{ "segments": [ { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 460.345, "end": 463.125, "text": "Welcome to Calgary City Council. Madam Clerk, please call the rule.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 465.285, "end": 467.045, "text": "Thank you on the role. Councillor Kelly,", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 468.705, "end": 469.005, "text": "President.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 469.805, "end": 489.085, "text": "Councillor McLean, Councillor Pantozopoulos, Councillor Schmidt, Councillor Tyres, Councillor Ward, Councillor Wyness, Councillor Ewell, Councillor Atkinson, Councillor Shabot,", "segments_merged": 9 }, { "speaker": "Councillor A. Chabot", "start": 490.145, "end": 490.485, "text": "Present?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 491.025, "end": 500.885, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Clark, Councillor Dallywall, Councillor Jameson, Councillor Johnston,", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 503.385, "end": 503.625, "text": "Here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 504.265, "end": 506.005, "text": "and Mayor Farkas.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 506.525, "end": 506.965, "text": "I'm here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 509.085, "end": 571.045, "text": "All right, we're bear-ish. Colleagues, I think we got nine, so no sudden movements. Uh Oki, Ambawastish, Danitara, Tanshe. Indigenous peoples have their own names for this area that have been in use long before settlers named this place Calgary. In the Blackfoot language, it is called Mokinstis. The Eske Nakota Wastabi First Nations refer to this place as Wachispa Oyede, and the people of the Swatina nation call it Gustas. The Metis call the Calgary area Otasquani. We appreciate and acknowledge that we're gathered on the ancestral and traditional territory of the Blackfoot nations of the Sikhsika, Pikani, and Kainai First Nations, the Ethica Nakota Wakstabi First Nations, comprised of the Chinniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstone First Nations, and the Satina First Nation. The City of Calgary is also homeland to the historic Northwest Metis and to the Timissawak Metis Government, Metis Nation Battle River Territory, Nose Hill Metis District 5, and Elbo Metis District 6. We acknowledge and give gratitude to the many First Nations, Metis and Inuit, who live here and call Calgary home.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 572.585, "end": 575.825, "text": "All right, so moving on to to question period of Councillor Johnston. You're up.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 576.325, "end": 607.185, "text": "Yeah, my question is for Redmin. Uh during this week I've had a lot of uh calls. Um sorry, a lot of calls about uh constituents willing to pay above and beyond their taxes. Is there a way or an easy way for people to pay more into taxes than they're required? Sorry. Legit. Straight from a", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "Chief Financial Officer L. Tochor", "start": 607.185, "end": 627.345, "text": "Well thank you uh thank you for the question. I've I've uh I've never had this question in this direction before. Um so uh I'll have to take this away and we will create uh a response uh listing out compliance with MGA and other requirements, but um um I will uh I will take this away. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 627.345, "end": 627.765, "text": "thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 628.825, "end": 663.225, "text": "I'll just add as a member council, I facilitated, I think, two or three different donations that were made to the city of Calgary for certain projects, and it wasn't uh a third party, but it was a specific uh project in mind. So I don't know if there's a formalized process, but it comes to mind the notice of motion that. I believe yourself and others have signed on to with Councillor Ward. All right. Uh seeing no further questions, uh let's move to the agenda. Can I please have a mover and seconder? Uh moved by uh Councillor Panizopoulos, seconded by Councillor Yule. All right. The uh any amendments to the agenda, colleagues?", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_10", "start": 663.805, "end": 664.565, "text": "So why would he say that?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 666.225, "end": 667.665, "text": "Okay. Seeing none, uh", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 667.885, "end": 669.745, "text": "Madam Clerk, let's engage the vote, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 691.065, "end": 692.545, "text": "Councillor Jameson, your vote, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Jamieson", "start": 692.865, "end": 693.185, "text": "Yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 694.845, "end": 706.685, "text": "Councillor Clark. Still absent. Councillor Daliwell, absent. Councillor Tyres, your vote please. Councillor Shabot, your vote, please.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "Councillor A. Chabot", "start": 707.305, "end": 707.705, "text": "Yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 708.825, "end": 714.165, "text": "Councillor Wyness, absent. Councillor McLean, absent. Mayor Farkas, your vote please?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 715.685, "end": 715.945, "text": "Here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 717.905, "end": 718.405, "text": "Yes or no?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 718.765, "end": 719.005, "text": "Okay.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 719.865, "end": 721.025, "text": "Sorry, yes. Is that a yes?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 721.025, "end": 722.325, "text": "Oh, sorry, yes. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 722.505, "end": 723.165, "text": "I apologize.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 723.425, "end": 724.345, "text": "All votes are in Mayor?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 725.405, "end": 779.165, "text": "We must either vote yes or no. It cannot be simply here. All right, please display the results. Okay, the mo the motion is carried 10 to 0. The agenda is approved. Uh colleagues, it was uh suggested by clerks uh that we adopt a procedural motion to allow council three minutes for questions of clarification from members of council to representatives of each of the council committee board or board, commission, and committees, including questions to administration, but not including responses. Uh, would any of you like to make that motion? Okay. Councillor Ewell is making that motion. Is there a seconder for that? Sorry. Seeing uh none, uh I'm gonna I'm gonna suggest the motion hasn't been placed. Sorry, Councillor Shabeau, was that you seconding that motion?", "segments_merged": 13 }, { "speaker": "Councillor A. Chabot", "start": 779.965, "end": 784.565, "text": "No, actually I was gonna ask a question relative to the motion, but if it's not on the floor, no problem.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 785.485, "end": 787.705, "text": "Okay, I don't think there was a seconder, so it's not on the floor.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_10", "start": 788.585, "end": 791.345, "text": "Okay. Sorry, before we uh proceed, uh are we", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 791.345, "end": 801.345, "text": "Yeah, uh folks, if you don't mind just using RTS, I'll acknowledge you, uh, Councillor Johnson though. Go ahead. Councillor Johnson, please go ahead.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 801.485, "end": 808.945, "text": "Yeah, just putting the RTS in there. Um can you explain to us what the current bylaw is and what the difference is between the two?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 809.645, "end": 812.625, "text": "Um, I'll ask Madam Clerk to to weigh in, but it would have been a five minutes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 813.365, "end": 817.405, "text": "And that's what that's what we have right now, or at least that's what the procedure bylaw calls for.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 817.405, "end": 820.345, "text": "Yep. I'm just just so the public knows what we're voting on.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 820.565, "end": 851.965, "text": "So the current wording of the procedure bylaw states that questions of clarification from members to administration, representatives of council committees, BCCs, or other individuals invited to support administration's introduction of this of the item. This is timed at three minutes. Respecting that we do have multiple BCCs. Council may wish to take three minutes for each BCC. Otherwise, you only get three minutes to ask all the presenters at the end.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 853.145, "end": 907.005, "text": "Yeah, so to clarify, this allows us to have a question for each of the individual panels. Uh if council doesn't want to second this committee, you have three total minutes for all 15. Just to clarify. So uh seeing no seconder, we'll stick with the three minutes total for all 15. Okay. Sorry, uh Councillor Penazopoulos, did you want to second that motion? Okay. Sorry, colleagues, I should have uh I should have verified. Or I should have clarified what this means. So the motion on the floor right now is to suspend the procedure bylaw to allow a question for each of the panel at a limit of three minutes. If this is not voted or if this is voted down, what it means is you have a total allotment for all panels combined rather than the three minutes each. Okay. All right. Uh any further questions or debate on that? Okay. Seeing none, uh, Madam Clerk, let's engage the vote on", "segments_merged": 10 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 921.145, "end": 926.485, "text": "Councillor Dallywell is still absent. Councillor Shabot, your vote, please.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_07", "start": 927.345, "end": 927.685, "text": "No.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 930.365, "end": 933.865, "text": "Councillor McLean, your vote, please.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 935.325, "end": 942.225, "text": "Uh let me think. I just got here. Uh I'm just gonna take uh Councillor Shabose Lead go.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 943.965, "end": 945.165, "text": "Mayor Farkas, your vote, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 946.025, "end": 947.445, "text": "that. Uh yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 947.825, "end": 948.205, "text": "Please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 949.105, "end": 950.305, "text": "Mayor Farkas all votes here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 950.865, "end": 973.665, "text": "All right, please uh display the results. On that, the motion has been defeated. Five to seven. Uh in support were Councillor Kelly, Pantasopoulos, Atkinson, Yule. And myself, and just to clarify, colleagues, so instead of having opportunities with each of the panels, you'll have a total of Madame Clerk, if you don't mind verifying, that's five total minutes.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 975.125, "end": 977.125, "text": "It's just three minutes for time.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 977.305, "end": 993.925, "text": "Okay, so we'll have a you you will have a total of three minutes spread across all of the the various um presenters. Okay, so you have a total of three minutes. Okay. Uh seeing no other lights here, I believe that uh we can start with our administration presentation.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_23", "start": 998.905, "end": 1215.245, "text": "Good afternoon. Just want to make sure this is working. Thank you, Mayor Farkas. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Lori Slitler, the leader of municipal boards and governance. I'm here today supported by Deputy City Clerk Jeremy Fraser and Jeannie Dubetz, the governance and policy coordinator, as well as her team. I'm honored to be here today to present the 2026 annual reports from council committees, boards, commissions, and committees. And we also are supported by our tribunal coordinator, Tracy Mancini. Before I begin, I want to mention there are distributions from the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee to accompany their verbal presentations. We can circulate those presentations now, please. Could I get the next slide, please? The recommendation before you today is that Council thank committees and boards, commissions and committees for providing their 2026 annual reports and to those that will be delivering presentations to you today. Next slide, please. Each year during the Organizational Meeting of Council, Council adopts their annual calendar. At the 2025 Organizational Meeting of Council, today was set aside as a meeting for Council to dedicate to hearing from the many council committees, boards, commissions, and committees that don't have other avenues of reporting to council. This year, 18 boards, commissions, and committees have submitted written reports in attachments 1 through 18A in your package that outline their accomplishments, challenges, and work plans for the coming year. These council committees and boards, commissions, and committees are included as they do not have other reporting mechanisms with council right now. Annual reporting to council ensures council has the information needed to make informed decisions on the mandates and governance of council committees and boards, commissions, and committees. These opportunities also strengthen accountability through transparency and insight into their very important work. There are many council committees and boards, commissions, and committees that have alternate reporting arrangements throughout the year and therefore are not included in this report. A list of those can be found in attachment 19. Next slide, please. City Clerk's Office canvassed mayors of council to determine which council committees or boards commissions and committees they would wanted to receive verbal presentations from today. On the screen are the council committees and boards commissions and committees that will be making those verbal presentations. These presentations are identified as B attachments, and as mentioned earlier, the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee have provided their presentations in a distribution. Next slide, please. So we're back to the recommendation. The council thank council committees and boards, commissions, and committees for all the work they have put into providing their annual reports and for delivering their presentations. At this point, I am pleased to introduce representatives of the Calgary Police Commission, Commission Chair Mchool Siddiqui, Executive Director Corwin Odland, and Senior Advisor of Communications and Engagement Sapna Gupta. Want to join me?", "segments_merged": 10 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1220.505, "end": 1235.045, "text": "Thank you so much. And uh maybe just to Madam Clerk first, uh, from a process standpoint, do you recommend asking for questions from council members after each panel or rather each individual speaker has finished rather than paneling?", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 1237.425, "end": 1250.125, "text": "It's really up to the chair to decide that. But as far as timing goes, we will have to keep note as how many times left for each member of council, given that you only have three minutes per", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1251.305, "end": 1251.585, "text": "So,", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 1251.585, "end": 1252.865, "text": "because the previous motion failed.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1252.865, "end": 1270.265, "text": "colleagues, what I'm gonna suggest is that uh given many of these folks have uh otherwise important work to do, maybe we can just go to each if there's a question for each group and then kind of let them off the hook and they can head out rather than have to wait to the very end. Okay, see no objection. Uh Chair Sidiki, thank you so much for being here with us. Please go ahead.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1270.585, "end": 1309.445, "text": "Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and members of council. If we could bring up the first slide, please. Wonderful. I'm Amtal Sadiqi, Chair of the Calgary Police Commission. It's truly nice to be here with you today. Thank you for your time and your continued partnership. On behalf of the Calgary Police Commission, I'm here to share a bit about our work over the past year, what we've learned, and where we're headed next. At the heart of everything we do, we have one simple goal to make sure policing in Calgary reflects the needs, expectations, and trust of the communities we serve. Next slide, please.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1314.765, "end": 1323.785, "text": "So we're just gonna pause for a moment. I have RTS from Councillor Johnston. Uh uh request to speak can't interrupt a speaker unless it's a point of privilege. Are you rising on a point of privilege?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 1324.005, "end": 1326.205, "text": "No, the RTS was before she started speaking.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1326.265, "end": 1334.645, "text": "Okay, so I I will go back to you at the uh conclusion of the speaker, Councillor Johnston, unless it's a point of privilege or point of order. Okay. Sorry, uh Chair Siddiqui, please go ahead.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1334.645, "end": 1674.445, "text": "That's okay. I'd like to start here and provide a high-level overview of what our commission does. The Calgary Police Commission provides independent civilian oversight and strategic governance of the Calgary Police Service. And we as an arm's length board appointed by Council and the province, we help ensure that the police are accountable to the community and protected from inappropriate political influence. We work closely with the province, council, the police chief, and other community leaders to determine the policing needs and priorities of Calgarians. It's our role then to also provide a budget with council's approval and policy framework for the police to deliver on those priorities. Before I go further, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the strength of our commission. While we remain committed to continuous improvement, the Calvary Police Commission is regarded as a leader in many aspects of police governance, both provincially and nationally. Our commissioners and staff are regularly sought out by other boards and agencies for their expertise and insight, reflecting the credibility and leadership we are bringing to police governance across Canada. As president of the Canadian Association of Police Governance, I'm incredibly proud of my Calgary's incredibly proud of my colleagues in Calgary and the support and mentorship that they provide across the country. We're proud of this reputation and we remain focused on growing, learning, and continuing to serve Calgary with excellence. Next slide, please. 2025 was a significant one for our commission. We navigated a period of leadership change, appointing a new police chief, and setting a new strategic direction for CPS's executive leadership team. We also spent time strengthening how we do our work as a commission, improving our governance practices, and making sure we're making decisions based on strong, meaningful information. For example, we leaned into both our employee and community survey results to better understand lived experiences and expectations and to bring those voices into our decision making. We also stayed connected beyond Calgary, working with partners across our province and country to share ideas and continue improving police governance. Because this work isn't static, we're always learning and we're always evolving. Next slide, please. Connection and collaboration continued to be a big focus for us last year. We brought Calgarians together through our annual policing summit, welcoming hundreds of community, government, and policing leaders to have honest conversations about public safety and shared solutions. We also spent time meeting with community and provincial partners, advocacy groups, and police associations to better understand what Calgrarians are expecting of policing in our city. We worked closely with City Council to address the $28 million shortfall while also supporting the transition away from funding policing through fine revenue. This was an important step because it reinforced our belief that enforcement decisions should always be about safety, not revenue. Together, we also advanced the mid-cycle budget investments to garner funding for frontline capacity, infrastructure, and sustainability of the service. This was a very much a shared effort, and we're grateful for how closely we were able to work with each of you on this. Next slide, please. As we reflect on the last year, one of the clearest threads through all of our work was this: that the needs of our city are growing quickly and the pressure on policing is growing with it. Throughout 2025, we worked hard to be responsible stewards of the budget. We partnered closely with council, made careful decisions, and asked only for the resources that we absolutely needed, especially in a year that included a significant shortfall and important funding changes. Looking ahead, we have a thoughtful and focused year in front of us. One of our priorities is strengthening how we engage both within the community and the service so that we're consistently using the public's voice to shape our decisions. We're also continuing important internal work, including completing a workplace culture assessment survey of the service, advancing our strategic planning as a commission, and strengthening our governance and risk oversight practices. And in the coming months, we'll be coming to you with our next four year police budget. You'll see that we've worked closely with the service to ensure we're planning responsibly and sustainably for the future. You'll also see that our budget ask is forward thinking and ultimately grounded in our commitment to investing in public safety. And speaking of thinking ahead, we're also in the early stages of police chief succession planning to ensure long term stability and success. All of this work is really about making sure the system we have in place continues to serve Calgarians well today and into the future. Next slide, please. Before I close, I just want to say thank you. From the moment you were elected, you made time for us and you continue to do so. It means a lot to know that the relationship we're building between our commission and city council is one built on trust, openness, and a shared commission commitment to our beautiful city. Yes, this past year has had its challenges, but there was a lot of progress as well. We are grateful for your partnership and look forward to all that we will accomplish together. I now like to invite you to ask any questions you may have.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 1675.625, "end": 1677.925, "text": "Thank you. I have uh Councillor Johnston in the queue.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 1679.965, "end": 1693.265, "text": "Yeah, it wasn't point of privilege, it is now, but uh you the chair kind of hijacked my question period with uh what I felt was a bit of a lie. Um I don't think that was really fair. Um but then you had asked us to use the RTS,", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1693.265, "end": 1693.525, "text": "Okay.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 1693.525, "end": 1722.105, "text": "which I did, and then you missed it, and then you made a mo or sorry, then you Made it that I wasn't in there before the speaker started speaking. So again, you were wrong. Um, but I just wanted to mention that the way we did the CDC this morning was to do ask questions after the whole panel, and it was probably the most efficient meeting we've had all year. So it was just gonna be my suggestion that we wait until after the panel, but that's already passed, so I'll just leave it there.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1722.445, "end": 1728.205, "text": "All right, thank you so much for your input, uh Councillor Johnston. Uh any questions for Chair Siddiqui?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 1729.605, "end": 1730.705, "text": "Uh Councillor Atkinson, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 1731.425, "end": 1746.765, "text": "Uh in your report, you mentioned the transition of the police complaint system to the provincial uh level. Do we have any insights monitoring feedback that is coming back from that process uh and in and how that sort of transition is is going?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1747.505, "end": 1785.905, "text": "Yeah, so the tr uh thank you, Council, for your question. The transition actually occurred earlier this year. So the police review commission is set up. They're currently in the stages of hiring. They've just actually selected their new CEO, which is actually Catherine Murphy, who was with the Calgary Police Service as their chief strategy officer. So she joins them next week as their niece new CEO. They have been meeting with commissions across the province, including ours, on a regularly basis, and they do provide us reporting as well in terms of what they're seeing, the amount of work that they're seeing, the complaints that are coming forward. And they're working closely with our legal officer at commission as well as the services directly as well.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1787.045, "end": 1787.385, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 1789.305, "end": 1790.605, "text": "Councillor Panasopoulos, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 1790.645, "end": 1802.785, "text": "Wonderful. In your report, you you made a comment if you could expand on uh public's increasing expectations of police governance boards. Maybe just commentary around that and how is the board adapting to those changing?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1803.125, "end": 1847.785, "text": "Of course, Councillor. You've probably seen quite a bit of activity across the country. There have been large incidences, there have been issues around police officers and trust. And so governance plays an important role in that, in ensuring that not that we're at there at the operations level, but we're higher than that, looking at the governance, ensuring that there's policies in place, that that the service is planning appropriately, and that we have a constant communication with the chief who would then go and um work with her ELT directly. And so what we've done over the last year, there's always been strategic plans in place with the commission. We have just ensured that we're looking across the country and seeing what has happened and what is coming and how do we prepare for that so that we're ready here in this city.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 1848.605, "end": 1859.065, "text": "Your board is prepared, the current structure, the current funding to uh uh take those challenges head on, that evolving nature, the continually evolving nature of public expectations of governing boards.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1859.065, "end": 1883.485, "text": "I would say that governance is constantly changing as policing is changing. So we continue to try to stay ahead. Having said that, you will see in the four year budget ask an ask for additional resources for the commission. We are the third largest commission in the country, and we're seeing actually quite regularly as experts in this area. And so we will be coming for an ask to add some support on staffing levels as well as some other pieces.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 1883.905, "end": 1918.365, "text": "I think going into budget, I think I heard you say you know the governance is policy framework for budgets. Uh obviously budget comes from council, but it has a request of the commission. Can you sort of speak to holding the police accountable for that budget? KPIs, uh, what sort of metrics do you have back? And you know what assurances there because there's that disconnect, you know, the dollars go out and then we just sort of get a yearly update. Just talk through that whole process. Uh what are some of those and and through the budget cycle, through through this incremental request you've spoken of, um, how are we going to have those deliverables and make sure that we're actually uh getting what we're paying for and executing against your KPIs and deliverables.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1918.365, "end": 1970.005, "text": "You must have been sitting in our meeting last Thursday or listening in. It was all around KPIs and the process and the metrics that we're looking at that are specific to the next four-year budget and what we're requesting. This commission has been very clear that there's a couple of pieces that, as we ask for these budget numbers and figures that we're asking for, that there needs to be clear reporting out and not vague information, but very direct information and what does that look like. And so the service has worked with us closely on providing that information and those inputs into those processes. And so you will see that when we come with our ask, you'll also see what our KPIs are, and you'll see those on a regular basis. We as a commission get those quarterly, they're reported on to us, and so they are available to share at any time. But you will see that at various reports that we provide throughout the year. And also the reports that the service provides also to council.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 1970.785, "end": 1971.845, "text": "Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1971.965, "end": 1972.465, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1973.885, "end": 1981.805, "text": "Anyone else for police commission? All right. Uh seeing none, thank you so much, uh, Chair Siddiqui, for for being here with us.