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Calgary city council made an epic blunder on Monday. Real people are already suffering as a result.

My friend Ervin Nelson, who owns Mr. Volvo Plus, was almost in tears Wednesday as he described the crushing tax burden on his business — an 80 per cent increase in two years.

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City council has proven itself utterly dysfunctional in this matter of grave importance, the support of business owners whose money is expected to fill the vast tax hole downtown.

The level of incompetence here, the complete failure to reach any solution to a problem obvious for three years, is beyond any fiasco seen at city hall in decades.

These councillors are good people, they want the best, but collectively they are an equivocating, quibbling mess.

Council as a whole does not deserve to carry on. The province should fire the whole lot, appoint an official administrator, and call a new election.

Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia

It can be done. The provincial municipal affairs minister, under Section 574 of the Municipal Government Act, can issue “an order dismissing the council or any member of it or the chief administrative officer.”