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Back in 2010, when I was first running for mayor, I kept hearing stories of how the city was not as customer friendly as it should be.

From the restaurant that finally received a permit to operate a patio just in time for winter, to the single mum operating a home-based massage therapy business finding herself subject to humiliating inspections and onerous annual fees, many felt the city was inhibiting rather than facilitating their success.

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Since that time, we have been engaged in a massive program called Transforming Government to make the city administration more transparent and more accountable, and above all, to put the citizen at the centre of everything we do. Indeed, I often remind my city colleagues that we should be asking ourselves, multiple times a day, “how is what I am doing right now making it better for someone to live in Calgary?”

An important part of Transforming Government has been the cut red tape program, which has been operating out of my office. It’s Cut Red Tape Week in Canada, sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and as the program transitions out of my office to become a permanent part of city management, I thought it would be a good time to share some successes.