Only city council would attempt to solve an affordable housing crisis by deliberately making housing more expensive for Calgarians.
But that’s what it did last week in approving, by a 9-6 vote, an astonishing 7.8 per cent residential rate hike — thereby rubber-stamping next year’s budget with barely a change from that initially served up by civic administration.
Yes, these days, what civic department heads want is what they invariably get, even if what’s desired means jacking up rates on homeowners when inflation is making daily living a constant struggle.
Council seems not to realize it is being led by its collective nose by the folk supposedly working for them. Or maybe it’s happy to play along, as several council members were heartily endorsed by civic unions during the last election campaign.
All civic administration needs to do is tick the right boxes by throwing in some flowery victimhood rhetoric — even better if the word colonialism can be shoehorned in there somehow — and then stand back and smile, because it’s pennies from heaven time yet again. (You may recall it was administration that came up with the daft idea of banning Canada Day fireworks last summer, not council. While that little nugget backfired, it did reveal how the game of keeping the mayor and council sweet is played — nobody ever asks a pointed question, especially one including that dreadful phrase “value for money.”)
Except, with this latest budgetary horror show, it isn’t pennies we’re being asked to shell out, no matter the high-minded utterances emanating from councillors such as Gian-Carlo Carra, who regaled us all by announcing his family gets such a great deal by only paying $12.30 a day for city services.
Let’s at least give him credit for originality. Usually, politicians trying to justify the unjustifiable take refuge in that well-worn, cup-of-coffee analogy — how this insignificant increase barely amounts to the cost of your morning java. Perhaps we should retort that actually it’s equal to the cost of our child’s dinner. That puts things in a rather different light, don’t you think?
But hold on. It seems we’re not actually going to be paying more to the city. We’re told by Ward 11’s Kourtney Penner that we’re investing.
Really? So, we can expect not just our money back, but also some juicy dividends into the bargain?
Of course not: it’s just more council bafflegab, hiding behind the English language to camouflage the plain truth — that this lot is as fiscally irresponsible as any council in Calgary’s history.
So what are we getting with these 28 new investment priorities the city will spend our money on?
Its priority is making housing more affordable. Yes, imposing a rate increase of almost eight per cent for homeowners is the surefire way to make this happen. The mind does boggle at such logic. Like a collection of modern-day Robin Hoods, they will take from the rich — those who have a house — to give to the poor — those who don’t.
Calgarians will shell out $90 million for housing-related funding in the next three years, a hefty part of this to “support partners to build housing for Indigenous and equity-deserving populations.”
But what exactly are “equity-deserving populations?” People who can’t afford a home? People who sleep on the streets? People just released from prison? Teenagers who can’t stand living with mom and dad a moment longer and want a place of their own?
A council that wasn’t as totally owned by administration might ask those straightforward questions. This lot won’t. Heaven help them, someone might then call them racist, sexist or — worst of all — colonialist.
See how this shell game works? It’s nothing to do with helping people but all to do with making sure the bucks keep rolling into city hall. If you can do that while appearing morally superior, then that’s extra gravy for you.
Chris Nelson is a regular Herald columnist.
Nelson: City administration leads council by the nose
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30.11.2023
Only city council would attempt to solve an affordable housing crisis by deliberately making housing more expensive for Calgarians.
But that’s what it did last week in approving, by a 9-6 vote, an astonishing 7.8 per cent residential rate hike — thereby rubber-stamping next year’s budget with barely a change from that initially served up by civic administration.
Yes, these days, what civic department heads want is what they invariably get, even if what’s desired means jacking up rates on homeowners when inflation is making daily living a constant struggle.
Council seems not to realize it is being led by its collective nose by the folk supposedly working for them. Or maybe it’s happy to play along, as several council members were heartily endorsed by civic unions during the last election campaign.
All civic administration needs to do is tick the right boxes by throwing in some flowery victimhood rhetoric — even better if the word colonialism can be shoehorned in........
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