CALGARY—As city council cuts $60 million from its budget, a downtown community association wants the cuts to come from new projects instead of services such as policing or transit.

Peter Oliver, president of the Beltline Neighbourhoods Association (BNA), said he feels this year’s budget cuts are connected to council’s decision last year to approve the development of 14 new communities on the outskirts of Calgary, a move that saw property taxes increase.

In July 2018, Calgary city council approved the development plans for the communities on the outskirts of Calgary, a controversial decision that many criticized as costly, overconfident and an addition to the issue of urban sprawl.

City administration originally recommended approving eight such communities, but six more were added.

Oliver said the decision was a risky one, and that long-standing neighbourhoods have “borne the brunt” of cuts to existing services while new communities are built.

With budget cuts on the horizon, Oliver said he wants city council to revisit last summer’s decision.

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“If we have to make cuts somewhere, building new communities should not be immune,” he said, adding that for him, this isn’t just about the Beltline — “this is an issue that resonates with people all over the city.”

Councillor Jyoti Gondek, one of the city councillors who voted for the decision last summer, said she feels blaming budget cuts on the new communities doesn’t represent the whole picture.

“It’s a super easy argument to pit one part of the city against another,” she said, adding, “You say ‘sprawl’ and ‘subsidy’ and you’ve got a headline.”

Gondek said tying the budget cuts to the new communities isn’t fair — she sees the budget cuts stemming from city council’s failure to find a solution for the property tax shift.

“We did that eyes wide open,” she said.

But Councillor Druh Farrell disagreed, saying she feels the decision to approve the 14 communities “certainly had an impact” on the budget and the cuts.

Farrell is the only councillor who voted against the decision last summer, alongside Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

She said part of the reason she opposed the decision was because city administration had recommended almost half of the number of communities that were approved. Between that, the failed Olympics bid and a delayed discussion on the tax shift, Farrell said this month’s budget cuts were bound to happen.

“We’re making these disjointed decisions, each one impacting the other,” she said, adding that by approving new communities while cutting services, Calgary is “spreading less butter over more bread.”

Farrell said she thinks the BNA’s request that city council cut from the new communities is a fair ask. Some of the development work has already started, but not all of it, she said, adding she would be “disappointed” if it doesn’t factor in to the discussion over the cuts.

Gondek also said all of Calgary’s neighbourhoods will see a benefit from the new communities, since taxes all go into the same pool.

“Every part of the city gets some sort of investment,” she said.

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Farrell said she thinks there isn’t enough of a market to warrant all 14 new communities, an investment she thinks will have a slow payback.

“To me, it was a reckless decision, and I said so at the time,” she said.

With files from Madeline Smith

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