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 1981.805, "end": 1998.365, "text": "Ms. Mayor, and I I just before I leave, I do want to acknowledge my two colleagues who are sitting here in the corner, Councillor McLean and Councillor Weyness, and thank them for all the work that they've done over the past year to ensure that uh the Commission is doing the work we need to be and having that relationship with council as well. So thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 1998.485, "end": 2008.565, "text": "And uh and uh just on behalf of council, I want to acknowledge you as well because I have the good fortune to see you. I think it's something like two or three or four times per week. I don't know how you have a day job, let alone uh", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2008.565, "end": 2016.005, "text": "Well, you know what? You're funny, Mayor, because I was gonna be at 2.50 and I'm like, I gotta get back to my J job. So thank you for finishing early. I appreciate it.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2016.005, "end": 2016.985, "text": "thank you for being here. You're", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2016.985, "end": 2017.865, "text": "Thank you so much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2019.025, "end": 2022.545, "text": "all right. Uh now we will call on our anti racism action committee.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2041.265, "end": 2044.185, "text": "Marhaba Asalam Alaikum and hello. My name is Dina Ibrahim.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2044.505, "end": 2045.805, "text": "And my name is Rebecca Comer.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2045.905, "end": 2104.465, "text": "We're the co-chairs of the Anti-Racism Committee. Next slide. This year, one of our biggest priorities was becoming more action oriented. Rather than only discussing issues at monthly meetings, we work to bring community voices directly into city initiatives and decision making processes. We increased collaboration with city business units, strengthened community partnerships, and expanded opportunities for Calgarians to engage with us directly. One example was our participation in the Calgary Pop Hop Care Village. Committee members spent the day speaking directly with residents, experiencing economic and social barriers, listening to their experiences and concerns while also helping distribute approximately $1,500 worth of food, beverage, and clothing items. Those conversations reminded us that anti racism work is effective when it is rooted in relationships and lived experience. We've also expanded our visibility within the community, and as a result, we began receiving requests related to racism and inclusion within Calgary. Next slide.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2106.665, "end": 2153.705, "text": "Community engagement remains central to our work. In addition to the Pop-Up Care Village, ARAC has been asked to participate in a variety of community initiatives, including community donation drives and presentations and conferences at several schools. ARAC has also been asked to provide input on programs in the community, especially when serving houseless Calgarians, to ensure that they are able to best serve some of the most vulnerable of our community. We have also continued to engage with the CPS's external ARAC committee to strengthen dialogue and relationship building, and we have had several city business units seek our input on various projects and strategies to ensure that the voices of racialized Calgarians are reflected within their work. Iraq continues to actively engage with different community groups and service providers, giving us opportunities to hear directly from racialized Calgarians. Next slide.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2154.945, "end": 2208.205, "text": "ARAC is currently involved in several projects aimed at creating practical improvements within the city. One of our business unit initiatives focuses on race-based data collection, working with community strategies for exploring how questions related to race and identity can be asked in ways that are respectful, trustworthy, and encourage more participation from diverse communities. The goal is to better understand what prevents people from sharing race-based information and how those barriers can be reduced. Another project involves collaborating with the Bears Paw Community Research Center to help incorporate equity-formed informed and anti racist approaches into community communications and engagement efforts. We have also conducted a racialized leadership inquiry, gathering feedback from organizations across Calgary to better understand barriers faced by racialized individuals in leadership positions. The findings will help inform future recommendations to council. Next slide.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2209.385, "end": 2318.725, "text": "ARAC has continued to build on the work we've accomplished over the past several years. As an action committee, we've been able to foster community partnerships supporting services such as Calgary Drop In and Rehab Center Society, Central United Outreach, and Alpha House Society. Notably, ARAC organized a winter clothing drive where eight van loads of jackets were collected. We also partnered with FYI Doctors and Alpha House Society on FYI Doctors' new mobile optometry bus supporting vulnerable communities. We also completed the community storytelling project, which was included in our engagement report and disseminated to the public and council. And we have also expanded our collaborations with it with city units, city business units through our newly developed work plan. Finally, ARAC has been working on expanding our engagement with the public. We finalized our new logo, which is seen on the slide, and we have also launched a social media presence. Next slide. We have faced several challenges over the past year. Most notably has been the removal of our previous co chair, whose work with the committee was invaluable. Because we didn't have any succession planning, what resulted was a sudden restructuring and rebuilding, which has slowed our work down substantially since the new term began. The committee has also lost the remainder of its historical knowledge since its establishment. As with many volunteer committees, we also struggle balancing volunteer capacity with project demands and our own ambitions. We have also faced systemic barriers, including the delay of our bylaws, which impacted our committee membership. We also continue to work towards strengthening relationships and communication pathways with council, especially as most of council is new. Additionally, because anti racism work can involve difficult conversations and public scrutiny, committee members must remain mindful of both psychological and physical safety while carrying out this work. Despite these challenges, our members remain deeply committed to our mandate in supporting Calgary's racialized communities. Next slide.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2319.605, "end": 2356.305, "text": "Looking ahead, our focus remains on turning community feedback into meaningful action. We'll continue expanding community consultations through round tables, listening sessions, and workshops that help us better understand emerging issues affecting racialized communities. We also plan to continue to deepen our advisory role within city business units and council by providing practical recommendations that support equitable policies, programs, and engagement practices. We'll continue to work to ensure community voices are reflected in the systems and services that affect Calgarians. Next slide. Thank you for listening, and we're looking forward to answering any questions you might have.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2357.365, "end": 2364.565, "text": "Great. Thank you so much for your service to the citizens of Calgary. Colleagues, are there any questions for our Anti-Racism Action Committee?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 2368.245, "end": 2369.385, "text": "Councillor Venazopoulos?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 2369.705, "end": 2392.405, "text": "Thanks so much. Just uh picking up on the loss of your chair, this it obviously is a huge issue and there's no succession plan. And then when you did your your work plan for 26, there wasn't the board's uh initiative to create a succession plan, you know, to prevent it happening again. Can you just speak to that? Why were other items prioritized over um a succession plan, which is sort of core to what a board needs to have?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2393.805, "end": 2409.565, "text": "We were not anticipating the removal of the co-chair. So there was just no anticipation that we would need to have that succession plan in place. We expected that she would be around for another year.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2410.625, "end": 2420.125, "text": "But right now we're actually working with her, thankfully, to try and create a succession plan and get a list of all our resources and relationships that we've built.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 2421.145, "end": 2436.005, "text": "Yeah. And maybe the finally it said in your uh our advice is not valued by counsel. What are some examples that actually struck to me? Obviously, that we don't want volunteers thinking they have no input. You know, some examples and and what can we do different to uh hear you guys' voices?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2449.285, "end": 2520.565, "text": "We do seek to ensure that all voices of Calgarians are heard. So we still continue to engage with each ward, whether it's with any with individual council members or with the entirety of council. The difficult part of engaging with council is when we reach out and then we don't necessarily hear back. So at the beginning of your terms, we did send out an email to everyone introducing ourselves, and we only heard back from two separate members of council. So that makes it really hard for us to continue to engage when all of the onus is on us to do that work. There is a power dynamic at play as well, so it does create a bit of a difficult space where maybe we feel like what we try to talk about is not valued because people are not necessarily reaching out to us. Since that email and the responses we gotten from it, we have had counselors, a Councillor reach out, and we are in the um, we are currently reaching out to another two counselors, but it really is helpful if the rest of council is reaching out to us to start to build that relationship as well.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2521.745, "end": 2522.445, "text": "Thank you, Mr. Chair.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 2523.345, "end": 2524.905, "text": "Thank you. Councillor Clark, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2525.505, "end": 2560.485, "text": "Yeah, thank you. Um Councillor Panjaslopoulos essentially touched on the same point I wanted to make, which was one of your goals is that you'd like to form better relationships with council. I think you've done an excellent job, obviously, answering the question, but um is there anything I I can appreciate, you know, the desire to speak with us. You sent us an email when we first got started. I think I'll speak for myself alone, but quite an overwhelming experience. Um quite a few emails. Uh and so to that end, yeah, sort of like is there something that we could do to to sort of uh extend the olive branch or or sort of reach a handout to make that connection?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2560.585, "end": 2605.405, "text": "Yeah, you can send us an email. It's just arock at calgary.ca. We're happy to meet anytime. So even if we don't have, you know, any particular um Agenda item, we're happy to build a relationship. We think that you know our relationship with council works really well when there's a really tight-knit kind of community. And we had had that previously with a couple of counselors as well, where we were even just texting each other. So it it the relationship that we build with council is all up to you. We're happy to engage in whatever way that you want. But yeah, feel free to reach out to us. Um and we we will continue to reach out when stuff comes up, but we're really happy to build that relationship before something does come up.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2605.525, "end": 2606.865, "text": "Okay, yeah. Thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_24", "start": 2606.865, "end": 2621.205, "text": "And I will say that our committee is built off of uh is made of such incredible people with such amazing backgrounds, and I think using us as a tool is really great for you guys. But yeah, we're looking forward to build our relationship with you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2621.465, "end": 2622.665, "text": "Perfect. Thank you so much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 2623.465, "end": 2624.585, "text": "Councillor Johnston?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 2625.105, "end": 2640.465, "text": "Yeah, I just wanted to apologize. I I went back to uh the beginning of the term and I I do see that you guys did reach out and I apologize. There's no real excuse not to reach back. Um and uh just a quick question what is racialized leadership inquiry? What like what is that?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2640.905, "end": 2679.985, "text": "Yeah, so uh part of our new work plan is we were trying to engage with the different strategic priorities of the anti-racism strategic plan, and one of them was to identify opportunities for leadership. So one of our committee members reached out to different organizations within the community and sent over a survey asking about any barriers to racialized leadership that they might have. And so we've received those survey results back, and we will be sending out a short one pager to all of council summarizing the results.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 2680.085, "end": 2683.985, "text": "And so is that leadership in government or business? Any leadership?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_22", "start": 2683.985, "end": 2703.205, "text": "I believe it was with social services more so, but it was it was targeted towards a bunch of different organizations. I don't believe that it went to City Hall. However, the plan um we hope that we're able to engage with human resources in City Hall in order to kind of talk about this a little bit further.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 2703.525, "end": 2704.285, "text": "Okay, thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2707.265, "end": 2714.485, "text": "Thank you, colleagues. Any other uh further questions? Yeah, seeing none, thank you so much uh for being here with us.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2714.705, "end": 2715.285, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2715.805, "end": 2718.025, "text": "We'll move now to assessment review board, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 2729.185, "end": 2736.265, "text": "Uh good afternoon. My name is Robert Matheson. I'm the general chair of the Calgary Assessment Review Board, and with me today.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_18", "start": 2736.825, "end": 2740.865, "text": "Uh good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Rocker and I'm the Vice Chair of the Assessment Review Board.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 2742.925, "end": 2870.225, "text": "Next slide, please. Oh, and with us is Tracy Mancini, the ARB Tribunal Coordinator with the City of Calgary. So the mandate of the Assessment Review Board is uh it's an impartial quasi tradition judicial tribunal that hears formal complaints against assessments of properties and local improvements. It's made up of the general chair, vice chair, and 24 part time members. We're appointed for up to two year terms to a maximum of 12 years. Next slide, please. Uh City Council perceived the need for some change in the last quarter of 2023. Forty-nine percent of the decisions were being rendered late under the MGA. There was a lack of modernization and cooperation. There had been a misguided push for ARB independence, which created conflict with the city at all levels. There were too many long-term entrenched members. It had become a bit of an old boys network. And commercial agents met directly with ARB leadership, which uh bothered people at both the administration and uh council level. Next slide, please. So, what did council do? They increased the terms from one top to two years. They did not renew any members who had been appointed prior to 2015, which was one third of the board, unfortunately, some of the most experienced members. They replaced the general chair and vice chair, and they changed the general uh chair's position to reduce interference with different city departments. Next slide, please. Here we have a chart of the number of complaints in the last five years. You can see it's been pretty steady, except for last year, where it went up by 50%. The next column there called Carbs is basically your multi residential and commercial properties. LARBS are your local properties. So over time, your commercial multi residential have been dropping quite significantly, while your LARBs have actually come up. And last year in particular, over 2000 was almost a tripling of the year before.", "segments_merged": 10 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2870.445, "end": 2873.745, "text": "Could sort of interrupt, would you mind just telling us what a carb and a larbar?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 2873.845, "end": 2898.885, "text": "I I was just well the CARB is uh composite assessment review board. They look at commercial properties and multi residential, anything over three units. And essentially the Land and Property Rights Tribunal of the province parachutes in the presiding officer for that. We provide the two side panel members for the LARBS, which is your residential properties and your farmland. Those are done by three local members.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 2899.445, "end": 2899.805, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 2899.805, "end": 3298.085, "text": "Okay. The number of hearings you can see last year had a huge spike, up to double of what they were the year before. We expect it to be back down within the normal range again this year. But we were able to handle it all with the one third fewer members that we had. So overall, administratively, it worked well. Next slide, please. This uh generally shows the efficiency of the assessment review board. The city deals with about 600,000 accessible properties overall. Of those, we get about 3,500 complaints this year, which represents 0.6 percent. You would expect at least 2.5% based on the mass appraisal model using a 95% confidence interval. So you'd expect 2.5% to be too high. They're the ones who complain. From that, we end up with 787 hearings last year, of which 77% of the uh complaints were settled. Of those, only three have gone for judicial review, and one of those is a strictly procedural thing. We'll note as a footnote to that that when we came in in early 2024, there were 22 outstanding legal claims before the courts. We have now gotten rid of all the uh legacy ones and are just dealing with current ones at this point. And we just see a chance of success on maybe one out of the three. Next slide, please. So, what did we do in the last two years, because we have not talked to this board for three years, I believe, the last time they were here. We updated the website to reduce the text by two-thirds, get a grade eight reading level, reorganized it around the end user. We have in created training manuals, increased training in cooperation with the LPRT, and greatly increased member mentoring and have Monday scrums and luncheon learns on the value valuation and on decision writing. That has improved the quality of the decisions. And next slide, please. Uh this is the one where you really notice that when we came in 48% of the hearings were uh being fil decisions were being filed late. Uh we got that down to zero last year despite a doubling of the number of hearings and having one-third fewer members. So uh quite a quite an accomplishment really. Next slide, please. We also made a lot of changes with respect to bringing the uh assessment review board inside the city IT infrastructure. If everybody remembers the attack on the public library uh last year, a couple of years ago, and all the problems that caused, we noted that we did not feel we had adequate security, and after lots of coaxing and prodding, we and support from the administration under Tracy and uh And Jeremy uh Fraser. We were able to get that all fixed, reducing the stress, having things run a lot better. We consolidated the PDF packages so the hearings go much more smoothly now and eliminated OCR scanning. We never did figure out why they were doing it, but it was changing the evidence packages as they're getting disclosed to the board. Next slide, please. We also improved the scheduling. We had to increase the number of weekly panels. We had to extend the length of our season. We have simplified all the different panels and made it so commercial agents cannot file without filing the requisite paperwork. They were just ignoring it in the past, and uh all of that is now being uh enforced. Uh next slide, please. Okay, so with policy and procedures, we brought the uh respectful workplace policies of the city, we've incorporated them into the rules for the board. And uh we've greatly improved the cooperation between the BCC administration and the ARB members. And I think uh Tracy can attest to there being a lot higher level of cooperation. Um simplified all the payroll handling protocols, uh, changed the default from in-person to video conference hearings. We still do hold in-person hearings when they are requested. And we have done a recent study, and unfortunately, it's not in your package because we did it after the April 1st cutoff for sending things in here. And we did find that uh tele uh in person and video conference hearings are approximately twice as successful for the taxpayers in terms of positive outcomes for taxpayers as a written hearing is. So in that regard, uh we did get a request this year from assessment and tax to go to all written hearings, and we issued a decision saying we're we're just not going to do it. It's not fair to the taxpayers of the city. We've also recreated a lot of missing information from scratch and set up so that there's a much better ability to transition over to new leadership when the time comes. Everything's open in easy to find areas. We've trained all of the board members in procedure so that most of them are in pretty good shape to be able to take over some of those roles. And we've also eliminated any direct contact between commercial agents and the ARB leadership, as that was a direct conflict of interest. Next slide, please. So, what are we working on? We would dearly like to make the website and the portal we use for people filing their evidence and documentation more mobile friendly. The city of Calgary has something like 90% of the people coming in are on phones or tablets. And ours isn't even friendly towards phones and tablets. Just because it it needs substantial upgrade. We also want to be able to send out text notices, but our software doesn't permit it. So that's another thing that would be very helpful to bring us into the modern world. And uh again, we'll keep focusing on training to make sure that the level of decision making is uh is kept high and that the procedural fairness is maintained so that the overall experience of everybody is is fair. And again, we're not trying to be the taxpayer's friend. We just want fairness to both the city and to the taxpayers. Next slide, I think we're done. Do you have anything you'd like to add? Tracy? No. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 36 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 3298.405, "end": 3301.025, "text": "Thank you. Over to I believe Councillor Kelly.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3302.225, "end": 3313.585, "text": "Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um seems like you've had a pretty significant transformation over the past year or two. Would that be fair to say?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3313.925, "end": 3314.565, "text": "Yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3315.325, "end": 3328.225, "text": "And uh can you maybe just tell us a little bit like of why that why were we in such a bad state previously? Apologies. There's 10 of us who are new here, so this is this is kind of uh news, and I didn't", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3328.225, "end": 3328.545, "text": "Okay.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3328.545, "end": 3331.185, "text": "I didn't get enough in the in the report, I guess is what I'm saying.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3333.345, "end": 3428.605, "text": "The former counsel, outside counsel to the uh board had suggested to the previous leadership that they should have more independence based on a certain Court of Queen's Bench decision out of 2013. When I looked at it, they had misread it. They got it 100% backwards. They took the position, which was what the complainant had said was his position, and they just laid out the position, then came down and said, and of course that's been overruled by the MGA. So we find against and everything's good enough the way it's laid out. That then went to the Court of Appeal and was upheld three to nothing. And they were busy trying to follow the complainants information in there. So it caused them to be pushing for a level of independence that made no sense. It was also a bit of an old boys' network, to be honest. Some of those folks had been around, I don't know, 15 and 20 years even. And uh there was a little little bit of misogyny as well uh built into the system, which I wasn't even aware of until we did our. Interviews with the uh the members um seemed that you know certain genders were being told different things on what to put in for payroll than other ones and and maybe training wasn't uh being offered uh on on an equal basis as well. So there were some pretty frustrating things that we've put behind us and hopefully. Fixed up and worked very hard to clean up all the operations in cooperation with the uh with the back office people at the BCC administration.", "segments_merged": 7 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3429.205, "end": 3445.145, "text": "And where would you say that maybe you are on that transition now? Because recognizing like this sounds like a pretty significant not only cultural transformation, but also a technological transformation as well in terms of processes, et cetera. Where how far along on that journey would you say you are currently?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3445.225, "end": 3465.625, "text": "I would suggest we were pretty well done it after six months and that we've been working to tweak it ever since, and that to make any further uh improvements we'd have to be looking at a different uh software package, but that's such a a huge undertaking that it'll have to be studied and reviewed, and somebody will have to figure out if there's something out there that's better.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3466.525, "end": 3486.425, "text": "Well, with the limited knowledge that we have in terms of it, it looks like you're doing a great job in terms of that. And I I guess I would just applaud you for actually doing this because this sounds like it was desperately needed. And so I really, really appreciate you. And uh hopefully uh Calgaryans who are going through your process uh can feel that difference.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 3486.965, "end": 3487.885, "text": "Yeah, we hope so too.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 3488.705, "end": 3489.065, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 3490.065, "end": 3491.745, "text": "Thank you. Councillor McLean, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 3492.205, "end": 3521.745, "text": "Uh thank you, Mayor. Um, not so much of a question as a c a compliment. What you've shown us is that you've actually dealing with half the resources doing twice the work, tangible results, which is exactly seems to be the opposite of what we usually get with boards, committees, commissions, and all of our civic partners. They all do fantastic work, but they've uh usually Don't have those same results. Tangible that you're actually doing more with less, so could you go talk with all the rest of people and tell them how you did it? You know, maybe", "segments_merged": 7 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_18", "start": 3522.205, "end": 3523.845, "text": "Sometimes you just have to figure it out.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 3523.985, "end": 3528.145, "text": "figure it out. Excellent. Mike, my again, I commend you for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 3530.125, "end": 3553.865, "text": "All right, Councillor Clark, please. Yeah, thank you. Um just a quick question to sort of zero in on something that your presentation provided. Is I mean you've had amazing results. You went, you've you've had an increase in applications with a zero percent coming back late. That's incredible, um, as as has been said by Councillor Kelly about the work that you folks are doing. But can you just describe uh explain to me how how you were able to achieve that?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3554.265, "end": 3617.865, "text": "Well, um we n the first thing we noticed, we brought it down from forty-eight percent to six percent the first year, and then we noticed that most of the late things were being caused on what again, carbs, the ones where they had uh an LPRT member as the principal member. So we were able to clean up our end of it very quickly, but we don't really control the LPRT members when they are the presiding officers of those tribunals. So we went and worked with uh Susan McCrory, who's the chair of the Land and Property Rights Tribunal, and uh came up with methods where we would tell her who we're having problems with and making suggestions and I guess a little bit of arm twisting of those members. Um, you know, funny little things. Their name tags used to be gold, and ours were silver. And so I said, no, they're all silver, and things like that. Just really funny little psychological things where you've got to bring the egos down. even everything out and just get the job done.", "segments_merged": 9 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 3618.825, "end": 3621.185, "text": "Incredible. Thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 3623.325, "end": 3627.405, "text": "Thank you so much. There's no one else in the queue, but again, just thank you for your service.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_15", "start": 3627.645, "end": 3627.965, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 3628.325, "end": 3631.945, "text": "We'll call next on our Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 3643.685, "end": 4491.265, "text": "I feel like I'm moving at sloth speed. This is not like me. Sorry. I just want to say good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank you for that beautiful land acknowledgement. I commend you, and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your hard work as a voter in the city. You know, I I watch every one of you. I follow you on social media platforms. I listen to the decisions that are being made on our behalf, and that's what we vote for as Calgarians. And so I want to take this opportunity from the bottom of my heart to say thank you for all your hard work and your commitment to make this a better place for everybody. With that, I just hopefully I don't I don't know if Terry, my name is Winona Lafrenier, sorry, I tend to do this at the very end. I don't know why. I'm just contrary that way sometimes. And Terry Pissett, she's the other co chair, so we had it set up that way purposefully. And then, of course, to my left, my sister in spirit, I have Lindsay Fleury. She's the executive director of the Indigenous Justice Center here in Calgary. Wonderful woman that does a ton of work. When you say do little with There you go. So I want to thank you for this opportunity to be here just to share our story and the impact that our this committee has had over the last year. We have a 14-member committee, and we have a lot of diversity. And I'm going to speak to some of the impact that we've you know we've seen, we've come across, and we continue to really work towards because we know we're a long way from you know working with you know all our counterparts, the departments here, the Indigenous Relations Office, to address those 94 calls to action. So I want to say that you know, we've been established since 79, so that's 47 years of operating as a committee. This was set forth by the city in response to you know bettering the lives of the Blackfoot people who brought that forward. And that's very important to remember that history and all of this because our mandate here is to provide counsel with that professional and strategic advice. And there is a lot of work to get to be done. Um, when you think about the 40,000 plus indigenous people that live in the city, not to mention the outlying with the other nations that do business here in Calgary. Um, I think it's important that we we set that tone right off the hop. With that, I'd love to move to our next slide and talk about some of our accomplishments. And this list is partial only. It doesn't cover the you know the whole spectrum of what we've been doing outside of you know our work with this committee and our partnership with the IRO and all the events that we attend throughout the year. Um we dedicate significant time and expertise to provide that strategic advice on city-led initiatives that directly affect Indigenous Calgarians. So on Medicine Hill and uh Pascapoo slopes, COAC's been a consistent voice ensuring Indigenous relationships to this land we call home are reflected in regional park planning process. On the Indigenous Gathering Place, COWAX engaged with the IGP on the exciting progress towards finalizing the design and location for the gathering place. On the Indian Residential School Permanent Memorial, COWAC provided advice on design concepts to ensure the honor the memorial honors those survivors, those intergenerational survivors, and all of those affected and those forthcoming as well that are that have been impacted for many generations. And so on the race based data strategy, COWAC emphasized the importance of indigenous data sovereignty and the need for ethical, community informed approaches to data collection. And asking ourselves, who owns the data once it's collected? That's something we we as Indigenous people we need to be asking because data is sovereignty to us. So across all of these initiatives, COWAC's role has been a we're there to ensure Indigenous perspectives are not just an afterthought, but are built into decision making from the start. Sorry. Next slide please. So this slide reflects the collaborative relationships COWAC has had over the past year in strengthening, I guess, you know, the knowledge that really we focus a lot on throughout the year to educate the public, educate industry, educate governments, departments, the IRO, because we have a ton of expertise. And that ongoing engagement with Indigenous Relations Office is the cornerstone of the work that we do. So we work in close relationship with our colleagues, and Devon sits on our committee. We meet every second Tuesday of the month, with the exception of July and August. So we also hold seats on several city standing committees and advisory bodies, namely the anti-racism, the social well-being, the inter-committee initiative, the cross-committee presence ensures for us that Indigenous perspectives reach the city in a timely manner. And so the chief David Crowchild Memorial Award that we host every year speaks to that, those contributions that are made by Indigenous people in the city. So it's an annual event that honors individuals and organizations making significant contributions to Indigenous communities and reconciliation in Calgary. It is a celebration of community legacy and the ongoing work of collaboration, and also engaged with the city administration departments, including planning parks, housing, transit accessibility, and more so the recent, and and I was watching your video, Mayor Farkas, yesterday on the transit talking about that safety plan. So we we had a huge part to play in that because we know for Indigenous people that's a huge issue. Safety and security is huge for Indigenous people in the city, including myself being an Indigenous female. So next slide, please. So beyond formal meetings and advisory work, CAWAC members show up in community at ceremonies, at gatherings, cultural events, and civic engagements throughout the year. We participate in pipe ceremony. We recently, I guess we should I could say we've been a part of a pipe ceremony with Tourism Calgary, the Blackfoot Confederacy MOU, which is Memorandum of Understanding, and to us that's a historic moment. And I'm sure it's going to continue on with other nations outlying our city. CAWAC members marched in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Memorial March in February. We participated in Red Dress Orange Shirt Day, and we'll continue to support these initiatives to increase that awareness of some of these issues in our society. And we've also attended the Metis Stampede Festival, Aboriginal Awareness Month, the Confluence Symposium. And then, of course, being in community really matters to us. And it's how COWAC members stay connected and how they represent and bring those lived realities back to the table. So in total, CAWAC members led or attended more than 20 community events and engagements during this reporting period. Next slide, please. So looking ahead, COWAC has a focused and ambitious set of priorities for the coming year. First, it's ongoing collaboration with the Indigenous Relations Office, which is our closest city partner. Second, finalizing COWAC's terms of reference, which is going to go to council. This includes clarifying the co chair model, quorum requirements, and membership expectations to ensure CAWAC operates within the parameters. Third, we continue advisory engagement on a range of important city initiatives, accessibility, red line phase two, indigenous gathering place, housing data strategy, public policy, and the Indian Residential School Memorial Project. Fourth, the White Goose Flying Report Renewal. So that was released in 2016, which means it's up for that renewal. We're now approaching its 10-year anniversary, and the city has an important obligation to review what has been accomplished and what still needs to happen. This renewal must be council-mandated, community-led, and properly resourced. Fifth, strengthening the KAWA council relationship. We want more regular and purposeful engagement with elected officials, not only at annual reporting, but through meaningful touch points throughout the year. Sixth, implementing the five year strategic plan that we set out just this year. This one is fairly new, and this next slide speaks to this strategic plan. It's organized into eight pillars that we provides a framework for COWAC's priorities and activities over the next five years. So pillar one talks about governance, accountability, and our mandate to strengthen the governance role and improving accountability access the city to across the city for reconciliation commitments. And treaty relationships, pillar two, community voice, pillar three. Pillar four is housing, wellness, and safety. So advancing Indigenous-informed approaches to housing, community safety, and culturally grounded supports. Pillar five is economic reconciliation and procurement, and we're fully aware of all the other committees that work within the parameters of the city of Calgary. So increasing our participation in Calgary's economy through procurement, entrepreneurship, and business development. And so, as you may or may not know, that we are the fastest growing you know businesses in in the country. So we you know, with this one, it speaks heavily to some of the work that we're seeing when it comes to procurement and maybe looking favorably to some of our Indigenous contractors when you've got major projects. Um, pillar seven, data sovereignty, um, to support policy decisions and accountability. Pillar eight, land, peacemaking, and environmental stewardship, something that's close to our hearts as Indigenous people, um, and to steward these lands jointly and with you know similar morals and ethics. We're asking council to formally endorse this plan. And so next slide, I've got what we need from council. We don't have a large ask. We're an advisory body. We do this work as volunteers because we believe in the importance of indigenous voice and municipal governance. But we cannot fulfill our mandate without the active support and commitment of council. So this is what we're asking for. Mandate and resource the White Goose Flying Report renewal. That because it's ten years old, this is Council's responsibility to mandate. The renewal must be community led and be properly resourced. Volunteers cannot carry this alone. Number two is strengthen strengthen the COWAC Council relationship. We are asking for more regular, meaningful, and direct engagement between COWAC and the elected officials throughout the year. Not only at during times of reporting, but of course, it's it's important to have a physical presence at a lot of our gatherings and events, and we see a lot of you know doing that, which is which is good, but I think more needs to be done to create that understanding and build those bridges between yourselves and the indigenous people. Three, endorse the COWAC strategic plan. Formal council and endorsement gives the plan institutional weight. It tells city administration and Indigenous community partners that COWAC's priorities are backed by council. Four, advance reconciliation with accountability. We're asking council to recommit publicly to reconciliation not as aspiration but as measurable action with timelines, clear ownership, and annual accountability reporting back to council. We also want to be honest. COWAC needs to be adequately resourced. As our strategic workload grows, so does the need for administrative and financial support to do this work well. And we need counsel to close that feedback loop. So when COWAC provides advice, we need to know whether that advice was acted on. So, because right now there's no formal mechanism to do that. So, where recommendations are tracked and responded to in writing would go a long way toward building that trust and demonstrating that advisory work leads to real outcomes. And our last slide. I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity. We look forward to the continued collaboration with council, administration, and the communities we serve to ensure that reconciliation commitments translate into meaningful and lasting change for Indigenous people and their lives in this in this city. We present this work in the spirit of building bridges and advancing reconciliation, and we're happy to take any questions.", "segments_merged": 25 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 4494.765, "end": 4525.785, "text": "Thank you so much for thank you so much for being here. Colleagues, are is there any follow up or questions? I I'll I will jump in and uh ask what do you think us coming together as a community and celebrating this milestone anniversary of treaty seven may look like? Because for me. As mayor, it's important on behalf of Calgarians as a treaty person, somebody who's lived uh here and born here to mark that occasion, but I know that it's probably not for me to drive the bus.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 4527.565, "end": 4735.925, "text": "So You know, it's going to advance the lives of the people that struggle when they come here. I personally relocated 20 years ago to Alberta from Manitoba. And living in a city, there is there's a lot of culture shock for our people. And I think with, you know, there's there's still a lack of of trust, there's a lack of understanding. And we're at that crossroads now where we see things progressing, we see relationships building, we see partnerships ongoing. But there still needs to be some effort made to address those ninety-four calls and I believe we're at about eighteen with the city of Calgary that you've addressed to date. So if we stay on that trajectory, we're looking at something like 2080, right? So we're a little bit slow on the uptake, but it takes two in the relationship, right? It's very important that that understanding is there, that trust is earned on both sides, right? So for me, being treaty from Treaty 4, Manitoba, living in Treaty 7, you know, I I take pride, I respect the people that live here, work here, and innovate on this land because it's very sacred, and we have to treat it as such, much like our mother. How do you treat your mother? Same way, no different. And so for us to cultivate that, because no committee that was created by the community it serves. Has outlived its usefulness until the community says no. And that's why we're here. It's important to distinguish our relationship as well with IRO because they're administrative and we're that voice for the community. Because sometimes these these young ones or the elders don't have that voice or that courage or that humility to come. Forward to City to say this is a problem. We've got issues that we need to address together. And that's the only way to do it is to work collaboratively, right? And learn from each other, share our stories. And I think from that point we can we can say that we're making progress. But I'm still not, and I'd love to see in my lifetime before I leave this earth that we've done something to set the pace and and have a good roadmap for all of our children, right? So that's why I'm here, because I'm passionate, I'm empathetic, I have compassion, and I give, I live to give. That's my motto. So Hopefully that answers your question. I mean there's a lot underlying that because I've I've done a lot of work in in the Indigenous relations space with with industry governments and not for profits, so even with civil governments when I was working in crime prevention in Grand Prairie for a number of years. So yeah, just It's good to be a part of something, you know, something transformational. And if you're genuine about that relationship, it's gonna show in your actions. So just going forward, just have that question in your mind what are your calls to action?", "segments_merged": 14 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 4736.805, "end": 4738.445, "text": "Thank you. I'm gonna go to Councillor Clark.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 4739.405, "end": 4760.505, "text": "Thank you, Chair. Just to actually build a bit on what the mayor was asking, in your presentation you discussed uh sort of renewing the vision for the white goose flying uh report. And I just wondered if you could speak a little bit to how you might see us as a group um beginning that work or or we what your vision is for that renewal.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 4761.205, "end": 4867.805, "text": "So, you know, I always say reconciliation, thank you for that question, uh Councillor Clark. Reconciliation does doesn't expire. Um, the work isn't done, but our roadmap really it needs some work. And I think it's important to be honest about You know, the the calls to action that have been implemented, but yet the calls that still need a lot of work. And I want to commend you because Calgary led on this. When the TRC Commission released its calls to action, Calgary was one of the first cities to respond with a substantive substantive community plan. So I want to remind you of that, and that's something to be proud of with the city. But looking at those 43 that are set out in the white goose, we still need to act more. We haven't completed all of them. And so I'll be straight with you that's not unique to Calgary. Nationally, only about 13 calls to action have been completed to date. So we're we're not nationally we're not doing as well, but as a city in comparison to the feds, to our governments, we're doing a lot better. But I think what I'd like to see more of is to mandate COWAC to take the lead on renewing this report and working closely with the IRO and city administration to move this forward. And that's going to take some time and effort and resources and some political will. So we're asking for both.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 4868.445, "end": 4869.405, "text": "I thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 4869.805, "end": 4870.425, "text": "You're welcome.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 4871.505, "end": 4872.725, "text": "Thank you. Councillor McLean, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 4873.105, "end": 4889.305, "text": "Yeah, my question is for Miss Pousset. I can recall there's Dr. Terry Pousset who was the head of the IRO. I'm gonna assume you're related. No? What a coincidence. Okay. She was always very kind to me. I was very fond of her.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 4889.305, "end": 4889.945, "text": "Ditch count.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 4889.945, "end": 4891.505, "text": "It's online I believe. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 4891.505, "end": 4892.405, "text": "Well, there we go.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 4892.405, "end": 4895.185, "text": "Unboss ditch. I'm boss stitch, I'm on the phone.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 4895.645, "end": 4916.505, "text": "Well hello Terry. So are you gonna be present? Um Well that was gonna be my other question with the RO we haven't really heard much, but there was are they presenting later today as well then? I don't because I didn't see that. I was kinda wondering what because I would uh we haven't had a full sum update and I was just curious because Councillor Waness and I were talking about that.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_19", "start": 4916.745, "end": 4945.285, "text": "Councillor McLean, the Indigenous Relations Office is a part of administration. We've been hearing about the Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee's relationship with administration. So this afternoon's presentations are all from uh community committees, not from teams within administration. So that's how it is that you're hearing from COAC, the Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, you're not hearing from IRO or the Indigenous Relations Office because that's part of administration.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 4945.665, "end": 4951.325, "text": "Okay. Excellent. Okay. I think I'm less confused. But thank you so much for coming to present and all your good work.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_21", "start": 4951.325, "end": 4957.925, "text": "You're quite welcome. Anytime you guys are welcome to our meetings. We'd love to see you. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 4958.165, "end": 4961.845, "text": "All right, uh, you are off the hook. We will move now to Calgary Planning Commission.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_12", "start": 4983.705, "end": 5235.305, "text": "Thank you. The slides are all right up. Thank you, clerks. Uh good afternoon, Mayor and Council. While most of you have spent more time with me in these chambers than you probably deserve to be subject to, my name is Christian Lee. I'm one of the managers with community planning, and I also serve as chair of Calvary Planning Commission. I am pleased to be joined today by fellow Commissioner Charles Beckler, who is a seasoned development industry expert in his own right, and also has served as a valuable member on CPC thus far during his inaugural term, which started in January of this year. Next slide, please. 2026 marks the Commission's 115th anniversary, and while the scope and way that it operates might have changed and evolved over time, its mandate has not. And that is to provide expert advice on technical planning matters to assist council in sound decision making on how our city grows. Its current scope is outlined on this slide. The bread and butter of the Commission is composed of land use applications such as rezonings and policy amendments, with a sprinkling of acting as the development authority on high impact development permits and outline plans. Next slide, please. The Commission is currently composed of 12 members, 10 of which are public members, and two members from administration, myself and Director Tom Mahler as vice chair. Public members are appointed by council and include a range of experts from professional architects, planners, engineers, and community members that present the competencies required of commissioners to participate meaningfully in the debate. Next slide, please. The Commission has been busy. While Calgary has earned the reputation of being Canada's housing engine, we have also been busy with a lot of the other stuff. Between May of 2025 to April of this year, CPC reviewed 183 reports and made 170 recommendations to this council. These are the items you see before you at public hearings. And this is the Commission's core work. Next slide, please. This year we continued implementation of the 2024 CPC governance review. This work is ongoing and includes the development and implementation of a framework for land use applications that could qualify to skip CPC and come straight to a public hearing. This is work we expect to finish before the end of the year. We also welcomed the new commissioner, Mr. Beckler, who is with me today. And CPC also provided expert external feedback on some pretty major planning initiatives going on within the planning department. Next slide, please. I'd like to share some of the meaningful projects that CPC has signed off on as the development authority. First off is the Walden Library and Fire Hall. This is the first public library to be established in Ward 14 and creatively integrates a fire hall into a single, elegantly designed building. Next slide, please. This is one of the largest outline plans reviewed by CPC in the past year and is located in Belvedere. It established the neighborhood of Bellwether and covers about 64 hectares of comprehensively master planned land uses, including open spaces and natural areas. It is anticipated that once fully built out, it will provide over 3,500 homes for existing and new Calgarians. Next slide, please. This project is Broadway on 17th, right on the edge of the Belt Line at the northeast corner of 17th Ave and 4th Street. This was a major mixed-use development composed of three towers, ranging from 34 to 43 stories in height. It was approved for just over 1,000 units of housing and commercial upgrade. Next slide, please. Like many other areas within the organization, CPC is committed to continuous improvement, streamlining, and efficiency. Specifically, the continued implementation of the governance review from 2024. As mentioned previously, we are currently working on a framework to have some land use applications go straight to public hearing. Other work also includes revisiting the list of development permits that are required to go to CPC, establishing a framework for administration to be able to render decisions on minor outline plan applications or minor updates to existing ones, and finally revisiting the types of applications that go to CPC for early review. Next slide, please. This concludes the presentation. Commissioner Beckler and I would be happy to take any questions you have. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 18 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 5236.425, "end": 5237.585, "text": "Any questions, colleagues?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 5239.085, "end": 5239.985, "text": "Councillor Benazopoulos.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 5240.345, "end": 5268.125, "text": "Thanks so much for the presentation. Um the industry is is is quite small, the planners, et cetera. Uh they have lots of clients current, former, and obviously perspective. They're the ones making the evaluations. Can you talk a bit about governance and making sure uh real or perceived conflicts of interest? How are they managed? And do we do a look back, go back as new commissioners come on, look at their clients, et cetera? Just maybe reconcile that given the smallness and intimacy of the community.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_12", "start": 5269.105, "end": 5310.645, "text": "Yes, so I before every single commission meeting, we do have a briefing meeting with all of the commissioners where they are required to declare any conflicts of interest perceived or real. And so far uh we haven't had any issues with these declarations as far as um the the governance around say someone leaves an employer and then stuff like that. We do we do have law present in almost all of those meetings to help provide some advice in terms of whether or not uh the well, first of all, if the conf the conflict is real or perceived, but also just providing advice as to the perceived portion, as we do not want to create any scenario where there's even a perception of conflict on on commission.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 5311.025, "end": 5336.525, "text": "Perfect. And maybe finally, we're a new council, we're making decisions very different from prior councils. Does the CPC ever sort of look back and do a check in to think, okay, what decisions? Obviously, CPC has approved certain matters and we're, for example, rejecting or accepting. Is there any look back, feedback, sort of saying, okay, what's the will of council, or is it truly technocratic, whatever their belief in the rules are? Uh we're gonna approve or or reject.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_12", "start": 5336.785, "end": 5403.525, "text": "I think it would be a disservice to say they're purely technocratic. I would say that they are very cognizant of this council's will and direction. I would say most of them as being a part, most of them being a part of industry, whether as consultants or developers or planners, architects, etc. I would say that they are interested in making sure that the recommendation recommendations provided to council from commission are sound, that they are based off of uh evidence-based decision making, and uh that council can at least have confidence that the technical merits of the application are sound. As far as the um will of council, I'm assuming let's talk about um the repeal, for example. If there are certain discussions or debates occurring around the requirement or expectation around community engagement, for example, commission is very in tune with this, and a lot of commissioners have started asking questions what engagement have you done? What uh what and what did you do with that that information? That is some of the questions that are being asked at CPC. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor J. Pantazopoulos", "start": 5404.245, "end": 5404.925, "text": "Thank you, Mr. Chair.