 | Saturday, March 27, 2021
By Scott Dippel
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. | | Guidebook confusion | | |  | Mayor Naheed Nenshi was pretty blunt when he was asked about the job the city has done explaining the new community guidebook to Calgarians. He said it was "terrible." (Helen Pike/CBC) | | | A book could probably be written about what was really going on during a three-day public hearing this week on the Guidebook for Great Communities. Unfortunately, the title Dazed and Confused has already been taken.
There's confusion about what the guidebook actually is. There’s confusion about the difference between a statutory plan and a statutory document. There’s confusion about why that matters.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi willingly conceded that city hall hasn't done itself any favours when it comes to explaining the guidebook to Calgarians.
When asked about the wide range of opinions floating around about what the document means, Nenshi was blunt about the job the city has done.
"It's been terrible,” he said. “The communication's been bad. It's been technocratic and it's been very confusing."
Trust. That word came up a lot.
In the city's annual citizen satisfaction survey, there's a question about how much respondents trust the municipal government.
In late 2017, 62 per cent said they either “trust a great deal” or “trust a little” in the city. In each annual survey since, that number has dropped. In the fall of 2020, that same survey question found just 48 per cent said they had trust in the city.
When asked if this was a factor in the growing pushback to the guidebook, the mayor said simply, no.
"I would say that certain politicians are trying to foment that lack of trust, but really they're the ones bringing it on themselves by misleading others," said Nenshi.
There has been misinformation. But council has repeatedly voted down attempts to delay a decision on the guidebook until after the fall election. Most councillors who support amendments to deal with public concerns want those put before council in May. That enables a vote to follow soon after that.
Read More | | |  | The Bowfort Towers sculpture sits alongside the Trans-Canada Highway in northwest Calgary. (CBC) | Freeze on public art thaws | When council suspended much of the city's public art program in the wake of the controversy over Bowfort Towers in 2017, it called for a review of the program. That led to a council decision to move the program outside of city hall to a third party.
This week, council approved the winning bidder, and it didn't have to go far.
The city owned Calgary Arts Development Authority (CADA) has been selected to administer the program. The transition to CADA will happen gradually over three years.
No details are available, but the city says having a third party operator will reduce barriers for local artists to take part in the program.
Procurement rules mean the city's public art projects must conform with trade agreements, which has resulted in international artists winning competitions for several major projects, and that rankled many people. Those rules won’t apply when CADA takes over.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the decision to pick CADA makes a lot of sense given its experience and local knowledge.
"Calgary Arts Development already acts as the city's granting arm for visual and performing arts, but not public art. They're very good at granting. They know how to do that," said Nenshi.
While the freeze was in place, Nenshi said many small scale projects still went ahead.
"I think that public art should be small things that just appear in your community, instead of these massive things that sometimes aren't legible as art."
One thing we still don’t know is whether, under the new arrangement, council will continue to be as blindsided as the rest of us by the artwork that’s selected.
One problem with Bowfort Towers, you might recall, was that it was unveiled shortly before a municipal election, meaning councillors who had no role in the selection process got an earful from Calgary art critics throughout the campaign.
Read More | | | | |  | (Shane Keating) | Keating in the room | For the first time in months, Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating was in the council chamber this week.
For more than a year, he's been doing his council duties while staying close to his wife's side in Saskatchewan, where she is receiving treatment for cancer.
Keating opened up a bit this week about the experience.
Mervianna, his wife of 20-plus years, has plenty of family support in the Saskatoon area. So in early 2020, Keating accompanied her there for her cancer treatments. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Keating said doctors told him that if he returned to work in Calgary, there could be two month delays in Mervianna’s treatment each time he left and returned, as she wouldn't be allowed back into the hospital if she had contact with him.
Keating stayed put, but he continued doing his job remotely, just like other members of council. He attended council meetings and chaired committee meetings virtually, kept up on council duties in his ward and did media interviews.
Mervianna has now finished a year of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
"She's doing OK, and she's now where she can be on her own for a short period of time, and that allows me to come back to Calgary," said Keating.
As stressful as it's been, he said he's glad he could keep up with his council duties, as it meant he didn't have to take a leave, resign or force a byelection.
Keating, who announced last June he would not seek re-election this fall, said he will stay focused on his job until the end of his term. As for retirement, he's looking forward to spending more time on projects in his woodshop and, of course, travel. | | | |  | (Scott Dippel/CBC) | Power to the plaza | Blue metal fences went up around the municipal plaza this week, just south of the recently restored old city hall.
No, it has nothing to do with security planning for the next anti-mask rally.
The plaza will be off limits for about three weeks while new electrical wiring is installed to replace the aging 36-year-old lines that have been in place since the municipal building opened. New lighting will also be installed.
Age and exposure to the elements over the decades have taken a toll on the original infrastructure. The issues are so bad that the city said there have been electrical failures. That makes it tricky when you're trying to hold events in the plaza that need things like a working sound system.
Security in the plaza after dark is also an issue.
These repairs will cost $114,000. The goal is to keep the plaza both functional and safe for years to come.
| | | 5 more municipal stories you shouldn't miss | | | | Council is taking a break next week and so am I. The next edition of Council Matters will land in your inbox on Saturday, April 10. Stay well. | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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