CALGARY—Advocates urged the city not to cut the budget on the backs of low-income Calgarians as city council begins a gruelling week of budget debate.

Keep Calgary Strong, a coalition of faith, labour and community organizations led a march to city hall on Monday, filling council chambers with people in bright green scarves with a message about protecting services for vulnerable people.

The city’s budget debate kicked off this week as councillors contend with cuts handed down from the provincial government and deciding how to fix Calgary’s daunting property tax problems.

This is the second time this year the city is looking at slashing the budget. Over the summer, council approved a $60 million haircut to cover small businesses staring down a sudden spike in their property taxes.

Some councillors, including Evan Woolley and Jeromy Farkas, have said that as the city looks for cuts in this year’s difficult budget “everything should be on the table” — including the arena deal.

In July, council approved putting $275 million in public funds toward construction costs for a new home for the Calgary Flames. A majority of councillors voted in favour of the deal just eight days after the public saw it for the first time.

But Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he thinks talk of reconsidering the deal is “distracting.”

“On the arena, we had a very comprehensive public debate, and ultimately, council decided to move forward,” he said. “That is a decision council has made, and frankly nothing has changed in the economy between July and now that would make me say, ‘We’ve got to rethink our capital projects.’”

Coun. Jeromy Farkas argued that as there’s still no signed agreement between the city and the Calgary Flames owners, he’d like to see the arena deal revisited.

“There’s no legal agreement. So I’d like to get an update on, well, what’s the holdup? If this was so pressing that it had to go through in the middle of July with barely a week of consultation, now those arguments kind of ring hollow.”

As the city considers service cuts this week, top of mind for advocates is a possible increase to the cost of Calgary’s low-income transit pass.

The city currently offers a discounted pass on a sliding scale, but they need to find about $6.5 million to cover the costs of the program. Bureaucrats have recommended more than tripling the cost of the program’s most heavily discounted pass, from $5.45 to $18.55.

Rev. Anna Greenwood-Lee of Keep Calgary Strong said that kind of increase is untenable for the people who need the low-income pass.

“It is inequitable to ask low-income Calgarians to absorb this increase,” she said.

“We are asking you to do the least harm to the most vulnerable.”

City council approved the four-year budget last year, including a three-per-cent bump to Calgarians’ 2020 property taxes. Earlier this month, bureaucrats laid out what it would look like to hold the overall tax rate steady for 2020 or increase it by just 1.5 per cent instead. Both those scenarios would mean layoffs at the city and cuts that could mean overloading on some transit routes and fewer open affordable housing units.

CUPE Local 38 president D’Arcy Lanovaz told council that the prospect of cuts and layoffs have also taken a toll on city staff.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“The last two years has contributed to some of the lowest morale that I have ever seen at this organization,” he said.

“We need to stop vilifying public servants. It’s almost become a sport in Calgary, in Canada, in the western world.”

City council will vote on the budget adjustments for 2020 later this week, followed by a decision on how to change the proportion of property taxes businesses and homeowners pay.

Read more about: