Roaring Flames
Senior Member
The thing with blanket rezoning is that even if it's repealed, it's inevitable that it gets brought up again in the future. It's already been implemented with success in other cities here in Canada
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Calgary Municipal Politics
- Thread starter Always_Biking
- Start date
CBBarnett
Senior Member
There's always a good chance that we will get politicians at municipal and provincial levels that will say all three things, as inconsistent as they may all be together:
rapid growth will happen (1), nothing will ever change for your and your community (2), and it will all be fine (3).
We will be a city of 3 million .... and you don't have to change how you get around, driving will always be easy and congestion-free.
We will be a province of 10 million ... and we don't need to increase investments in education, health and infrastructure.
Your taxes will never need to go up ... and the quality of your services and infrastructure will always be maintained, and things like growth and inflation will never impact the baseline.
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
It seems no level of government was ready for this population growth cycle. Alberta was calling and Canada wanted you to be an international student and temporary foreign worker but Calgary spent the bare minimum on existing and new infrastructure. The bill was always going to come due, because now that we need to build, the project list is so long and our population has been so conditioned to the Alberta Tax Advantage that it is hard to see a way out of this. The choices are infrastructure debt, fiscal debt, and/or higher taxes.
The politicians need to be honest with themselves then they need to be honest with us and we can make our choice.
The politicians need to be honest with themselves then they need to be honest with us and we can make our choice.
trtcttc
Senior Member
Immigration is an issue nationally that can hopefully be reversed somewhat, but I'd hardly say Calgary "spent the bare minimum". Scotia Place, Arts Commons, new Olympic Plaza, Green Line (finally starting), Glenbow, Stephen Ave redesign, Marda Loop redesign (much hated, but the end result would be great for the area), BMO Centre, countless office conversions. Private sector investment with an accommodating municipal and provincial regulatory system that we consistently rank amongst the top in housing starts relative to population. On the provincial side, Scotia Place, new Cancer Centre (started by the NDP), Stoney completion, Deerfoot upgrades, new schools, recovery communities.
There's also a recent tax cut on the lowest bracket, which proportionally benefit the lower income the most. We still don't have a provincial sales tax, and while our budget swings between surplus and deficit based on oil prices, our fiscal position is far more positive than BC, who is distinctly taking the fiscal debt path.
darwink
Senior Member
National population growth has already frozen.
Albertasaurus
Active Member
Has it though?
FIRST READING: How Quebec and Ontario are being left out of Liberal immigration reductions
Quebec is the only province where the rate of new permanent residents has actually gone up in 2025
nationalpost.com
darwink
Senior Member
Yes.Has it though?
FIRST READING: How Quebec and Ontario are being left out of Liberal immigration reductions
Quebec is the only province where the rate of new permanent residents has actually gone up in 2025
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
I see what you're saying but there is still a long list of deferred projects at the City. Not really at much fault of the City, they're very dependent on other levels of government.
darwink
Senior Member
The city also puts a lot of things on its list to make the problem seem larger than it is as part of the FCM national cry poor communications effort.
trtcttc
Senior Member
Need a few more quarters to confirm, it's only been 0% for 1 quarter, YoY still 500k increase. Also need to have material changes to the LMIA and student visa programs that it doesn't just fill low wage jobs.
trtcttc
Senior Member
I see the fieldhouse and recreation centres (GamePlan) being the next round of investment. There will also be a backlog of projects at the city, even if more funding magically appeared, there'd be more projects created so the backlog always exists. I didn't mention the Sunnyside flood barrier construction, which will improve the North side of the downtown pathways, and the new Victoria Park Station that has livened up the area. I'm overall relatively happy with the amount of investment the city has made, and it's been pretty high impact.
Red Star
Active Member
About time.
With an unemployment rate of 7.1% I don't think importing more cheap labour is going to benefit the average Joe. Big businesses will probably cry about it.
darwink
Senior Member
They have been for years - the feds started turning this ship around in early 2023, but the provinces resisted and even threatened to sue. After the largest intake of international students ever in fall 2023 after the provinces had pledged to better regulate their colleges, the feds stepped in and started to ramp numbers down starting in January 2024 for September admissions.
There is a long tail though. For 2 year colleges which used to lead to a 3 year open work permit after, departures will be in late 2028, early 2029 for those that started their program in 2023. For 4 year degrees, that extends to 2030, 2031.
New permit numbers for the year are now tied to the number of permits expiring (student departures, PGWP departures, or PGWP-->PR transitions) as the long term sustainable policy.