Archive for the ‘General’ Category

City hall debate over $52M brings to mind classic West Wing

- June 19th, 2013

Amid all this talk over keeping the $52 million tax windfall or giving it back to Calgary property taxpayers, I am reminded of two things:

Former Liberal campaign spokesman Scott Reid, who claimed Canadians would waste Stephen Harper’s proposed child care benefit money on “beer and popcorn,” and this classic clip from The West Wing.

In it, Donna questions why she can’t have a tax break amid a big surplus, while Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman says people would just waste it.

Donna: What’s wrong with me getting my money back?

Josh: You won’t spend it right.

Donna: I want my money back.

Josh: You shouldn’t have voted for us.

Donna as representative for the Calgary taxpayer?

Put cart before horse? Standard operating procedure at city hall

- June 19th, 2013

Rick Bell gives the latest in the $52-million tax windfall saga.

City council has a policy to take up any tax room vacated by the province, and has been consulting Calgarians on what they’d like to see done with the money.

Five options are on the table, including giving Calgarians the tax break.

But according to Rick Bell’s column, they can’t do that without first changing city policy. And Bell says they knew that in advance. So did they set it up under the assumption there wouldn’t be the backlash? That’s the question that Bell poses.

So did council put this forward knowing, or assuming, what the end result would be?

Reminds me of another Rick Bell column, dating back to the Peace Bridge. Yes, the bridge is open, and it looks kind of cool, and people use it.

But it was still a mess of a process, including this little nugget:

In fact, the decision to go with the Calatrava bridge was approved nine months before the council vote and contract talks with Calatrava began before any money was approved.

Pick conclusion, then make it happen.

Doesn’t sound like a way to run government, does it?

Want overkill? Irish politician blasts Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the Guinness brewery

- June 18th, 2013

Is the Irish Foreign Ministry out of line tweeting photos of PM Stephen Harper at the Guinness Brewery?

I get that alcohol comes with some social ills. While I understand Ireland is debating alcohol policy, a visiting world leader making a stop to see one of Ireland’s most well-known cultural exports doesn’t run counter to any attempts to reduce harm.


See for yourself. Do you agree with the criticism? Or is it overblown?

Wildrose policy upgrade muddying their message? Hardly

- April 9th, 2013

Much has been made over the last couple of days over the Wildrose announcing it would be reviewing some policy stances in an attempt to appeal to more Albertans.

Commenters under our stories accuse them of being nothing more than Tories with another name, and the deputy premier ridiculed them as selling out their own values.

I get that a complete reversal, or removal of core values, would be seen as a betrayal of all the supporters who have been with a party since the beginning, but as I say in my column this week, there’s room for improvement. And if you think a losing party would keep going to voters with the exact same playbook election after election, you’re fooling yourself.

If the goal of your party is to win an election, you want a winning platform. But it has to be one that sticks with your core values. A complete killing of the Alberta Human Rights Commission may not have worked for the public, but let’s look at other reform. Or let’s do a better job of explaining the benefit of the original policy.

I have no issue with policy review. It’s natural to review policy.

What I take issue with is a party that says one thing during a campaign then does the opposite once elected. That’s unforgivable.

Calgary alderman talking the talk on freedom of information

- March 15th, 2013

gordlowe

Gord Lowe doesn’t always say the right things.

He is one of the biggest defenders of the city’s budget, the first to say we’re getting good bang for our buck, even though many of us disagree.

But he deserves credit for his take on information requests.

He’s right, the city should just automatically disclose info that’s routinely requested. It’s a boon for transparency, and could possibly save the city some cash in the long run.

And if the data is publicly available, I have less concern with Lowe’s notion of charging people to have it compiled to their specifications. That’s a user fee I could support, so long as the public data was somewhat user-friendly.

Either way, this is a better approach than the one taken by Lowe’s council colleague Dale Hodges who was more interested in cost recovery.