth.
With serious budget talks on the way next week, the city is faced with making over a hundred layoffs to help bring down the budget and avoid property tax increases for Calgarians.
The hope is that through this plan, of which only Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra opposed, the amount of layoffs can be reduced — even if it means the rest of the workers will see no change in their paychecks or a slight reduction of up to five per cent.
There were also lengthy discussions on a couple of matters to increase privatization in Calgary — in the departments of waste collection and golf courses.
Ward 1 Councillor Ward Sutherland brought forward both proposals, starting with a call to explore privatizing 25 per cent of black cart collection.
This would start with a pilot program of about seven years, and may also involve some city layoffs.
However, Sutherland stressed this is about citizen satisfaction.
“This is not an attack or an enemy of the union,” he said. “This is being strategic and business-wise and looking at competition and finally get us to compare apples to apples.”
Waste collection does have some of the highest levels of citizen satisfaction already, with 90 per cent of people saying they are pleased with the service in the latest satisfaction survey, and only seven per cent saying there should be less investment.
City administration also said it may not be wise to privatize an already popular service, but City Manager Duckworth added a pilot program is the best way to explore it.
Ward 8 Councillor Evan Woolley was a dissenting voice, and said he does not want this program in his riding.
“If cost savings is the driver of this, man oh man is this a pretty incredible project to undertake for a super popular service, for almost zero savings.”
A report given to the city shows if 25 per cent of black cart collection was contracted out, it would save the average household in the range of only $1 to $2 every year.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi also warned council about going against the recommendations of administration, prompting a brief standoff with Ward 4 Councillor Jyoti Gondek.
At the end, it was approved 11-4, and city staff will examine in which communities to have the pilot project.
Finally, Sutherland’s other motion came forward to look at privatizing golf course operations.
This follows reports that several golf courses are losing money in the city, with Sutherland specifically taking aim at the wages of employees, which are far higher than the private sector.
But once again, this displeased Cllr. Woolley who says they are grasping for slim savings.
“We’re getting some tiny, little fart-winds,” Woolley said. “If everybody here who’s putting their names on these notice of motions wants to pat themselves on the back and be like, I’m really finding big savings in our $4 billion budget, you’re not.”
This again received wide approval from council, and now city staff will look at how to contract out the operations and further information will be presented in the beginning of 2020.\