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 5406.305, "end": 5411.025, "text": "Thank you so much for being here with us. We'll uh move next to our Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 5438.985, "end": 5858.225, "text": "A little bit weird to be over here again, guys. Gotta be honest. Good afternoon, members of council. For those who I haven't met, I'm DJ. No. I'm your chair of the Calgary Salutes uh uh coordinating committee. So uh it's my pleasure to bring forward this briefing on Calgary Salutes to you here today. I want to welcome uh John Terrell as the vice chair of uh the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and chair of our heritage and history subcommittee, as well as uh Tim Mowry from the Office of Partnerships, who is the administration representative of the coordinating committee. Both are here to help answer any questions that you may have. But I also want to acknowledge Councillor Johnston, uh, who, along with me, are your representatives on the coordinating committee. Uh, next slide, please. We thought this annual report would be a great opportunity to provide council with an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Calgary Salutes. So maybe let's start with a quick review or a quick overview. Calgary Salutes brings together the city, the military community, and partners through ceremonial events, public engagement, and initiatives that honor service and our city. At its core, Calgary Salutes strengthens the relationship between the city and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, veterans, and their families, building on a long standing connection that is part of Calgary's history and identity. We are a young BCC, and over the past year we've been focused on building momentum and improving coordination. Looking ahead, the focus is on visibility, consistency, and stronger communications. Next slide, please. Calgary Salutes was originally established in 1993 through a strong civic and military collaboration. John Terrell, who's here with us today, helped lead that charge at that time. Following changes in Calgary's military footprint in the mid 1990s, such as the closure of the Curry Barracks, that connection became less visible. So in 2023, Council re-established Calgary Salutes, recognizing the importance of maintaining and rebuilding those relationships in a modern context. Next slide. Calgary Salutes operates through a coordinating committee supported by three subcommittees the Community Engagement Committee, Friends of HMCS Calgary, and the Heritage and History Committee, which John, who's with us here today, chairs. Together, they support the overall mandate of Calgary Salutes. Next slide. Over the past year, Calgary Salutes has made some strong progress. Internally, we were focused on the boring foundational stuff. The terms of reference were updated and the subcommittee structure was finalized. We also onboarded two new council representatives and a new chair, and you can imagine how that went. We're doing our best, right? On the programming side, though, in all seriousness, many, many other activities were led by volunteers across Calgary. Some of those that Calgary Salutes supported include the 80th anniversary of VE Day, as well as milestone events recognizing our namesake HMCS Calgary, including the annual barn burner in both Calgary and Esquimalt, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the ship and raised funds to go to the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society, the Veterans Society, and Trellis Society. And we also continued the advancement on the Veterans Walkway Project, which is a series of medallions funded by the Legion on the occasion of their 100th anniversary and placed in the path along Memorial Drive, collectively telling a large portion of Calgary's military history story. Together, these efforts are strengthening community connection at a critical time as the federal government looks to expand investment in defense, potentially having a significant impact on Calgary's economy. Looking forward, our focus is on delivering signature events, including our annual Barn Burner. You all will be receiving an invitation if you haven't already, as well as improving our communications and visibility, expanding programs such as lectures and public engagement, and continuing to support the installation of the Veterans Walkway. As a new committee, there are expected challenges, including resource constraints and clarity around our coordination role. The four committees are funded by $30,000 from the Partnership Office. While I don't expect any additional budget ask coming in November, it is important to note that this is a very challenging amount to work within. I want to point out that this committee structure and mode of operation is also very unusual when it comes to the other BCCs. These challenges are not unexpected at this point, but they do highlight the importance of continued clarity and support to ensure the committee can fully deliver on its mandate. Next slide, please. Oh, I forgot to skip forward one. I'll skip forward to the next slide. Sorry about that. I want to highlight why this work matters for us as a city. Calgary continues to be a military city with a strong history and an active defense community. Across the city, there is a network of commemorative spaces that support engagement and remembrance. Calgary Salutes helps connect and coordinate that landscape, ensuring that recognition is consistent and visible. Importantly, while Calgary is not a primary base city, it is playing a role in Canada's defense sector through industry and innovation. Combined with our history, this creates real opportunities for Calgary at the national level with the potential to open the door to partnerships, economic growth, and stronger connections within the military community. Next slide, please. In closing, Calgary Salutes represents steady and purposeful work rebuilding and strengthening an important relationship within our city. Thank you to the committee members, the subcommittee members, administrations, and administration, and all of our partners for helping advance this work. Especially Krista from the Office of Partnerships and Rooksar from my staff office. And to all of council, thank you for your continued support in this work. Next slide, please. Thank you, and we're happy to answer any of your softball questions that you may have. But while we do that, also happy to note that this appendix slide highlights the depth of Calgary's military history from active units and historic regiments to significant sites, landmarks, and individuals that continue to shape our city's identity.", "segments_merged": 18 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 5859.625, "end": 5861.885, "text": "All right, better up, Councillor Clark.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 5862.545, "end": 5880.125, "text": "Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um this is so cool. I I'm gonna take I'm gonna enjoy this moment for a second, but I really didn't have much. I didn't have much of a question. Let's all enjoy the moment. Wanted to encourage or uh congratulate you on your efforts and uh to say that I've heard wonderful things about these barn burners and I I do look forward to my invitation.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 5880.705, "end": 5893.065, "text": "Uh and for those of you who would like to, if you're really last minute tickets, the Esqualma Barn burner is this weekend in BC. Uh so I will be hopping on a flight tomorrow morning uh for a quick forty-eight hour trip to Victoria for the barn burner.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 5894.525, "end": 5895.885, "text": "Councillor Johnston, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 5899.745, "end": 5911.705, "text": "So I read uh in the news that Edmonton was debating whether or not to eliminate their Calgary Salutes committee. Um what would be the consequences to us eliminating this committee?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 5912.805, "end": 5997.925, "text": "Yeah, uh for council's uh uh uh information, uh the city of Edmonton is looking to streamline all their entire committee structure, and uh uh part of that is the elimination of some of their uh boards, commissions, and committees, including Edmonton Salutes, which as I understand it, John, is a committee that was modeled very much on Calgary Salutes, the original Calgary Salutes. Uh yeah, I definitely would not recommend that for us at this particular moment in time, uh, simply because of the fact that uh uh the Defense Department is looking to uh invest considerably uh in uh defense spending across the country right now. And while this committee is not specifically mandated with economic development, it is establishing a strong relationship with the military units that are currently uh located in Calgary, including uh HMCS Tecumseh, the Naval Reserve, and 41 Brigade uh uh uh Brigade, which is uh uh the reserve that you probably are familiar with, the King Zone Regiment and the Calgary Highlanders, which are part of that, along with several other units as well. Uh maintaining those strong relationships is how we have a relationship with the Canadian military and how we know what's coming down the pipe, and how uh we have an opportunity to be able to have conversations with them to get out in front of uh potential items as well.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 5998.725, "end": 6008.885, "text": "Could we maintain that relationship more as a supporting role, or does this committee provide that role beyond what we could do as a counsel outside of the committee?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 6009.065, "end": 6042.285, "text": "Yeah, the commander of HMCS Tecumseh and uh uh the uh the colonel in charge of uh 41 Brigade actually sit on, as you know, uh on the coordinating committee, thereby giving us first hand relationships with them when we meet with them on a on a uh a regular basis. Could we could we do this uh external? We probably could, but it would be much more difficult, much more timely, and we would not be formalizing it in a way that shows that the city of Calgary values this relationship with uh with the military uh here in Calgary.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 6043.145, "end": 6044.125, "text": "Good answer. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 6044.805, "end": 6047.785, "text": "I should let you answer it. Can you answer your own question? Probably not.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 6048.965, "end": 6054.425, "text": "All right. Thank you so much. Now on to our climate advisory committee, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 6074.525, "end": 6717.445, "text": "Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and members of council. I'm pleased to be here to share the highlights of the Climate Advisory Committee's important work from the last year. My name is Pat Letizia, and professionally I've been with Alberta Ecotrust Foundation for almost 30 years, and also fortunate to have served on many advisory committees and projects with the city during that time and through many different councils and mayors. I am here today as chair of this committee. Next slide, please. A critical component of climate action is taking the long-term approach. As leaders, our ambition should be for the long-term wellness, prosperity, and resilience of Calgary's children. I have a young granddaughter, and I often think about the uncertainty of the future of children today. I worry about their future resilience to the policies and regulations made by all orders of government today. I worry about them growing up with wildfire smoke and particulate matter filling their lungs every summer, and the kinds of health impacts this will have as adults. Next slide, please. Our committee's mandate is to advise council and administration on policy and strategic initiatives related to both the need for lower emissions and adaptation to the impacts of a changing and warming climate. Climate may seem intangible to many Calgarians, but it simply refers to the long term average of weather conditions temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind, typically over a 30 year period or more. So, based on those trends locally, regionally, and globally, regionally, and locally, municipalities can make some predictions about the pace and duration of weather events in order to reduce the financial, social, and environmental implications of these changes. It's all about risk, readiness, and resilience. Our committee has discussed readiness because we don't get from risk to resilience without being ready with plans and policies. We are also paying more attention to the people and other species who live here because it's very easy to focus on built infrastructure and emissions when talking about climate, but we're really talking about the resilience of humans and wildlife to adapt to a sometimes rapid change and the severity of weather events. And not just flooding, but drought and water shortages, particulate matter and respiratory illnesses, high heat days where cooling needs are becoming as important as heating in our homes, and potential food shortages, all in a dynamic geopolitical environment. Our role is to assist all of you and the people in administration in drawing attention to the biggest risks and opportunities in all of these systems. Essentially, we can pay now or later. And with our water feeder main, we have all learned what happens when we defer risks and liabilities for future councils and generations or Calgarians to deal with. Calgary has a great opportunity to showcase our commitment nationally, recognizing that approximately 50 to 60 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions are generated directly within cities, stemming from urban transportation, residential buildings, and municipal waste. Those are all areas where we can see big multi solving winds in and in conjunction with similar achievements in other Canadian cities. We are then collectively part of a unified national set of municipal solutions. Next slide, please. The Climate Advisory Committee brings many perspectives on multi-solving opportunities in Calgary with an efficient and independent panel of expert practitioners. We look at long-term risk to our water resources, biodiversity, infrastructure and people through the lenses of those on our committee. This includes people working in power and utilities, health and medicine, insurance, finance, clean tech and renewables, engineering, biology, environmental science, hydrology, land management, and energy engineering and meteorology. And that's the resume of everybody on the committee. The members of this committee choose to participate as expert advisors because we are all impacted by an uncertain future and feel the need to be represented as part of the solutions. Our concerns are very real for us and our fellow citizens, and we feel a strong responsibility to sign up and participate. We understand and appreciate that cities are getting more complex, and we know how many priorities and issues you as elected officials must all deal with in your own roles, and we've been hearing that today. It's an endless stream of information coming into your inboxes and many, many concerns. And so that's why experts on this committee want to share the load and support you in ways that work for you. Next slide, please. Because of the climate connection to every system, our role is to help the administration and council make informed, evidence-based decisions using good business sense and a long-term view. This business sense is supported by our volunteer members from industry, academia, government, finance, and clean tech businesses. We are also adapting to changes internally. Last year we invited members of the Biodiversity Committee to join us as their committee mandate was completed. Before the end of their term, three of them volunteered on our one of our subcommittees, and subsequently one of their members was brought on to our full climate committee this year. Next slide, please. As cities get more complex, the systems we operate and live in become more interconnected: social systems, economic systems, governance systems, and ecosystems. Our committee continues to work closely with administration where we both seek and provide input on ideas, plans, and programs. And to maximize the opportunity to work together, the Climate Advisory Committee continues to work in five subcommittees that primarily align with the pillars or focus areas within the implementation plan. We've condensed several of the key priority areas into a smaller number because we just don't have the manpower to have seven or eight different communities, subcommittees. But working in subcommittees enables us to better understand the city's work on environmental and climate action, to dig deeper on issues with internal and external experts, and engage others in Calgary working on similar issues. As we know, there is an army of problem solvers available to the city from the private sector, other orders of government, and the nonprofit and charitable sectors. We strongly encourage you to review our subcommittee recommendations in our annual report. They reflect a lot of collaboration from this committee, administration, and a number of businesses, companies, and organizations working in all sectors within Calgary on climate action. Next slide, please. Getting to our the recommendations that are included in our report. These recommendations are about integrating climate thinking into core city decisions, such as zoning, housing, budgets, infrastructure, and economic planning. Climate is not a separate issue, it's about Integrated it into reliable services, public safety, affordability, and long-term competitiveness. Our focus areas align with the implementation plan, as I mentioned, subcommittee work and council priorities. So they include to improve integration. We have seen an incredible amount of integration over the last four years, more than I've seen in my entire uh adult life working in the environmental community and supporting the city of Calgary. It's been really quite remarkable. And that's because when we're looking at things like building roads or you know other kinds of infrastructure, it just means look ahead to what's coming up so that we make the appropriate decisions and use the appropriate materials, perhaps. Progress reporting. We recommend regularly measuring and sharing how we as a city are doing on our climate goals. And I know that that has been of interest to some of you, and I think that you've seen a lot of that data come forward. To keep building internal knowledge so all city departments work together on resilience. Next slide, please. Our recommendations on education, affordability, and advocacy are practical. Presidents or residents need clear information about risks and the steps they can take to protect themselves. And we're also recommending smart staged investment because the cost of mitigation should always be lower than the cost of impact. Early upgrades help reduce emergency repairs, lower long-term costs, and maintain the uninterrupted services citizens need. This also supports Calgary's growth and helps attract investment while in strengthening the case for provincial, federal, and external funding. All sectors are affected. And when we talk about advocacy, we're talking about advocating for the city of Calgary to those who are in a position to partner with us, align with us, and financially support us. Last slide or next slide, please. Looking ahead, our work plan is focused on alignment and action. We will align with the new council priorities. We've we've been discussing them, but we haven't actually put pen to paper on what those connections are. That's in our imminent work plan. And also the upcoming updated climate implementation plan. We want to strengthen engagement with council. We've met with some of you. Some of you are have invitations in your inboxes, and we are endeavoring to meet with each and every one of you over the next month or two and hopefully to continue to have casual, informative conversations with all of you. We are here to support you. Our role is to provide expertise and advice as needed. Remember that committee members. Are also Calgrarians who want a livable city, and they bring practical evidence-based expertise to support informed decisions. Taken together, these recommendations and priorities are intended to support resilient, affordable, and investable Calgary for the long term. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 50 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 6720.365, "end": 6723.405, "text": "Thanks. Uh I will perhaps I'll jump in.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 6724.025, "end": 6753.365, "text": "Uh you're probably aware that council is looking at a few uh notices of motion in an upcoming meeting as it relates to the uh emer climate emergency declaration of the previous council. Do you have a view on whether that declaration of the emergency achieved what uh it was setting out to do in terms of funding, additional economic benefits? Uh is it your recommendation that we exist in a permanent state of emergency? Do you see risks or benefits from rescinding that declaration?", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 6755.205, "end": 6983.365, "text": "I yeah, um, first of all, uh just a tiny bit of history on the the declarations themselves. Um sorry, I have some notes here. I was anticipating this question. The declaration itself is just a public acknowledgement that the serious impacts of climate change present a clear and present threat to the world. That was the basis of discussions that were actually happening globally. This is a global initiative. And starting around 2019, I think, cities across the world started to, and and and governments started to, sorry, like other uh levels of government started to consider joining into this kind of growing movement. In uh so the the government of Canada in 2019 declared a climate emergency. The chiefs uh in a the in assembly form uh formally declared a global First Nations climate emergency. Um Calgary was the last city, a major city in Canada to officially declare a climate emergency, and there are over 650 municipalities in the country that have such a declaration. If we rescind the declaration, we will be the first city to do that. The first city in Canada. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but um, and people aren't gonna say, oh, that council created the emergency and that council rescinded it. It will be Calgary declared an emergency and Calgary rescinded it. And I think that if we uh are concerned at all about our reputation and our brand, as uh you know. Something that should be representative of this beautiful, amazing city that we all live in. I think that that's a big risk. Every time this comes up in council, the media uh takes it up. And I think if we are to actually rescind, I think that the national media would be paying attention to this, not just the local media. So I I worry about that. I whether we say it's an emergency or not in this uh in this council, that doesn't mean it's not an emergency. The science is clear, and that is why these these declarations are happening. What I have seen since the the declaration was um a lot more notice and um maybe um emphasis on the climate and and environmental department, uh being able to go much deeper internally into uh you know biodiversity, into um Planning, how how our cities are laid out, the creation of parks and green spaces, paying attention to our water resources. We've got you know old infrastructure and a growing city, so there's lots of challenges there. Those are all integrated with how the climate department works. And so I think the budget expanded. There was a real emphasis on doing this work. There was, I think, a lot more respect for the people who were working in this space, both within the city and in the broader community. And I think it followed the um the the move that uh industry was making every every energy company every industry every financial institution in the country has uh identified climate risks they they are they look ahead uh you know just like um other governments should be doing and so um i I guess I would be very disappointed if if if it was rescinded I I do worry every day about the impacts of climate and um I wish sometimes I'd worked harder to make it happen faster.", "segments_merged": 18 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 6984.625, "end": 7055.465, "text": "Just to follow up on that, can you be a bit more specific in terms of what you see the downside to be? For example, I'm I'm trying to view this uh i in a practical way. Like I came, I'm I think I'm the only. I'm the first mayor in a hundred years to come from being a rancher to the mayor's chair. I worked leading an environmental NGO. I very much believe that this needs to be part uh like living within our means is a financial concept, a social one, an environmental one. It should be baked into what we do with less performative actions and more substance. I look at, say, us declaring the state of emergency on the feeder main, uh, implementing the immediate actions, lifting the state of emergency. The fact that we lifted the state of emergency didn't mean that all of a sudden it was tools down and we weren't fixing the pipe anymore. It was just We stabilized the immediate situation and we baked it into the course of our governance to fix the water pipes. Same thing with stating the state of emergency in the 2013 flood. We instituted that, we took the immediate actions, and then we built long term toward flood resiliency. Can you make the case to me for a perpetual state of emergency specifically on this? Given that we we brought it in, we lifted it on other topics, but it didn't mean that we all of a sudden stopped caring about those things.", "segments_merged": 12 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7056.145, "end": 7147.465, "text": "Yeah, that's a really good question. Um I think it's almost semantics, right? The there is an emergency where something breaks and um people are without water. That's urgent, it's compelling. We we have to solve that problem right away. Sometimes no matter what it costs, right? It because it's always costs more to repair an emergency than it does to uh prevent one. Um So the the use of the term emergency can be confusing when we're talking about emergency management, for instance. I guess a better word might be urgency. I do believe that there are hundreds of millions of people living in the world where climate uh the changing in climate and the the warming of the global temperatures is definitely an emergency. There are already climate refugees in in the world and um I guess, you know, there'd be a lot of explanation that we'd have to uh deal with publicly, I guess, about what we mean by it not being an emergency, or we've we've put some budget into it and and you know now we're good to go. Um I d I I I don't know if I have an answer for you about how to manage the language around a an emergency declaration that's initiated globally and followed nationally. Um I and again to me it doesn't matter if we declare it as an emergency because I believe it still is.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 7148.365, "end": 7154.565, "text": "So just just to be crystal clear, as long as the actions are there, you you don't have an opinion in terms of the semantics?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7154.965, "end": 7201.205, "text": "Well, I do worry. I worry about r a lot of associated risks with with rescinding the um the climate emergency, but I think there's there just are uh so many different ways we can work around that if that if that's the concern, if language is the concern, it I would say that shouldn't be the priority. The priority should be taking action. And I believe that the the emergency positioned the city to take more action, more direct action, more strategic action that it had to date. And so it it definitely created the the fuel and the impetus to make climate and and uh the corresponding um like systems impacts to be a priority.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 7202.065, "end": 7227.625, "text": "And I I take your point well in terms of you would you would be disappointed if the state of or the state of emergency or the expression may expression of emergency would be lifted. Are you similarly disappointed that we're not in a state of emergency on the floods? Like a like do you do you grant that we've in we've baked this into the course of the action of the city, or do you still feel personally that it's a it's of urgent importance for you that we be in that state of emergency here municipally?", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7228.585, "end": 7248.345, "text": "Well, I don't I don't know that it means that we're in a state of emergency, um again, using language from emergency management. And maybe it's easy to get confused between the two things. I think they're quite different. I'm just trying to think of the", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 7248.345, "end": 7264.885, "text": "See that that's exactly my challenge because at the municipal level, like the rules matter, the law matters. If we it's if we declare an emergency, there's certain legislative requirements around that, which is why for me it's a bit confusing. If this was purely performative, what is it? What was the point of it? Sorry, I've I'm getting into a little bit of", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7264.885, "end": 7320.705, "text": "the the point of declaring the emergency was to address the global emergency, I guess, or urgency of a changing and warming climate. We are um we know what will happen to humans and and wildlife and ecosystems at certain temperatures. We're trying to hold it globally to 1.5. We're not gonna we're not gonna make it. We're we're gonna be beyond. My personal doomsday opinion is that we're gonna get to three degrees probably by the end of the century, which Is catastrophic to humanity. And so is that an emergency? I think it is. I think as a city, we at and and and as as a council, I think that you probably all have the ability to figure out how to deal with that terminology because I think it is a terminology issue, not an action issue.