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Chu agreed to put forward the motion after talking with Colin Craig, interim Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, on Friday.

“It’s certainly inappropriate for the city to be spending millions on public art when Calgary is leading the nation in unemployment,” said Craig. “Certainly, the price tag for the exhibit is raising a lot of eyebrows — and for good reason.”

Craig said a better alternative would be pushing public art projects from the public to the private sector — financed by corporate sponsorships or donations.

A similar motion, to temporarily slash public arts funding, was put forward by Coun. Peter Demong in February 2015. Chu supported the proposal two years ago, but it didn’t garner enough support to move forward.

Chu hopes council members rethink their position this time around.

However, some of Chu’s colleagues are calling for a less abrupt approach.

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra thinks a discussion on whether public art should be funded is “unfortunate” considering public art is proven to make a city more desirable.

“I, personally, am a supporter of our public art process and the approved approach we took following the outrage surrounding the Giant Blue Ring,” said Carra.

Although he said he doesn’t particularly like the Bowfort Towers, he said people are “overly outraged.”

“Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water,” he said.

In 2014, the city tweaked its public art policy.

One of the biggest changes was made to how it’s funded. Under the new policy, one per cent of any large infrastructure project under $50 million goes to public art, while projects over $50 million see half of one per cent of their budget put toward esthetics. Council also brought in a $4 million cap for public art.