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 7322.065, "end": 7324.385, "text": "thank you so much. Uh over to Councillor Johnson, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 7325.685, "end": 7357.885, "text": "Yeah, thank you for coming. Um you answered uh a lot of questions uh that I was gonna ask, but I guess eliminating the declaration, um could you see that being positive in that there wouldn't be such an Sorry, ideological cloud over the department that actually does the work in stewardship of the land. So could you see that being slightly of a benefit without having it politicized every time it's brought up?", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7359.265, "end": 7433.325, "text": "Well, in the four years I've been on this committee and in working with council and administration, not once has the term environment environmental emergency come up. It is not the frame that is um like driving our discourse. So I don't think it's ideological at all. Um I I don't see it as political either. I see it as collaborative. We're we're we're we're um We're saying to the the our fellow Canadian cities that we we're we're with you, we we understand what's happening, we're gonna be working on this too, you're not alone. Um 75% of Canada's population lives in lar major cities. That's 31 million people. And so we're gonna say, okay, there's you know, we're gonna take our 1.7, you know, um million uh population, like met from a metro region, out of that 31 million, you guys are on your own. That's kind of what it I think it will sound like. Um I don't I don't know uh I d I don't know if I've answered.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 7433.265, "end": 7537.505, "text": "Sorry, I'd say political cloud would be more that. Um even door knocking, a lot of people questioned why do why are we under an emergency? We're one of the cleanest cities, we have some of the best practices, we have one of the cleanest LRT programs in the world. Um we're great with watershed improvement, flood mitigation. Um, and so that question came up a lot. And to me, that's ideological in some cases and politicized in a lot of cases that that was a reason why um a lot of people had issue at the last council that was performative when really the results were evident by the department doing good stewardship for the environment and you know if we're under emergency as the mayor said where is the emergency action to that like my question always was is if we're under emergency why isn't council leading the pack and taking transit to work every day right and I questioned the last mayor on that because she didn't take transit but our mayor here takes transit all the time leading by example and we don't need a title or a declaration to do the right thing and I'm just saying if there is potentially a cloud with that terminology maybe getting rid of it would allow our Stuarts are departments to do more work without such a heavy burden in some cases, is what I would see it as, right? And now I have talked to other jurisdictions and other council members, other mayors right across the country, and they're looking to us to see if this can show um leadership in proving results over performative declarations.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 7538.745, "end": 7543.605, "text": "You're you're and you're just at time, uh Councillor Johnson, so maybe a response uh for me, Pat.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7543.645, "end": 7607.605, "text": "I really don't see it as performative. And um uh I I pay a lot I I look at a lot of public opinion polls. The the majority of Calgarians, over 75%, continue to say that climate change is important to them and they are concerned about it and they want to know what to do about it. They're also concerned about other things because you can be concerned about a whole bunch of things at the same time. I yes Calgary did a good job in stewarding the environment. That's always been something that I personally have worked towards and supporting, and I think that's there. But climate is different. It's it's the science is complex. It's it's not um it's not something that's really tangible that we can see all the time, so it it's hard. But I look at the science, that's what I pay attention to all the time. I don't pay attention to the politics, and I the science compels me to um address the issue with the utmost urgency. I think this is the most important role I've had in my entire career.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 7610.425, "end": 7612.285, "text": "Thank you. We'll go to Councillor Clark, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 7612.425, "end": 7682.765, "text": "Yeah, thank you, Chair. I think um it's quite fascinating to have observed a bit of this conversation because I think um it we could spend the rest of the year probably sitting and and discussing it from this position, this angle. But I think what's interesting is you've reiterated a number of times that regardless of whether or not we declare a state of emergency or what like there's action that should be taken, there's action that's being taken. And I want to re uh Focus my attention to your presentation and the work that's being accomplished alongside the City of Calgary administration. It was the urban affairs committee uh chair that was speaking and said that um she would like to see confirmation of like you know that advice being provided. And it got me thinking that I wonder how your like how would my office engage with yours if I was seeking expertise, if I was looking to deliver a notice of motion, and where Where that exists like as you deal with administration um where we could see that sort of overlap where you are written into the work that's being presented to us.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7683.725, "end": 7773.665, "text": "Well, in some cases we are. Um, you know, we we work behind the scenes primarily. You know, we're not public facing. But uh you know, we check in with the uh our admin liaison and uh and and the the people who come to us. Um sorry my mouth is really dry. Um And and they have told us that they are now um coming to us much sooner in their processes because the advice that we provide for to them uh are often just little things they hadn't thought of, but we you know we can bring this kind of external expertise. There's a lot of expertise in the city, uh i i in all departments. Uh um but You know, they're kind of hyper-focused on the things that the city are doing, whereas we're paying attention to what's going on in the broader community. So we have their feedback is thank you so much, is that our support is making a difference. The meetings that we have had with counselors have been very positive. It's very easy for you to direct, and I'm sure your staff will know how to do this, a direct uh a query to our committee through our administrative liaison, and we would meet, we'd have a quick meeting to see who's who's best to respond, and we would we would get back to you. Sometimes it's just what do you think about this, what do you think about that, or uh you might you might want to know something more specific.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 7774.065, "end": 7809.865, "text": "Yeah, I I think about um you know we've spent a lot of time recently talking about recreation and how we might deliver those kinds of facilities in community and I think about the connection there how to plug in like cooling centers, right? Like as we go about designing these new facilities, that integrated space, so that a senior or an individual who is like, you know, if we do have a heat event, which inevitably we will, we'll see a 45-degree day again, no doubt. Um, but to have built in those spaces, those integrations, I feel like, like you've said before today, like that work is being done uh regardless of of whether or not what we call it.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7809.965, "end": 7861.185, "text": "Right. So what you know when the flood when the flood happened, we learned about floods. We learned about floodways and floodplains and where we should have and should not have built houses and buildings and downtown, right? We didn't know that a hundred years ago when the city was being built. But if we look back and you know, I w I I I say this to people all the time a hundred years ago, if people were standing on the confluence of the bow and the elbow, would they have seen the city? In their lifetime, would they have imagined what we are now? I don't think so. And so if we stand in that same spot today, And we think about uh the world a hundred years from now, we we now have learned from those last hundred years and we um we will make better decisions on all kinds of things, not just climate change, because knowledge and information is really important to, you know, making better decisions.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 7861.445, "end": 7861.745, "text": "Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 7862.385, "end": 7864.485, "text": "Well thank you for your contributions and your time today.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7865.225, "end": 7866.945, "text": "You're welcome. I'm very happy to be here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 7869.125, "end": 7914.485, "text": "I'm about to go to Councillor McLean, but uh before I do, colleagues, uh, we're coming 10 minutes away from break after this. We have three other uh bodies. I'm gonna suggest that we just push through rather than go on the 30 minute break and come back for 15 minutes after that. Uh if that is okay, could I make or could I invite somebody to make that motion? Uh moved by Councillor Ward, seconded by Councillor Kelly. Uh maybe just give us a moment to get that uh Ready. Or I'll come back to this maybe after I hear from you, Councillor McClain, and I'll go back to the clerk. Okay. Oh my gosh, they have it already ready. Okay, it's that is on the screen. Uh all in favor, colleagues? Any opposed?", "segments_merged": 13 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 7915.025, "end": 7919.985, "text": "Saying none, that motion is carried. Uh back to you, Councillor McClain, for uh Climate Advisory Committee.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 7920.545, "end": 7928.045, "text": "Thanks. Uh I wasn't uh Had any questions, but we've we started a debate, so I just was curious on your input.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7928.045, "end": 7928.765, "text": "Start a debate.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 7929.065, "end": 7929.445, "text": "Sorry?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7929.605, "end": 7931.585, "text": "Sorry, I didn't mean to just start it, start a debate.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 7931.585, "end": 7933.305, "text": "No.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7933.345, "end": 7933.945, "text": "No, I", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 7933.985, "end": 7997.185, "text": "We can't go and break either, can you? I'll make it quick because we do want to get this finished. But you know, the climate debate, it seems to, you know, fluctuate and was very, very important. I my my question is what do you think the effect of the increasingly huge demands of energy for these data centers? This is all we hear about in municipalities across the world. They consume an immense amount of energy and water. You know, again, not if it's going to be oil and gas driven or coal even. And so it seems like uh again, huge concern of the environment, but it's they're investing trillions. Trillions have been invested into climate change initiatives. Again, we can argue about whether the results are the tangible at what we can see. But I my opinion, and I'm I'm interested in yours, it seems like a lot of people are steering away from the climate change because it's always seems to be about the money. And there's a lot of money in data centers, and so now it's not so important. We're building pipelines, we're We're uh we're less concerned about the environment because of the money and the need to generate for these AI data data centers. So what do you think that's going to do? Do you think that's affecting the climate change narrative?", "segments_merged": 14 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 7998.325, "end": 8081.345, "text": "well I think anytime you have a large intrusive um industrial complex, you know, there's there's always considerations. And as we um face this this growing um demand for data and AI, um I I'm not I'm definitely not an expert. I don't feel like I can comment on that specifically, but I do know that in Alberta and and in other jurisdictions, I've seen I think three different applications for data centers that are using recycled water and recycled energy. So they're trying to limit or reduce the amount of energy they're gonna need. They're not gonna be completely self sufficient, but they are trying to reduce their footprint. Whether or not the provincial regulations are going to make it harder for them to just kind of come in and and um do what they want or use as much mud or water as they want. I was at a uh a lunch with the previous environment minister who said that they were confident they could rely on best practice. So I'm not sure what the regulations are going to be for these things and um yeah, it it's I don't have an answer. That's not my area of expertise, I'm sorry.", "segments_merged": 11 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 8081.345, "end": 8083.665, "text": "I think we're all trying to get it brush up and see", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 8083.665, "end": 8086.605, "text": "Frustrating and sh and it's scary to me.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 8087.005, "end": 8090.825, "text": "No, yeah. Uh two sides of the coin there.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 8090.705, "end": 8093.645, "text": "So yeah, I mean it's progress happens, right?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 8093.885, "end": 8143.445, "text": "Well, I guess that was kind of I guess uh what maybe what your input is on seeing if uh with regulations and the climate change or the emergencies that maybe make uh It's less competitive. 'Cause I think in that AI not to go too deep in debate, but there's a debate who's going to get it first or how much who's going to benefit from it. So if other jurisdictions have a whole bunch of climate regulations and utilize that technology and profits and uh faster, then are we slowing ourselves down? And I that's I think the only reason why we're gonna be we're looking at the declaration is if if there's regulations around so many things in our building where we're building homes, we have climate regs from all levels of governments and that that's an added cost. So Um it's just a discussion and I was just curious because it seems like the narrative of the climate change is once it seems to be the more profitable thing now, it seems to be the AI centers.", "segments_merged": 11 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 8143.525, "end": 8146.805, "text": "Thanks, Councillor McLean. You're just at time, perhaps.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D. McLean", "start": 8146.805, "end": 8148.325, "text": "We don't know where we're going. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 8149.065, "end": 8150.385, "text": "All right, Councillor Atkinson, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 8152.205, "end": 8183.205, "text": "Um just from uh your point of view excuse me, wasn't ready. Um what what have been the most Effective actions that administration has taken, like climate has been a part of conversations across the different business units. Where have you seen the largest impacts of the actions taken? And where do you see maybe the the most impacts or opportunities going forward to take action?", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 8185.205, "end": 8260.225, "text": "Um I think one thing that that that we've really noticed is that it's not just the climate and environment department coming to our meetings, um sharing their their plans and projects with us, it's uh it's other um departments, and uh more and more we're we're being approached by other committees um across the city to say how can we work together? Climate is also really important to um our committee and and the people that we serve. And so I think that this integration of climate this goes back to that point that um uh ev you know, even the the the safety and well being uh teams uh You know, they came to one of our meetings, made their presentation, and then we started to talk about social disorder and heat influences on behavior, and that was something that they were really not that familiar with. And so it was something that kind of opened their eyes, probably put a new lens on some of the work they were doing, expanded their thinking. And so we don't have a lot of tangible metrics that we can use to show that change is happening, but we anecdotally we can we can see it.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 8263.385, "end": 8273.925, "text": "Well, just where you see like further opportunity for uh action to really advance Calgary on the climate um side of things.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 8283.165, "end": 8417.185, "text": "Uh they know this city as well as anybody else. They know the physicality of this city, the constraints, the restraints, the opportunities. You know, we're talking about land management, we're talking about uh water, we're talking about air quality, you know, there's there's just such a everything is related, everything is connected. And so um I I think that we we should look to the mistakes of the past when we're we're building, developing, and planning for the future. So, for instance, I know it's more expensive to make affordable housing energy efficient, but any building or home that's built that is not is a retrofit. And so we we don't pay that little extra now to get good windows or good insulation. Then the people who are living there can't afford their energy bills. And so If you um it's i uh uh th this may not be a good example, it just popped into my mind, but we know that in high heat events domestic violence goes up. So it so and that could be even just in the summertime and so That might be where social service agencies or those those folks working in the city, you know, with people who are vulnerable can pay extra attention to anticipate some problems, maybe get people into a safe place. So they they use the knowledge that's provided to them to make uh better decisions. They're not changing a whole bunch of things, they're not adding new programs, they're just adding a little bit of depth to what they're already doing and improving it. So I don't know if that answers your question. It's not I'm not being very specific. I feel like that's more of an administration question about what what the priorities would be, what you know what investing, um, where we should be investing.", "segments_merged": 14 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 8417.525, "end": 8420.965, "text": "No, that's great. Yeah, I appreciate your insights. Yeah, thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_20", "start": 8422.225, "end": 8422.485, "text": "Okay.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 8425.885, "end": 8429.345, "text": "Thank you. We'll now move to the Council Advisory Committee on Housing, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_13", "start": 8444.405, "end": 8651.405, "text": "Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and Council. My name is Kevin Webb. I am the co chair of the Council Advisory Committee on Housing. My other co chair, Carly, sends her regrets, but I think a trip to Spain with a bunch of friends is a little bit takes precedence. Today I'm here to share a quick update on our mandate that we've worked the work we've done over the past year and what we're focused on. Next slide, please. Okay. As set out in the bylaw, we're a voluntary advisory committee that supports council's affordable housing goals. Our goal is to review council approved initiatives, keep an eye on the progress towards housing outcomes, and offer advice based on both sector experience and lived experience. Put simply, we're here to help connect council administration and the housing sector and Calgarians in a practical and constructive way. Next slide, please. One of our committee's strength is the range of perspectives around the table. We have members from market and non market housing, real estate, homeless serving organizations, indigenous communities, and people with lived experience of housing insecurity. This combination helps us offer advice that is both practical and grounded in real experience. We meet monthly, usually in person, and our meetings aren't open to the public. Next slide, please. I'd also like to thank our amazing support in administration that keeps us moving forward and online. Renee, thank you so much for that. Over the past year, we've come the committee has contributed in several important areas. We provided recommendations on last year's annual housing strategy update progress report, took part in engagement on Indigenous housing programs, reviewed the housing data dashboard, and sent letters on key councils of decisions, including non market land sale programs, budget deliberations, rezoning for housing, and housing progress updates earlier this month. We've also offered recommendations on achieving the targets of the 3,000 non-market units per year in outcome one for the housing strategy. Next slide, please. Our work continues to be guided in five housing in the five housing strategy outcome areas. After reviewing outcome one, we completed a review of outcome two and submitted recommendations as part of the 2026 housing progress update. We also endorse the community safety and wellbeing plan and have been discussing emerging issues such as landlord licensing, public participation in planning, and housing implementation plan refresh. Later this year, we'll complete a review of outcome number four and five, so stay tuned for that in your inbox. Next slide, please. Looking ahead, the committee will stay focused on three priorities. Increasing the supply of both market and non-market housing, strengthening collaboration and advocacy across the housing systems, and improving access to safe, appropriate, and affordable housing for Calgarians facing greatest needs. Housing, especially non-market housing, continues to be a significant concern for many people in the city, and we appreciate the opportunity to support council's work on this issue. Thank you so much for the this.", "segments_merged": 11 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 8657.045, "end": 8665.865, "text": "Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? Seeing none, thank you so much for for being here.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_13", "start": 8666.125, "end": 8666.345, "text": "Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 8666.345, "end": 8668.925, "text": "We'll move now to subdivision and appeal board, please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 8680.685, "end": 8997.525, "text": "Um excuse me, good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council. My name is Tim Bargsley, I'm the board chair. Um I was uh gonna just go through the slides with you, but I think in in view of the time and the types of questions, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to be a little more um educational in the sense of I think some of the members don't quite understand what we do, and give you a little bit of an update about where we've been and where we're going very quickly. That's your um thank you, sir. We are a quasi judicial body, which means we're like a court. Our mandate comes from the Municipal Government Act as interpreted by the courts. We have 10 hearings a month, which last typically from 9 to 4:30. We deal with all sorts of appeals from any development permit issuances in an order. If you know what an order means that the planning department says to somebody you're not doing something right or you're messing up something, we listen to an appeal if there is any from that. Last year we had 184 appeals, I believe it was, which is about twice what we had the year before. This is obviously because of the RCG rezoning, of course. This year I expect we're still going to end up with about 115. Which is busy, um, but not as busy. The uh the flavor of the month as I like to call it, is starting to become backyard sweets if you were interested. That's what people are appealing a lot of these days, but we have to get the the remainder of the RCG matters dealt with of course. We have 18 members, really good staff help, tremendously good staff help, I should say, from the clerk and also from Lori Sittler, the lady that started the talking, and Tracy Mancini, who was sitting here the whole time the carv was talking. We managed to stay out of trouble most of the time. But we have had a lot of redoing of things in the last two or three years. And the reasons for those are kind of three. First is my my background, I should tell you very quickly, is I've been a lawyer for 35 years doing planning and some other years doing crime, as I said. And also was sat on council for a while. So I've got a pretty good idea of I think how to get things organized. I've also got a lot of really good help. We have two vice chairs who are absolutely terrific. So in the last three years, we've revamped our code of conduct, our rules of procedure, our website, numerous communications we send to the public to make them all more readable and understandable. We've uh changed the way we do hearings with the focus again being on relaxing people, making sure they understand as far as we can let them what's going on. And that is work that continues. When we had the uh increase in appeals, as we did recently, because of the zoning, we completely changed the way we did business. We completely changed the system so we could accommodate it. And I'm pleased to tell you that in terms of time that things take to be decided in front of the board, we kept it to about six to eight weeks from the time we first see something. Which I think is pretty good, but it's even better if you consider that a month of that is taken up in requirements of fairness so people can exchange things back and forth. So we are very mindful that we are important to resolve things as quickly as we possibly can, but fairly, and we do the best we can in that regard. Um we do have a couple of things in the fire right now. Oh sorry, I almost said your worship. It's bold habit. One of the things is that we uh want to change our bylaw. It was passed in 1995. It's been amended about 3,000 times. I'm exaggerating. It's really out of date. But the amendments we're looking at are housekeeping, they're procedural basically to reflect how we do things now. And we're working with the clerk's department on that. You may see that this year. I think you'll find it it just is better to have a bylaw that actually reflects what you do. The last thing I wanted to leave you with is that uh the role of the board. We are um an administrative body, we're not a policy body, and a lot of times people expect us to say, for example, Do things contrary to what you've said we should do, or the zoning you've put in place, or something like that, because they feel that that's something we should have the ability to do and we don't. So one of the things we have to we we work on constantly is to try to familiarize people with what we can do and what we can't do. And it's it's a reason to do that, in my opinion, is because it keeps the expectations reasonable. Because it's a very emotional thing, as you all will understand, when you're dealing with these things on our end, where folks are really upset about whatever it is is in front of us, and rightfully so. And so you have to be very cognizant to be fair to them and and and also cognizant of the fact it's very emotional for them. With the developers, it's not quite the emotion, it's some other things, but in all in all, I think fairness is the main thing I want to leave you with. We're really concerned about that, and it's an ongoing process. So yeah, I'd like to tell you that I think you're in good hands with respect to the functions we perform. But we're always changing things and we're always looking at things. And I'll leave you with one quick thing if I might your worship just in some Mr. Mayor in terms of um I'm trying to break a 45-year-old habit. It's really hard.", "segments_merged": 30 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 8997.525, "end": 9002.705, "text": "I I think it's it's according to protocol, it's only Nahadanchi who is forced to call me that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9002.905, "end": 9074.345, "text": "Yeah, well actually I started with Ralph Klein, and that's what we're supposed to call him. So it was better than Ralph the Mayor, not the dog. Um but still. In any event, the one thing is I think there's a bylaw change coming. I don't know where you're at with that. And staff will tell you this, but the one thing is when you don't like what we do as an applicant, you can take our decisions to the Court of Appeal, and because we've had a lot of appeals, you had a few more decisions go there. And if you don't know, because you probably wouldn't, I'm sorry I said that, I'm not with it. We have had nothing but problems with the definition of secondary suites. It's it's like Ridiculous that lawyers keep finding problems with it and judges keep saying, Oh yeah. So when you're revising the bylaw, I would really ask the staff, you know, because I know you folks have got too much on your mind, if they take a good look at that to try to cut down on the issues that it presents, because um it does slow things up and it really costs a lot of time, effort, and money, as you would expect, sir, to go through court processes. So we'd like to see that just maybe changed. That's not a nagg, it's just an observation from us. But otherwise, that's all I have to say. My apologies for the protocol breaches and getting a little off topic there.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 9075.365, "end": 9077.485, "text": "I think you have a question from Councillor Kelly.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9078.125, "end": 9078.565, "text": "Go ahead.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 9080.065, "end": 9097.325, "text": "Thank you very much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. I want to uh take you up on the as you said at the beginning. You you took an education tack to this, so like I really appreciate that. Uh wanted to um uh ask a question in that vein, which is um Discretionary use.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9097.525, "end": 9097.885, "text": "Yep.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 9098.085, "end": 9110.805, "text": "When you get a uh uh when you get an appeal uh that's usually based around that, I'm just wondering if you can maybe walk us through a little bit how uh your team um makes a decision based on that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9111.625, "end": 9246.825, "text": "Um Sure. I'll do the best I can to be efficient if I and and pardon me, like I was a lawyer for a long time, so I seem to slip into jargon occasionally and if I do that, please stop me. Because I know how irritating that can be. So what happens is when we get an appeal, first thing we do is take it to a procedural hearing to see how long it's going to take to hear it, if there's any issues with it being filed on time and so forth. When that's done, we set a date for it. And the reason we do it that way is to clear up any preliminary issues and speed the system up. And the other reason is because in the old days, when they didn't do that, you would wait six weeks for hearing and get adjournments. We don't get that anymore. So that's the first thing we do. The second thing is that we give people time to file any further material they want because of all our hearings being virtual, which is uh we give them a date for that, then all of that's put into what's called a board report, which is published a week before the hearing, roughly, that everybody should look at. When we get to the hearing, we explain to everybody how we conduct hearings, like who talks, who doesn't talk, what you say, that sort of thing, Councillor. And then we ask for people to make presentations, which they will. And uh the board members are the only people that can ask questions, so it's not a cross examination process. So we go through the appellants, the applicants, the city, and then we go back to everybody for second words and so forth like that. Then when all of that's done. We then convene in camera and we discuss all of the points necessary to make a decision and we all write our own decisions by the way. Um they're typically fairly lengthy if you've ever looked at one. They can be fifteen to thirty pages long. And in those decisions or discussions, I should say, the first thing we're always looking at is what have the parties told us is an issue, what is the city policy, what does the bylaw say, what does the planning policy say if there's like a local area plan, something like that. We go through all of that, we have a fulsome discussion, and it's uh uh basically up to a vote if there has to be one. We sit in panels of five, and the chair never gets a vote unless there's a tie. And I've been three years you've had me uh in this position, I think I've voted twice. So that's basically the process that we use. And after we make that decision, you have 15 days to write it up and send it out with reasons and so forth.", "segments_merged": 8 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 9248.345, "end": 9286.065, "text": "I appreciate that that step-by-step process. I've only gone to SDAB like twice. And so as a result, it's that it's what I'm kind of getting at is like what happens in that back room, because that's kind of the mystery to us. But where I guess I'm sort of asking specifically here, though, is around those judgment calls that administration has made through uh we'd heard earlier from Planning Commission and and and the decisions that that that that get made there. When it's a judgment call, I'm wondering, as you said at the beginning, like you're not a policy body, you're interpreting the policy, but of course it's a judgment call. So I'm just I'm curious in terms of uh how you go about that process in terms of uh interpreting a judgment call.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9286.125, "end": 9336.645, "text": "Well, fair enough. And that's fair. The law requires that these hearings will be called de novo, which means they're brand new. So it doesn't matter what happened before in terms of a decision. We're not constrained by that. That's the first thing you have to realize. The second thing you gotta realize is we will look at that judgment and see if we think that's appropriate. From our perspective. And we have a bit of a different perspective sometimes than the planners do. Sometimes they're they're just kind of everybody does it this way, so we'll do it that way type of thing. That doesn't bind us at all. So we take a measured review of all of those judgments to come up with our own. And it's I can't really explain, you know, obviously the back and forth of it. It's like asking you what happens at an in camera meeting. But the general sense of it is it's a robust discussion so we can form our own judgment. Not somebody else's.", "segments_merged": 7 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 9339.125, "end": 9342.345, "text": "Interesting. Not at all what I was thinking. So I appreciate I appreciate that very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9343.125, "end": 9343.645, "text": "You're welcome.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9343.765, "end": 9344.625, "text": "That's all your worship.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 9344.845, "end": 9346.065, "text": "See, I'll still call them that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 9347.165, "end": 9351.205, "text": "Awesome. Thank you, uh Councillor Kelly. On to tax incentive appeal board.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_17", "start": 9351.205, "end": 9351.925, "text": "Thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9352.305, "end": 9353.685, "text": "Thank you so much for being here, sir.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 9364.305, "end": 9753.465, "text": "Uh good afternoon, uh uh Mayor Farkas and Council members. I've got the uh enviable position or unenviable position of being the last presenter, so I will uh attempt to be as concise as possible. Um my name is Larry Revit. I am the current chair of the Tax Incentive Appeal Board, which we refer to as the TIAB. Uh the Vice Chair, David Oldring, sends his regards. Uh, however, he's recovering from a uh medical procedure, so he's unable to attend today. So, what is the TIAB? We are a reasonably new board created. Uh uh first uh board members were appointed in January of 2025. It's a specialized quasi-judicial tribunal established by the city of Calgary to hear appeals of tax incentive decisions made by the municipal assessor pursuant to the non residential tax incentive program for renewable energy projects on brownfields bylaw 23 2024, quite a mouthful. The appeal board itself was created under a related bylaw passed at the same time. The Brownfields bylaw offers a property tax incentive of up to 50% of property taxes assessed or to be assessed on a renewable power generation facility constructed on a brownfield property utilizing fuel sources such as solar or wind power. In general terms, a brownfield property is a non-residential property with identified environmental contamination, otherwise restricted, restricting or prohibiting development. An example of it is the solar project located at Barlow Trail and Glenmore Trail in Southeast Calgary. The bylaw is detailed in the eligibility requirements, but hopefully that brief general description gives counsel an idea of what it relates to. At the time of initially preparing my comments for today, Council was considering approving a tax incentive bylaw relating to potential industrial developments on greenfield properties in the City of Calgary as they are defined by the City of Calgary. As you're all aware, Council recently approved that greenfields bylaw, and the significance for the TIAB is that any appeals that may be forthcoming under that bylaw will come before our board. Briefly, the board itself consists of 10 members appointed by council, five from the Assessment Review Board, which I also sit on, and five from the License and Community Standards Appeal Board. No members of council are permitted to sit on the board, and the board members were initially appointed in 2025 and reappointed in 2026. What about activity for 2025? There was one appeal. It was uh in April of 2025, and the decision that was rendered by the appeal board has been filed in what's called Canley. In that particular appeal, the evidence presented resulted in the board finding in favor of the applicant, and the municipal assessor was directed to grant the tax incentive to the taxpayer. The appeal itself was quite complicated. It involved extensive disclosure and evidence from the parties and their legal counsel. The hearing was held in person with multiple parties, including a number of members of the public, observing. It is anticipated that any future appeals would be quite similar in the sense there would be multiple parties and the presentations would be sophisticated with quite extensive evidence. So, what to expect in 2026? Firstly, any appeals that may be forthcoming under either or both of the bylaws, obviously. Secondly, the expanded mandate to the Greenfield Appeals, the uh TIA B TIAB will offer education and training to ensure all board members are fully informed of the provisions, uh, recognizing the bylaw was, I believe, approved uh at the end of March. Uh thirdly, uh the There will be a review of the provisions of the TIA bylaw itself, which appointed the appeal panel. The reason being we discovered in the one appeal that we did have was that it's a lengthy appeal. It took a period of two days. Appeal has to be reheard before a new panel. That would incur inconvenience and additional expense to all of the parties. So that's something that we are looking at, and we're working with not only the tribunal council but the administration in an effort to potentially recommend amendments to the bylaw. Any of those amendments, of course, would be brought to the council for approval. I guess the other challenge faced by this particular appeal panel is with a very limited number of appeals that have taken place, and frankly, that may uh there may be a limited number of appeals in the future. The challenge is always to keep your board members uh engaged and informed as to what's going on. We have the luxury that the uh panel members come from either the assessment review board or the license and community standards appeal board, all of which are much more active boards. And as you heard uh uh earlier this afternoon, especially the assessment review board has uh an endless uh supply of appeals that are uh actually coincidentally starting this week. So, in closing, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing assistance from the uh BCC administration staff. They are very helpful, they provide us with all of the administrative information and support that we need. Um, and with that, I would thank council for the opportunity and invite any questions.", "segments_merged": 17 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 9757.205, "end": 9759.265, "text": "Thank you, sir. Uh any questions, colleagues?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9762.505, "end": 9764.625, "text": "Seeing none, maybe get out while you still can.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 9764.785, "end": 9767.945, "text": "Thank you. The advantage of being last. Thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9768.445, "end": 9782.245, "text": "Thank you so much for being here with us. All right. Madam Clerk, is there any other business before we seek a motion to thank the council committees and boards commissions and committees for their annual reports and presentations?", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 9783.005, "end": 9785.325, "text": "None that I can see. Just think I'm over for that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9785.645, "end": 9808.545, "text": "All right. May I please have a motion to thank council committees and boards, commissions, and committees for their 2026 annual reports and presentations. Moved by Councillor Kelly, second by Councillor McLean. Madam Clerk, is it right that committees is uh twice on that? Council committees and boards, commissions and committees.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 9811.925, "end": 9821.625, "text": "Yes, Mayor, that is correct because council committees is defined in the procedure by law and boards, commissions, commissions, and committees is also a defined term in the procedure bylaw.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 9821.625, "end": 9845.545, "text": "Alright, sounds good. I won't get into a philosophical debate between what's the difference between a committee and a council committee. Maybe maybe I'll save that for uh Clerk Martin. Just kidding. All right, uh any further debate on this, colleagues? Uh if any of you would like to speak to ask any questions or follow ups for administration, now would be the time. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 9847.025, "end": 9879.665, "text": "Uh yeah, question could just two questions for administration. Um is there were a number of recommendations made in the reports around ways to make things more efficient, effective from these BCCs in terms of administration. I'm just wondering how those recommendations are filtered and sort of potentially deployed within the organization, whether they are How do we not just have these die in these reports and as we say thank you?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_23", "start": 9880.625, "end": 9886.065, "text": "Uh I'm just gonna ask Deputy Fraser to come up and answer that as this is my first", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_16", "start": 9890.285, "end": 9954.545, "text": "Thank you for the question, Councillor Atkinson. So, for the purposes of this particular report, the reports from the boards, commissions, and committees are not part of the recommendations of the overarching umbrella recommendation you see here to thank them for the presentations. Each of the boards, commissions, and committees or council committees that are presenting before you today have administrative resources and administrative support within administration, and they can work with those administration resources to advance recommendations for the council for further action. Today was an opportunity to give you insight into the mandates of the various council committees and boards commissions committees and the work plans that they have, well, review of their activities from last year as well as the work plans that they have for their actions this year in terms of actioning any particular recommendation that's been presented by a council committee or board commission committee that could be incorporated by way of amendment into the recommendations that are before council today, or they can be brought forward in collaboration with administration.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 9955.205, "end": 9992.325, "text": "Okay. I'll I'll pursue those off. Yeah. Um and then the other one was we heard from the assessment review board the website modernization being a uh a key piece, and I I feel like we definitely have some of these BCCs who are Doing things like there's the work that they're doing, and then there's the supportive resources that are needed for them to do the work. And I'm wondering if you could speak at all to the supports that they have, have access to, and ways we could better equip them so they're not building websites and instead reviewing tax assessments.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_16", "start": 9993.505, "end": 10083.585, "text": "That's a very particularly broad question, and I'm not sure I can speak on behalf of all of administration with respect to support of all of the different varying mandates of the committees that reported to council today. However, I can speak because we work particularly closely with the assessment review board in the city clerk's office a little bit about the technology issues that we've been grappling with. That has the technology issues as the chair, the general chair uh addressed in his presentation, rose to a level where it became a significant operational impediment to the board. And some of those technology issues have absolutely, as the general chair reported today, been addressed, and that's been a significant uh bit of progress, and it has involved uh a collaborative effort between the leadership of the board, the members of the board, as well as the administrative support of the board. With respect to some of the other technological pieces that uh are still hanging out there that require uh work and effort, they're certainly within the focus of the city clerk's efforts to support the assessment review board. Um, there is uh things, there are things like procurement uh and budget budget costs uh behind needing to advance those technology files that we are certainly working on and advancing in the background. Um, and you may see some of those come forward before council in the fullness of time, but it's certainly something we're working on.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 10084.445, "end": 10086.405, "text": "That's great. Thank you. Thanks for the answers.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 10087.545, "end": 10088.805, "text": "Thank you. Anyone else?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 10090.625, "end": 10092.125, "text": "Councillor Kelly uh to close?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 10092.585, "end": 10212.065, "text": "Yeah, I just wanted to as I was just gonna close, but I want to jump onto something that Councillor Atkinson brought up here because I I think it bears echoing that uh the support for the committees now having chaired one uh is spotty. And I think that we should have a bit of a conversation about how to best do that. So, like uh uh Calgary Salutes is an example. Uh, we needed a website. We didn't have one. Hard to sell tickets to the bar and burner without a website. Uh and we were before instead of just going forward and being like, hey, volunteer, go and do your thing, we did go to uh communicate marketing communications to ask, and we were quoted $200,000 to $400,000 for the suite of communications support we were looking for. Um We went forward with just a volunteer uh going ahead and doing it, as you can imagine, with a with an amount like that. But when I take a look at, for example, the assessment review board, I can see that like they have the My City ID on there. So like there is a connection into the city in terms of how to be able to, that from a technology side, in terms of how it works, but the website itself is not, doesn't look like it's hosted on city infrastructure. What I'm getting at there is simply like there is a very uneven experience that's going on here. And I think that it may come down to a little bit about have and have not boards, commissions, and committees, who can afford to have the city provide that for them, who is uh doesn't have the revenue within their committee to do it, or who hasn't come to council to ask for budget for it. I think that we do need to take a look at these as a whole to make sure, as Councillor Atkinson was saying, that we're providing appropriate service to all the boards, commissions, and committees so that they can uh uh that they can uh fulfill the mandate, as Councillor Atkinson said, focus on uh tax appeals rather than building and maintaining a website, for example. Uh Rob, and before I officially say close, maybe I'll just provide you an opportunity if if either of you want to respond to that.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_16", "start": 10212.545, "end": 10243.785, "text": "Well, I I'm not sure I have a response with respect to the resourcing. I think uh you made a a reasonable observation. I don't um in terms of actioning that that's not before council today. However, it it may be something we should be taking away and thinking about how we approach that, generally speaking, uh, because it sounds like there's a lot of issues there. I will just take a moment to correct uh one thing, which is although it looks like the Calgary ARB website is assessment review board website, is on a different platform, it is in fact hosted on the same platform as Calgary.ca. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 10243.905, "end": 10291.365, "text": "Thank you very much for that clarification. And uh happy to work with any of my colleagues and to bring forward an appropriate notice of motion to help address this if if if need be. So uh look forward to having that conversation. But for what's before us here today, yeah, huge thanks to all the boards, commissions, and committees. Uh they are uh groups of volunteers who are doing absolute well, not all volunteers, but m many, many of them volunteers, doing amazing work. And uh certainly we wouldn't be able to uh uh operate as an organization without the support of all of those folks doing all the work that they do every single day in order to be able to make sure the Calgarians have a voice in the work that uh the city council is doing. So thank you uh formally to all of them, but uh officially um I'll pass it back to the mayor so that we can approve a motion to thank them. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 10292.305, "end": 10304.545, "text": "All right, uh, Madam Clerk, let's engage the evote, please, on this. This is to thank the council committees and boards and commissions and committees for their 2026 annual reports and presentations.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 10314.905, "end": 10327.245, "text": "Council Yule is absent. Councillor Daliwall, absent. Councillor Chabot, absent. And Mayor Farkas, your vote, please?", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "Mayor J. Farkas", "start": 10327.305, "end": 10327.585, "text": "Yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "City Clerk City Clerk", "start": 10328.645, "end": 10329.365, "text": "Mayor all votes are in.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_14", "start": 10330.525, "end": 10358.225, "text": "Thank you. Please display the results. On that, the motion is carried 11 to 0. Madam Clerk, are there any administrative inquiries? Okay. And I'll just mention uh Councillor Yule had to step out at 315 for council business. May I have a motion to adjourn, please? Moved by Councillor Atkinson, second by Councillor Panizopoulos. All right, all in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none, that is scared. See ya soon.", "segments_merged": 12 } ], "full_text": "Welcome to Calgary City Council. Madam Clerk, please call the rule. Thank you on the role. Councillor Kelly, President. Councillor McLean, Councillor Pantozopoulos, Councillor Schmidt, Councillor Tyres, Councillor Ward, Councillor Wyness, Councillor Ewell, Councillor Atkinson, Councillor Shabot, Present? Thank you, Councillor Clark, Councillor Dallywall, Councillor Jameson, Councillor Johnston, Here. and Mayor Farkas. I'm here. All right, we're bear-ish. Colleagues, I think we got nine, so no sudden movements. Uh Oki, Ambawastish, Danitara, Tanshe. Indigenous peoples have their own names for this area that have been in use long before settlers named this place Calgary. In the Blackfoot language, it is called Mokinstis. The Eske Nakota Wastabi First Nations refer to this place as Wachispa Oyede, and the people of the Swatina nation call it Gustas. The Metis call the Calgary area Otasquani. We appreciate and acknowledge that we're gathered on the ancestral and traditional territory of the Blackfoot nations of the Sikhsika, Pikani, and Kainai First Nations, the Ethica Nakota Wakstabi First Nations, comprised of the Chinniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstone First Nations, and the Satina First Nation. The City of Calgary is also homeland to the historic Northwest Metis and to the Timissawak Metis Government, Metis Nation Battle River Territory, Nose Hill Metis District 5, and Elbo Metis District 6. We acknowledge and give gratitude to the many First Nations, Metis and Inuit, who live here and call Calgary home. All right, so moving on to to question period of Councillor Johnston. You're up. Yeah, my question is for Redmin. Uh during this week I've had a lot of uh calls. Um sorry, a lot of calls about uh constituents willing to pay above and beyond their taxes. Is there a way or an easy way for people to pay more into taxes than they're required? Sorry. Legit. Straight from a Well thank you uh thank you for the question. I've I've uh I've never had this question in this direction before. Um so uh I'll have to take this away and we will create uh a response uh listing out compliance with MGA and other requirements, but um um I will uh I will take this away. Thank you. thank you. I'll just add as a member council, I facilitated, I think, two or three different donations that were made to the city of Calgary for certain projects, and it wasn't uh a third party, but it was a specific uh project in mind. So I don't know if there's a formalized process, but it comes to mind the notice of motion that. I believe yourself and others have signed on to with Councillor Ward. All right. Uh seeing no further questions, uh let's move to the agenda. Can I please have a mover and seconder? Uh moved by uh Councillor Panizopoulos, seconded by Councillor Yule. All right. The uh any amendments to the agenda, colleagues? So why would he say that? Okay. Seeing none, uh Madam Clerk, let's engage the vote, please. Councillor Jameson, your vote, please. Yes. Councillor Clark. Still absent. Councillor Daliwell, absent. Councillor Tyres, your vote please. Councillor Shabot, your vote, please. Yes. Councillor Wyness, absent. Councillor McLean, absent. Mayor Farkas, your vote please? Here. Yes or no? Okay. Sorry, yes. Is that a yes? Oh, sorry, yes. Yeah. I apologize. All votes are in Mayor? We must either vote yes or no. It cannot be simply here. All right, please display the results. Okay, the mo the motion is carried 10 to 0. The agenda is approved. Uh colleagues, it was uh suggested by clerks uh that we adopt a procedural motion to allow council three minutes for questions of clarification from members of council to representatives of each of the council committee board or board, commission, and committees, including questions to administration, but not including responses. Uh, would any of you like to make that motion? Okay. Councillor Ewell is making that motion. Is there a seconder for that? Sorry. Seeing uh none, uh I'm gonna I'm gonna suggest the motion hasn't been placed. Sorry, Councillor Shabeau, was that you seconding that motion? No, actually I was gonna ask a question relative to the motion, but if it's not on the floor, no problem. Okay, I don't think there was a seconder, so it's not on the floor. Okay. Sorry, before we uh proceed, uh are we Yeah, uh folks, if you don't mind just using RTS, I'll acknowledge you, uh, Councillor Johnson though. Go ahead. Councillor Johnson, please go ahead. Yeah, just putting the RTS in there. Um can you explain to us what the current bylaw is and what the difference is between the two? Um, I'll ask Madam Clerk to to weigh in, but it would have been a five minutes. And that's what that's what we have right now, or at least that's what the procedure bylaw calls for. Yep. I'm just just so the public knows what we're voting on. So the current wording of the procedure bylaw states that questions of clarification from members to administration, representatives of council committees, BCCs, or other individuals invited to support administration's introduction of this of the item. This is timed at three minutes. Respecting that we do have multiple BCCs. Council may wish to take three minutes for each BCC. Otherwise, you only get three minutes to ask all the presenters at the end. Yeah, so to clarify, this allows us to have a question for each of the individual panels. Uh if council doesn't want to second this committee, you have three total minutes for all 15. Just to clarify. So uh seeing no seconder, we'll stick with the three minutes total for all 15. Okay. Sorry, uh Councillor Penazopoulos, did you want to second that motion? Okay. Sorry, colleagues, I should have uh I should have verified. Or I should have clarified what this means. So the motion on the floor right now is to suspend the procedure bylaw to allow a question for each of the panel at a limit of three minutes. If this is not voted or if this is voted down, what it means is you have a total allotment for all panels combined rather than the three minutes each. Okay. All right. Uh any further questions or debate on that? Okay. Seeing none, uh, Madam Clerk, let's engage the vote on Councillor Dallywell is still absent. Councillor Shabot, your vote, please. No. Councillor McLean, your vote, please. Uh let me think. I just got here. Uh I'm just gonna take uh Councillor Shabose Lead go. Mayor Farkas, your vote, please. that. Uh yes. Please. Mayor Farkas all votes here. All right, please uh display the results. On that, the motion has been defeated. Five to seven. Uh in support were Councillor Kelly, Pantasopoulos, Atkinson, Yule. And myself, and just to clarify, colleagues, so instead of having opportunities with each of the panels, you'll have a total of Madame Clerk, if you don't mind verifying, that's five total minutes. It's just three minutes for time. Okay, so we'll have a you you will have a total of three minutes spread across all of the the various um presenters. Okay, so you have a total of three minutes. Okay. Uh seeing no other lights here, I believe that uh we can start with our administration presentation. Good afternoon. Just want to make sure this is working. Thank you, Mayor Farkas. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Lori Slitler, the leader of municipal boards and governance. I'm here today supported by Deputy City Clerk Jeremy Fraser and Jeannie Dubetz, the governance and policy coordinator, as well as her team. I'm honored to be here today to present the 2026 annual reports from council committees, boards, commissions, and committees. And we also are supported by our tribunal coordinator, Tracy Mancini. Before I begin, I want to mention there are distributions from the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee to accompany their verbal presentations. We can circulate those presentations now, please. Could I get the next slide, please? The recommendation before you today is that Council thank committees and boards, commissions and committees for providing their 2026 annual reports and to those that will be delivering presentations to you today. Next slide, please. Each year during the Organizational Meeting of Council, Council adopts their annual calendar. At the 2025 Organizational Meeting of Council, today was set aside as a meeting for Council to dedicate to hearing from the many council committees, boards, commissions, and committees that don't have other avenues of reporting to council. This year, 18 boards, commissions, and committees have submitted written reports in attachments 1 through 18A in your package that outline their accomplishments, challenges, and work plans for the coming year. These council committees and boards, commissions, and committees are included as they do not have other reporting mechanisms with council right now. Annual reporting to council ensures council has the information needed to make informed decisions on the mandates and governance of council committees and boards, commissions, and committees. These opportunities also strengthen accountability through transparency and insight into their very important work. There are many council committees and boards, commissions, and committees that have alternate reporting arrangements throughout the year and therefore are not included in this report. A list of those can be found in attachment 19. Next slide, please. City Clerk's Office canvassed mayors of council to determine which council committees or boards commissions and committees they would wanted to receive verbal presentations from today. On the screen are the council committees and boards commissions and committees that will be making those verbal presentations. These presentations are identified as B attachments, and as mentioned earlier, the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee have provided their presentations in a distribution. Next slide, please. So we're back to the recommendation. The council thank council committees and boards, commissions, and committees for all the work they have put into providing their annual reports and for delivering their presentations. At this point, I am pleased to introduce representatives of the Calgary Police Commission, Commission Chair Mchool Siddiqui, Executive Director Corwin Odland, and Senior Advisor of Communications and Engagement Sapna Gupta. Want to join me? Thank you so much. And uh maybe just to Madam Clerk first, uh, from a process standpoint, do you recommend asking for questions from council members after each panel or rather each individual speaker has finished rather than paneling? It's really up to the chair to decide that. But as far as timing goes, we will have to keep note as how many times left for each member of council, given that you only have three minutes per So, because the previous motion failed. colleagues, what I'm gonna suggest is that uh given many of these folks have uh otherwise important work to do, maybe we can just go to each if there's a question for each group and then kind of let them off the hook and they can head out rather than have to wait to the very end. Okay, see no objection. Uh Chair Sidiki, thank you so much for being here with us. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and members of council. If we could bring up the first slide, please. Wonderful. I'm Amtal Sadiqi, Chair of the Calgary Police Commission. It's truly nice to be here with you today. Thank you for your time and your continued partnership. On behalf of the Calgary Police Commission, I'm here to share a bit about our work over the past year, what we've learned, and where we're headed next. At the heart of everything we do, we have one simple goal to make sure policing in Calgary reflects the needs, expectations, and trust of the communities we serve. Next slide, please. So we're just gonna pause for a moment. I have RTS from Councillor Johnston. Uh uh request to speak can't interrupt a speaker unless it's a point of privilege. Are you rising on a point of privilege? No, the RTS was before she started speaking. Okay, so I I will go back to you at the uh conclusion of the speaker, Councillor Johnston, unless it's a point of privilege or point of order. Okay. Sorry, uh Chair Siddiqui, please go ahead. That's okay. I'd like to start here and provide a high-level overview of what our commission does. The Calgary Police Commission provides independent civilian oversight and strategic governance of the Calgary Police Service. And we as an arm's length board appointed by Council and the province, we help ensure that the police are accountable to the community and protected from inappropriate political influence. We work closely with the province, council, the police chief, and other community leaders to determine the policing needs and priorities of Calgarians. It's our role then to also provide a budget with council's approval and policy framework for the police to deliver on those priorities. Before I go further, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the strength of our commission. While we remain committed to continuous improvement, the Calvary Police Commission is regarded as a leader in many aspects of police governance, both provincially and nationally. Our commissioners and staff are regularly sought out by other boards and agencies for their expertise and insight, reflecting the credibility and leadership we are bringing to police governance across Canada. As president of the Canadian Association of Police Governance, I'm incredibly proud of my Calgary's incredibly proud of my colleagues in Calgary and the support and mentorship that they provide across the country. We're proud of this reputation and we remain focused on growing, learning, and continuing to serve Calgary with excellence. Next slide, please. 2025 was a significant one for our commission. We navigated a period of leadership change, appointing a new police chief, and setting a new strategic direction for CPS's executive leadership team. We also spent time strengthening how we do our work as a commission, improving our governance practices, and making sure we're making decisions based on strong, meaningful information. For example, we leaned into both our employee and community survey results to better understand lived experiences and expectations and to bring those voices into our decision making. We also stayed connected beyond Calgary, working with partners across our province and country to share ideas and continue improving police governance. Because this work isn't static, we're always learning and we're always evolving. Next slide, please. Connection and collaboration continued to be a big focus for us last year. We brought Calgarians together through our annual policing summit, welcoming hundreds of community, government, and policing leaders to have honest conversations about public safety and shared solutions. We also spent time meeting with community and provincial partners, advocacy groups, and police associations to better understand what Calgrarians are expecting of policing in our city. We worked closely with City Council to address the $28 million shortfall while also supporting the transition away from funding policing through fine revenue. This was an important step because it reinforced our belief that enforcement decisions should always be about safety, not revenue. Together, we also advanced the mid-cycle budget investments to garner funding for frontline capacity, infrastructure, and sustainability of the service. This was a very much a shared effort, and we're grateful for how closely we were able to work with each of you on this. Next slide, please. As we reflect on the last year, one of the clearest threads through all of our work was this: that the needs of our city are growing quickly and the pressure on policing is growing with it. Throughout 2025, we worked hard to be responsible stewards of the budget. We partnered closely with council, made careful decisions, and asked only for the resources that we absolutely needed, especially in a year that included a significant shortfall and important funding changes. Looking ahead, we have a thoughtful and focused year in front of us. One of our priorities is strengthening how we engage both within the community and the service so that we're consistently using the public's voice to shape our decisions. We're also continuing important internal work, including completing a workplace culture assessment survey of the service, advancing our strategic planning as a commission, and strengthening our governance and risk oversight practices. And in the coming months, we'll be coming to you with our next four year police budget. You'll see that we've worked closely with the service to ensure we're planning responsibly and sustainably for the future. You'll also see that our budget ask is forward thinking and ultimately grounded in our commitment to investing in public safety. And speaking of thinking ahead, we're also in the early stages of police chief succession planning to ensure long term stability and success. All of this work is really about making sure the system we have in place continues to serve Calgarians well today and into the future. Next slide, please. Before I close, I just want to say thank you. From the moment you were elected, you made time for us and you continue to do so. It means a lot to know that the relationship we're building between our commission and city council is one built on trust, openness, and a shared commission commitment to our beautiful city. Yes, this past year has had its challenges, but there was a lot of progress as well. We are grateful for your partnership and look forward to all that we will accomplish together. I now like to invite you to ask any questions you may have. Thank you. I have uh Councillor Johnston in the queue. Yeah, it wasn't point of privilege, it is now, but uh you the chair kind of hijacked my question period with uh what I felt was a bit of a lie. Um I don't think that was really fair. Um but then you had asked us to use the RTS, Okay. which I did, and then you missed it, and then you made a mo or sorry, then you Made it that I wasn't in there before the speaker started speaking. So again, you were wrong. Um, but I just wanted to mention that the way we did the CDC this morning was to do ask questions after the whole panel, and it was probably the most efficient meeting we've had all year. So it was just gonna be my suggestion that we wait until after the panel, but that's already passed, so I'll just leave it there. All right, thank you so much for your input, uh Councillor Johnston. Uh any questions for Chair Siddiqui? Uh Councillor Atkinson, please. Uh in your report, you mentioned the transition of the police complaint system to the provincial uh level. Do we have any insights monitoring feedback that is coming back from that process uh and in and how that sort of transition is is going? Yeah, so the tr uh thank you, Council, for your question. The transition actually occurred earlier this year. So the police review commission is set up. They're currently in the stages of hiring. They've just actually selected their new CEO, which is actually Catherine Murphy, who was with the Calgary Police Service as their chief strategy officer. So she joins them next week as their niece new CEO. They have been meeting with commissions across the province, including ours, on a regularly basis, and they do provide us reporting as well in terms of what they're seeing, the amount of work that they're seeing, the complaints that are coming forward. And they're working closely with our legal officer at commission as well as the services directly as well. Thank you. Councillor Panasopoulos, please. Wonderful. In your report, you you made a comment if you could expand on uh public's increasing expectations of police governance boards. Maybe just commentary around that and how is the board adapting to those changing? Of course, Councillor. You've probably seen quite a bit of activity across the country. There have been large incidences, there have been issues around police officers and trust. And so governance plays an important role in that, in ensuring that not that we're at there at the operations level, but we're higher than that, looking at the governance, ensuring that there's policies in place, that that the service is planning appropriately, and that we have a constant communication with the chief who would then go and um work with her ELT directly. And so what we've done over the last year, there's always been strategic plans in place with the commission. We have just ensured that we're looking across the country and seeing what has happened and what is coming and how do we prepare for that so that we're ready here in this city. Your board is prepared, the current structure, the current funding to uh uh take those challenges head on, that evolving nature, the continually evolving nature of public expectations of governing boards. I would say that governance is constantly changing as policing is changing. So we continue to try to stay ahead. Having said that, you will see in the four year budget ask an ask for additional resources for the commission. We are the third largest commission in the country, and we're seeing actually quite regularly as experts in this area. And so we will be coming for an ask to add some support on staffing levels as well as some other pieces. I think going into budget, I think I heard you say you know the governance is policy framework for budgets. Uh obviously budget comes from council, but it has a request of the commission. Can you sort of speak to holding the police accountable for that budget? KPIs, uh, what sort of metrics do you have back? And you know what assurances there because there's that disconnect, you know, the dollars go out and then we just sort of get a yearly update. Just talk through that whole process. Uh what are some of those and and through the budget cycle, through through this incremental request you've spoken of, um, how are we going to have those deliverables and make sure that we're actually uh getting what we're paying for and executing against your KPIs and deliverables. You must have been sitting in our meeting last Thursday or listening in. It was all around KPIs and the process and the metrics that we're looking at that are specific to the next four-year budget and what we're requesting. This commission has been very clear that there's a couple of pieces that, as we ask for these budget numbers and figures that we're asking for, that there needs to be clear reporting out and not vague information, but very direct information and what does that look like. And so the service has worked with us closely on providing that information and those inputs into those processes. And so you will see that when we come with our ask, you'll also see what our KPIs are, and you'll see those on a regular basis. We as a commission get those quarterly, they're reported on to us, and so they are available to share at any time. But you will see that at various reports that we provide throughout the year. And also the reports that the service provides also to council. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Anyone else for police commission? All right. Uh seeing none, thank you so much, uh, Chair Siddiqui, for for being here with us. Ms. Mayor, and I I just before I leave, I do want to acknowledge my two colleagues who are sitting here in the corner, Councillor McLean and Councillor Weyness, and thank them for all the work that they've done over the past year to ensure that uh the Commission is doing the work we need to be and having that relationship with council as well. So thank you. And uh and uh just on behalf of council, I want to acknowledge you as well because I have the good fortune to see you. I think it's something like two or three or four times per week. I don't know how you have a day job, let alone uh Well, you know what? You're funny, Mayor, because I was gonna be at 2.50 and I'm like, I gotta get back to my J job. So thank you for finishing early. I appreciate it. thank you for being here. You're Thank you so much. all right. Uh now we will call on our anti racism action committee. Marhaba Asalam Alaikum and hello. My name is Dina Ibrahim. And my name is Rebecca Comer. We're the co-chairs of the Anti-Racism Committee. Next slide. This year, one of our biggest priorities was becoming more action oriented. Rather than only discussing issues at monthly meetings, we work to bring community voices directly into city initiatives and decision making processes. We increased collaboration with city business units, strengthened community partnerships, and expanded opportunities for Calgarians to engage with us directly. One example was our participation in the Calgary Pop Hop Care Village. Committee members spent the day speaking directly with residents, experiencing economic and social barriers, listening to their experiences and concerns while also helping distribute approximately $1,500 worth of food, beverage, and clothing items. Those conversations reminded us that anti racism work is effective when it is rooted in relationships and lived experience. We've also expanded our visibility within the community, and as a result, we began receiving requests related to racism and inclusion within Calgary. Next slide. Community engagement remains central to our work. In addition to the Pop-Up Care Village, ARAC has been asked to participate in a variety of community initiatives, including community donation drives and presentations and conferences at several schools. ARAC has also been asked to provide input on programs in the community, especially when serving houseless Calgarians, to ensure that they are able to best serve some of the most vulnerable of our community. We have also continued to engage with the CPS's external ARAC committee to strengthen dialogue and relationship building, and we have had several city business units seek our input on various projects and strategies to ensure that the voices of racialized Calgarians are reflected within their work. Iraq continues to actively engage with different community groups and service providers, giving us opportunities to hear directly from racialized Calgarians. Next slide. ARAC is currently involved in several projects aimed at creating practical improvements within the city. One of our business unit initiatives focuses on race-based data collection, working with community strategies for exploring how questions related to race and identity can be asked in ways that are respectful, trustworthy, and encourage more participation from diverse communities. The goal is to better understand what prevents people from sharing race-based information and how those barriers can be reduced. Another project involves collaborating with the Bears Paw Community Research Center to help incorporate equity-formed informed and anti racist approaches into community communications and engagement efforts. We have also conducted a racialized leadership inquiry, gathering feedback from organizations across Calgary to better understand barriers faced by racialized individuals in leadership positions. The findings will help inform future recommendations to council. Next slide. ARAC has continued to build on the work we've accomplished over the past several years. As an action committee, we've been able to foster community partnerships supporting services such as Calgary Drop In and Rehab Center Society, Central United Outreach, and Alpha House Society. Notably, ARAC organized a winter clothing drive where eight van loads of jackets were collected. We also partnered with FYI Doctors and Alpha House Society on FYI Doctors' new mobile optometry bus supporting vulnerable communities. We also completed the community storytelling project, which was included in our engagement report and disseminated to the public and council. And we have also expanded our collaborations with it with city units, city business units through our newly developed work plan. Finally, ARAC has been working on expanding our engagement with the public. We finalized our new logo, which is seen on the slide, and we have also launched a social media presence. Next slide. We have faced several challenges over the past year. Most notably has been the removal of our previous co chair, whose work with the committee was invaluable. Because we didn't have any succession planning, what resulted was a sudden restructuring and rebuilding, which has slowed our work down substantially since the new term began. The committee has also lost the remainder of its historical knowledge since its establishment. As with many volunteer committees, we also struggle balancing volunteer capacity with project demands and our own ambitions. We have also faced systemic barriers, including the delay of our bylaws, which impacted our committee membership. We also continue to work towards strengthening relationships and communication pathways with council, especially as most of council is new. Additionally, because anti racism work can involve difficult conversations and public scrutiny, committee members must remain mindful of both psychological and physical safety while carrying out this work. Despite these challenges, our members remain deeply committed to our mandate in supporting Calgary's racialized communities. Next slide. Looking ahead, our focus remains on turning community feedback into meaningful action. We'll continue expanding community consultations through round tables, listening sessions, and workshops that help us better understand emerging issues affecting racialized communities. We also plan to continue to deepen our advisory role within city business units and council by providing practical recommendations that support equitable policies, programs, and engagement practices. We'll continue to work to ensure community voices are reflected in the systems and services that affect Calgarians. Next slide. Thank you for listening, and we're looking forward to answering any questions you might have. Great. Thank you so much for your service to the citizens of Calgary. Colleagues, are there any questions for our Anti-Racism Action Committee? Councillor Venazopoulos? Thanks so much. Just uh picking up on the loss of your chair, this it obviously is a huge issue and there's no succession plan. And then when you did your your work plan for 26, there wasn't the board's uh initiative to create a succession plan, you know, to prevent it happening again. Can you just speak to that? Why were other items prioritized over um a succession plan, which is sort of core to what a board needs to have? We were not anticipating the removal of the co-chair. So there was just no anticipation that we would need to have that succession plan in place. We expected that she would be around for another year. But right now we're actually working with her, thankfully, to try and create a succession plan and get a list of all our resources and relationships that we've built. Yeah. And maybe the finally it said in your uh our advice is not valued by counsel. What are some examples that actually struck to me? Obviously, that we don't want volunteers thinking they have no input. You know, some examples and and what can we do different to uh hear you guys' voices? We do seek to ensure that all voices of Calgarians are heard. So we still continue to engage with each ward, whether it's with any with individual council members or with the entirety of council. The difficult part of engaging with council is when we reach out and then we don't necessarily hear back. So at the beginning of your terms, we did send out an email to everyone introducing ourselves, and we only heard back from two separate members of council. So that makes it really hard for us to continue to engage when all of the onus is on us to do that work. There is a power dynamic at play as well, so it does create a bit of a difficult space where maybe we feel like what we try to talk about is not valued because people are not necessarily reaching out to us. Since that email and the responses we gotten from it, we have had counselors, a Councillor reach out, and we are in the um, we are currently reaching out to another two counselors, but it really is helpful if the rest of council is reaching out to us to start to build that relationship as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councillor Clark, please. Yeah, thank you. Um Councillor Panjaslopoulos essentially touched on the same point I wanted to make, which was one of your goals is that you'd like to form better relationships with council. I think you've done an excellent job, obviously, answering the question, but um is there anything I I can appreciate, you know, the desire to speak with us. You sent us an email when we first got started. I think I'll speak for myself alone, but quite an overwhelming experience. Um quite a few emails. Uh and so to that end, yeah, sort of like is there something that we could do to to sort of uh extend the olive branch or or sort of reach a handout to make that connection? Yeah, you can send us an email. It's just arock at calgary.ca. We're happy to meet anytime. So even if we don't have, you know, any particular um Agenda item, we're happy to build a relationship. We think that you know our relationship with council works really well when there's a really tight-knit kind of community. And we had had that previously with a couple of counselors as well, where we were even just texting each other. So it it the relationship that we build with council is all up to you. We're happy to engage in whatever way that you want. But yeah, feel free to reach out to us. Um and we we will continue to reach out when stuff comes up, but we're really happy to build that relationship before something does come up. Okay, yeah. Thank you very much. And I will say that our committee is built off of uh is made of such incredible people with such amazing backgrounds, and I think using us as a tool is really great for you guys. But yeah, we're looking forward to build our relationship with you. Perfect. Thank you so much. Councillor Johnston? Yeah, I just wanted to apologize. I I went back to uh the beginning of the term and I I do see that you guys did reach out and I apologize. There's no real excuse not to reach back. Um and uh just a quick question what is racialized leadership inquiry? What like what is that? Yeah, so uh part of our new work plan is we were trying to engage with the different strategic priorities of the anti-racism strategic plan, and one of them was to identify opportunities for leadership. So one of our committee members reached out to different organizations within the community and sent over a survey asking about any barriers to racialized leadership that they might have. And so we've received those survey results back, and we will be sending out a short one pager to all of council summarizing the results. And so is that leadership in government or business? Any leadership? I believe it was with social services more so, but it was it was targeted towards a bunch of different organizations. I don't believe that it went to City Hall. However, the plan um we hope that we're able to engage with human resources in City Hall in order to kind of talk about this a little bit further. Okay, thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Any other uh further questions? Yeah, seeing none, thank you so much uh for being here with us. Thank you. We'll move now to assessment review board, please. Uh good afternoon. My name is Robert Matheson. I'm the general chair of the Calgary Assessment Review Board, and with me today. Uh good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Rocker and I'm the Vice Chair of the Assessment Review Board. Next slide, please. Oh, and with us is Tracy Mancini, the ARB Tribunal Coordinator with the City of Calgary. So the mandate of the Assessment Review Board is uh it's an impartial quasi tradition judicial tribunal that hears formal complaints against assessments of properties and local improvements. It's made up of the general chair, vice chair, and 24 part time members. We're appointed for up to two year terms to a maximum of 12 years. Next slide, please. Uh City Council perceived the need for some change in the last quarter of 2023. Forty-nine percent of the decisions were being rendered late under the MGA. There was a lack of modernization and cooperation. There had been a misguided push for ARB independence, which created conflict with the city at all levels. There were too many long-term entrenched members. It had become a bit of an old boys network. And commercial agents met directly with ARB leadership, which uh bothered people at both the administration and uh council level. Next slide, please. So, what did council do? They increased the terms from one top to two years. They did not renew any members who had been appointed prior to 2015, which was one third of the board, unfortunately, some of the most experienced members. They replaced the general chair and vice chair, and they changed the general uh chair's position to reduce interference with different city departments. Next slide, please. Here we have a chart of the number of complaints in the last five years. You can see it's been pretty steady, except for last year, where it went up by 50%. The next column there called Carbs is basically your multi residential and commercial properties. LARBS are your local properties. So over time, your commercial multi residential have been dropping quite significantly, while your LARBs have actually come up. And last year in particular, over 2000 was almost a tripling of the year before. Could sort of interrupt, would you mind just telling us what a carb and a larbar? I I was just well the CARB is uh composite assessment review board. They look at commercial properties and multi residential, anything over three units. And essentially the Land and Property Rights Tribunal of the province parachutes in the presiding officer for that. We provide the two side panel members for the LARBS, which is your residential properties and your farmland. Those are done by three local members. Thank you. Okay. The number of hearings you can see last year had a huge spike, up to double of what they were the year before. We expect it to be back down within the normal range again this year. But we were able to handle it all with the one third fewer members that we had. So overall, administratively, it worked well. Next slide, please. This uh generally shows the efficiency of the assessment review board. The city deals with about 600,000 accessible properties overall. Of those, we get about 3,500 complaints this year, which represents 0.6 percent. You would expect at least 2.5% based on the mass appraisal model using a 95% confidence interval. So you'd expect 2.5% to be too high. They're the ones who complain. From that, we end up with 787 hearings last year, of which 77% of the uh complaints were settled. Of those, only three have gone for judicial review, and one of those is a strictly procedural thing. We'll note as a footnote to that that when we came in in early 2024, there were 22 outstanding legal claims before the courts. We have now gotten rid of all the uh legacy ones and are just dealing with current ones at this point. And we just see a chance of success on maybe one out of the three. Next slide, please. So, what did we do in the last two years, because we have not talked to this board for three years, I believe, the last time they were here. We updated the website to reduce the text by two-thirds, get a grade eight reading level, reorganized it around the end user. We have in created training manuals, increased training in cooperation with the LPRT, and greatly increased member mentoring and have Monday scrums and luncheon learns on the value valuation and on decision writing. That has improved the quality of the decisions. And next slide, please. Uh this is the one where you really notice that when we came in 48% of the hearings were uh being fil decisions were being filed late. Uh we got that down to zero last year despite a doubling of the number of hearings and having one-third fewer members. So uh quite a quite an accomplishment really. Next slide, please. We also made a lot of changes with respect to bringing the uh assessment review board inside the city IT infrastructure. If everybody remembers the attack on the public library uh last year, a couple of years ago, and all the problems that caused, we noted that we did not feel we had adequate security, and after lots of coaxing and prodding, we and support from the administration under Tracy and uh And Jeremy uh Fraser. We were able to get that all fixed, reducing the stress, having things run a lot better. We consolidated the PDF packages so the hearings go much more smoothly now and eliminated OCR scanning. We never did figure out why they were doing it, but it was changing the evidence packages as they're getting disclosed to the board. Next slide, please. We also improved the scheduling. We had to increase the number of weekly panels. We had to extend the length of our season. We have simplified all the different panels and made it so commercial agents cannot file without filing the requisite paperwork. They were just ignoring it in the past, and uh all of that is now being uh enforced. Uh next slide, please. Okay, so with policy and procedures, we brought the uh respectful workplace policies of the city, we've incorporated them into the rules for the board. And uh we've greatly improved the cooperation between the BCC administration and the ARB members. And I think uh Tracy can attest to there being a lot higher level of cooperation. Um simplified all the payroll handling protocols, uh, changed the default from in-person to video conference hearings. We still do hold in-person hearings when they are requested. And we have done a recent study, and unfortunately, it's not in your package because we did it after the April 1st cutoff for sending things in here. And we did find that uh tele uh in person and video conference hearings are approximately twice as successful for the taxpayers in terms of positive outcomes for taxpayers as a written hearing is. So in that regard, uh we did get a request this year from assessment and tax to go to all written hearings, and we issued a decision saying we're we're just not going to do it. It's not fair to the taxpayers of the city. We've also recreated a lot of missing information from scratch and set up so that there's a much better ability to transition over to new leadership when the time comes. Everything's open in easy to find areas. We've trained all of the board members in procedure so that most of them are in pretty good shape to be able to take over some of those roles. And we've also eliminated any direct contact between commercial agents and the ARB leadership, as that was a direct conflict of interest. Next slide, please. So, what are we working on? We would dearly like to make the website and the portal we use for people filing their evidence and documentation more mobile friendly. The city of Calgary has something like 90% of the people coming in are on phones or tablets. And ours isn't even friendly towards phones and tablets. Just because it it needs substantial upgrade. We also want to be able to send out text notices, but our software doesn't permit it. So that's another thing that would be very helpful to bring us into the modern world. And uh again, we'll keep focusing on training to make sure that the level of decision making is uh is kept high and that the procedural fairness is maintained so that the overall experience of everybody is is fair. And again, we're not trying to be the taxpayer's friend. We just want fairness to both the city and to the taxpayers. Next slide, I think we're done. Do you have anything you'd like to add? Tracy? No. Thank you. Thank you. Over to I believe Councillor Kelly. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um seems like you've had a pretty significant transformation over the past year or two. Would that be fair to say? Yes. And uh can you maybe just tell us a little bit like of why that why were we in such a bad state previously? Apologies. There's 10 of us who are new here, so this is this is kind of uh news, and I didn't Okay. I didn't get enough in the in the report, I guess is what I'm saying. The former counsel, outside counsel to the uh board had suggested to the previous leadership that they should have more independence based on a certain Court of Queen's Bench decision out of 2013. When I looked at it, they had misread it. They got it 100% backwards. They took the position, which was what the complainant had said was his position, and they just laid out the position, then came down and said, and of course that's been overruled by the MGA. So we find against and everything's good enough the way it's laid out. That then went to the Court of Appeal and was upheld three to nothing. And they were busy trying to follow the complainants information in there. So it caused them to be pushing for a level of independence that made no sense. It was also a bit of an old boys' network, to be honest. Some of those folks had been around, I don't know, 15 and 20 years even. And uh there was a little little bit of misogyny as well uh built into the system, which I wasn't even aware of until we did our. Interviews with the uh the members um seemed that you know certain genders were being told different things on what to put in for payroll than other ones and and maybe training wasn't uh being offered uh on on an equal basis as well. So there were some pretty frustrating things that we've put behind us and hopefully. Fixed up and worked very hard to clean up all the operations in cooperation with the uh with the back office people at the BCC administration. And where would you say that maybe you are on that transition now? Because recognizing like this sounds like a pretty significant not only cultural transformation, but also a technological transformation as well in terms of processes, et cetera. Where how far along on that journey would you say you are currently? I would suggest we were pretty well done it after six months and that we've been working to tweak it ever since, and that to make any further uh improvements we'd have to be looking at a different uh software package, but that's such a a huge undertaking that it'll have to be studied and reviewed, and somebody will have to figure out if there's something out there that's better. Well, with the limited knowledge that we have in terms of it, it looks like you're doing a great job in terms of that. And I I guess I would just applaud you for actually doing this because this sounds like it was desperately needed. And so I really, really appreciate you. And uh hopefully uh Calgaryans who are going through your process uh can feel that difference. Yeah, we hope so too. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor McLean, please. Uh thank you, Mayor. Um, not so much of a question as a c a compliment. What you've shown us is that you've actually dealing with half the resources doing twice the work, tangible results, which is exactly seems to be the opposite of what we usually get with boards, committees, commissions, and all of our civic partners. They all do fantastic work, but they've uh usually Don't have those same results. Tangible that you're actually doing more with less, so could you go talk with all the rest of people and tell them how you did it? You know, maybe Sometimes you just have to figure it out. figure it out. Excellent. Mike, my again, I commend you for all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Councillor Clark, please. Yeah, thank you. Um just a quick question to sort of zero in on something that your presentation provided. Is I mean you've had amazing results. You went, you've you've had an increase in applications with a zero percent coming back late. That's incredible, um, as as has been said by Councillor Kelly about the work that you folks are doing. But can you just describe uh explain to me how how you were able to achieve that? Well, um we n the first thing we noticed, we brought it down from forty-eight percent to six percent the first year, and then we noticed that most of the late things were being caused on what again, carbs, the ones where they had uh an LPRT member as the principal member. So we were able to clean up our end of it very quickly, but we don't really control the LPRT members when they are the presiding officers of those tribunals. So we went and worked with uh Susan McCrory, who's the chair of the Land and Property Rights Tribunal, and uh came up with methods where we would tell her who we're having problems with and making suggestions and I guess a little bit of arm twisting of those members. Um, you know, funny little things. Their name tags used to be gold, and ours were silver. And so I said, no, they're all silver, and things like that. Just really funny little psychological things where you've got to bring the egos down. even everything out and just get the job done. Incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. There's no one else in the queue, but again, just thank you for your service. Thank you. We'll call next on our Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, please. I feel like I'm moving at sloth speed. This is not like me. Sorry. I just want to say good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank you for that beautiful land acknowledgement. I commend you, and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your hard work as a voter in the city. You know, I I watch every one of you. I follow you on social media platforms. I listen to the decisions that are being made on our behalf, and that's what we vote for as Calgarians. And so I want to take this opportunity from the bottom of my heart to say thank you for all your hard work and your commitment to make this a better place for everybody. With that, I just hopefully I don't I don't know if Terry, my name is Winona Lafrenier, sorry, I tend to do this at the very end. I don't know why. I'm just contrary that way sometimes. And Terry Pissett, she's the other co chair, so we had it set up that way purposefully. And then, of course, to my left, my sister in spirit, I have Lindsay Fleury. She's the executive director of the Indigenous Justice Center here in Calgary. Wonderful woman that does a ton of work. When you say do little with There you go. So I want to thank you for this opportunity to be here just to share our story and the impact that our this committee has had over the last year. We have a 14-member committee, and we have a lot of diversity. And I'm going to speak to some of the impact that we've you know we've seen, we've come across, and we continue to really work towards because we know we're a long way from you know working with you know all our counterparts, the departments here, the Indigenous Relations Office, to address those 94 calls to action. So I want to say that you know, we've been established since 79, so that's 47 years of operating as a committee. This was set forth by the city in response to you know bettering the lives of the Blackfoot people who brought that forward. And that's very important to remember that history and all of this because our mandate here is to provide counsel with that professional and strategic advice. And there is a lot of work to get to be done. Um, when you think about the 40,000 plus indigenous people that live in the city, not to mention the outlying with the other nations that do business here in Calgary. Um, I think it's important that we we set that tone right off the hop. With that, I'd love to move to our next slide and talk about some of our accomplishments. And this list is partial only. It doesn't cover the you know the whole spectrum of what we've been doing outside of you know our work with this committee and our partnership with the IRO and all the events that we attend throughout the year. Um we dedicate significant time and expertise to provide that strategic advice on city-led initiatives that directly affect Indigenous Calgarians. So on Medicine Hill and uh Pascapoo slopes, COAC's been a consistent voice ensuring Indigenous relationships to this land we call home are reflected in regional park planning process. On the Indigenous Gathering Place, COWAX engaged with the IGP on the exciting progress towards finalizing the design and location for the gathering place. On the Indian Residential School Permanent Memorial, COWAC provided advice on design concepts to ensure the honor the memorial honors those survivors, those intergenerational survivors, and all of those affected and those forthcoming as well that are that have been impacted for many generations. And so on the race based data strategy, COWAC emphasized the importance of indigenous data sovereignty and the need for ethical, community informed approaches to data collection. And asking ourselves, who owns the data once it's collected? That's something we we as Indigenous people we need to be asking because data is sovereignty to us. So across all of these initiatives, COWAC's role has been a we're there to ensure Indigenous perspectives are not just an afterthought, but are built into decision making from the start. Sorry. Next slide please. So this slide reflects the collaborative relationships COWAC has had over the past year in strengthening, I guess, you know, the knowledge that really we focus a lot on throughout the year to educate the public, educate industry, educate governments, departments, the IRO, because we have a ton of expertise. And that ongoing engagement with Indigenous Relations Office is the cornerstone of the work that we do. So we work in close relationship with our colleagues, and Devon sits on our committee. We meet every second Tuesday of the month, with the exception of July and August. So we also hold seats on several city standing committees and advisory bodies, namely the anti-racism, the social well-being, the inter-committee initiative, the cross-committee presence ensures for us that Indigenous perspectives reach the city in a timely manner. And so the chief David Crowchild Memorial Award that we host every year speaks to that, those contributions that are made by Indigenous people in the city. So it's an annual event that honors individuals and organizations making significant contributions to Indigenous communities and reconciliation in Calgary. It is a celebration of community legacy and the ongoing work of collaboration, and also engaged with the city administration departments, including planning parks, housing, transit accessibility, and more so the recent, and and I was watching your video, Mayor Farkas, yesterday on the transit talking about that safety plan. So we we had a huge part to play in that because we know for Indigenous people that's a huge issue. Safety and security is huge for Indigenous people in the city, including myself being an Indigenous female. So next slide, please. So beyond formal meetings and advisory work, CAWAC members show up in community at ceremonies, at gatherings, cultural events, and civic engagements throughout the year. We participate in pipe ceremony. We recently, I guess we should I could say we've been a part of a pipe ceremony with Tourism Calgary, the Blackfoot Confederacy MOU, which is Memorandum of Understanding, and to us that's a historic moment. And I'm sure it's going to continue on with other nations outlying our city. CAWAC members marched in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Memorial March in February. We participated in Red Dress Orange Shirt Day, and we'll continue to support these initiatives to increase that awareness of some of these issues in our society. And we've also attended the Metis Stampede Festival, Aboriginal Awareness Month, the Confluence Symposium. And then, of course, being in community really matters to us. And it's how COWAC members stay connected and how they represent and bring those lived realities back to the table. So in total, CAWAC members led or attended more than 20 community events and engagements during this reporting period. Next slide, please. So looking ahead, COWAC has a focused and ambitious set of priorities for the coming year. First, it's ongoing collaboration with the Indigenous Relations Office, which is our closest city partner. Second, finalizing COWAC's terms of reference, which is going to go to council. This includes clarifying the co chair model, quorum requirements, and membership expectations to ensure CAWAC operates within the parameters. Third, we continue advisory engagement on a range of important city initiatives, accessibility, red line phase two, indigenous gathering place, housing data strategy, public policy, and the Indian Residential School Memorial Project. Fourth, the White Goose Flying Report Renewal. So that was released in 2016, which means it's up for that renewal. We're now approaching its 10-year anniversary, and the city has an important obligation to review what has been accomplished and what still needs to happen. This renewal must be council-mandated, community-led, and properly resourced. Fifth, strengthening the KAWA council relationship. We want more regular and purposeful engagement with elected officials, not only at annual reporting, but through meaningful touch points throughout the year. Sixth, implementing the five year strategic plan that we set out just this year. This one is fairly new, and this next slide speaks to this strategic plan. It's organized into eight pillars that we provides a framework for COWAC's priorities and activities over the next five years. So pillar one talks about governance, accountability, and our mandate to strengthen the governance role and improving accountability access the city to across the city for reconciliation commitments. And treaty relationships, pillar two, community voice, pillar three. Pillar four is housing, wellness, and safety. So advancing Indigenous-informed approaches to housing, community safety, and culturally grounded supports. Pillar five is economic reconciliation and procurement, and we're fully aware of all the other committees that work within the parameters of the city of Calgary. So increasing our participation in Calgary's economy through procurement, entrepreneurship, and business development. And so, as you may or may not know, that we are the fastest growing you know businesses in in the country. So we you know, with this one, it speaks heavily to some of the work that we're seeing when it comes to procurement and maybe looking favorably to some of our Indigenous contractors when you've got major projects. Um, pillar seven, data sovereignty, um, to support policy decisions and accountability. Pillar eight, land, peacemaking, and environmental stewardship, something that's close to our hearts as Indigenous people, um, and to steward these lands jointly and with you know similar morals and ethics. We're asking council to formally endorse this plan. And so next slide, I've got what we need from council. We don't have a large ask. We're an advisory body. We do this work as volunteers because we believe in the importance of indigenous voice and municipal governance. But we cannot fulfill our mandate without the active support and commitment of council. So this is what we're asking for. Mandate and resource the White Goose Flying Report renewal. That because it's ten years old, this is Council's responsibility to mandate. The renewal must be community led and be properly resourced. Volunteers cannot carry this alone. Number two is strengthen strengthen the COWAC Council relationship. We are asking for more regular, meaningful, and direct engagement between COWAC and the elected officials throughout the year. Not only at during times of reporting, but of course, it's it's important to have a physical presence at a lot of our gatherings and events, and we see a lot of you know doing that, which is which is good, but I think more needs to be done to create that understanding and build those bridges between yourselves and the indigenous people. Three, endorse the COWAC strategic plan. Formal council and endorsement gives the plan institutional weight. It tells city administration and Indigenous community partners that COWAC's priorities are backed by council. Four, advance reconciliation with accountability. We're asking council to recommit publicly to reconciliation not as aspiration but as measurable action with timelines, clear ownership, and annual accountability reporting back to council. We also want to be honest. COWAC needs to be adequately resourced. As our strategic workload grows, so does the need for administrative and financial support to do this work well. And we need counsel to close that feedback loop. So when COWAC provides advice, we need to know whether that advice was acted on. So, because right now there's no formal mechanism to do that. So, where recommendations are tracked and responded to in writing would go a long way toward building that trust and demonstrating that advisory work leads to real outcomes. And our last slide. I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity. We look forward to the continued collaboration with council, administration, and the communities we serve to ensure that reconciliation commitments translate into meaningful and lasting change for Indigenous people and their lives in this in this city. We present this work in the spirit of building bridges and advancing reconciliation, and we're happy to take any questions. Thank you so much for thank you so much for being here. Colleagues, are is there any follow up or questions? I I'll I will jump in and uh ask what do you think us coming together as a community and celebrating this milestone anniversary of treaty seven may look like? Because for me. As mayor, it's important on behalf of Calgarians as a treaty person, somebody who's lived uh here and born here to mark that occasion, but I know that it's probably not for me to drive the bus. So You know, it's going to advance the lives of the people that struggle when they come here. I personally relocated 20 years ago to Alberta from Manitoba. And living in a city, there is there's a lot of culture shock for our people. And I think with, you know, there's there's still a lack of of trust, there's a lack of understanding. And we're at that crossroads now where we see things progressing, we see relationships building, we see partnerships ongoing. But there still needs to be some effort made to address those ninety-four calls and I believe we're at about eighteen with the city of Calgary that you've addressed to date. So if we stay on that trajectory, we're looking at something like 2080, right? So we're a little bit slow on the uptake, but it takes two in the relationship, right? It's very important that that understanding is there, that trust is earned on both sides, right? So for me, being treaty from Treaty 4, Manitoba, living in Treaty 7, you know, I I take pride, I respect the people that live here, work here, and innovate on this land because it's very sacred, and we have to treat it as such, much like our mother. How do you treat your mother? Same way, no different. And so for us to cultivate that, because no committee that was created by the community it serves. Has outlived its usefulness until the community says no. And that's why we're here. It's important to distinguish our relationship as well with IRO because they're administrative and we're that voice for the community. Because sometimes these these young ones or the elders don't have that voice or that courage or that humility to come. Forward to City to say this is a problem. We've got issues that we need to address together. And that's the only way to do it is to work collaboratively, right? And learn from each other, share our stories. And I think from that point we can we can say that we're making progress. But I'm still not, and I'd love to see in my lifetime before I leave this earth that we've done something to set the pace and and have a good roadmap for all of our children, right? So that's why I'm here, because I'm passionate, I'm empathetic, I have compassion, and I give, I live to give. That's my motto. So Hopefully that answers your question. I mean there's a lot underlying that because I've I've done a lot of work in in the Indigenous relations space with with industry governments and not for profits, so even with civil governments when I was working in crime prevention in Grand Prairie for a number of years. So yeah, just It's good to be a part of something, you know, something transformational. And if you're genuine about that relationship, it's gonna show in your actions. So just going forward, just have that question in your mind what are your calls to action? Thank you. I'm gonna go to Councillor Clark. Thank you, Chair. Just to actually build a bit on what the mayor was asking, in your presentation you discussed uh sort of renewing the vision for the white goose flying uh report. And I just wondered if you could speak a little bit to how you might see us as a group um beginning that work or or we what your vision is for that renewal. So, you know, I always say reconciliation, thank you for that question, uh Councillor Clark. Reconciliation does doesn't expire. Um, the work isn't done, but our roadmap really it needs some work. And I think it's important to be honest about You know, the the calls to action that have been implemented, but yet the calls that still need a lot of work. And I want to commend you because Calgary led on this. When the TRC Commission released its calls to action, Calgary was one of the first cities to respond with a substantive substantive community plan. So I want to remind you of that, and that's something to be proud of with the city. But looking at those 43 that are set out in the white goose, we still need to act more. We haven't completed all of them. And so I'll be straight with you that's not unique to Calgary. Nationally, only about 13 calls to action have been completed to date. So we're we're not nationally we're not doing as well, but as a city in comparison to the feds, to our governments, we're doing a lot better. But I think what I'd like to see more of is to mandate COWAC to take the lead on renewing this report and working closely with the IRO and city administration to move this forward. And that's going to take some time and effort and resources and some political will. So we're asking for both. I thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Councillor McLean, please. Yeah, my question is for Miss Pousset. I can recall there's Dr. Terry Pousset who was the head of the IRO. I'm gonna assume you're related. No? What a coincidence. Okay. She was always very kind to me. I was very fond of her. Ditch count. It's online I believe. Yeah. Well, there we go. Unboss ditch. I'm boss stitch, I'm on the phone. Well hello Terry. So are you gonna be present? Um Well that was gonna be my other question with the RO we haven't really heard much, but there was are they presenting later today as well then? I don't because I didn't see that. I was kinda wondering what because I would uh we haven't had a full sum update and I was just curious because Councillor Waness and I were talking about that. Councillor McLean, the Indigenous Relations Office is a part of administration. We've been hearing about the Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee's relationship with administration. So this afternoon's presentations are all from uh community committees, not from teams within administration. So that's how it is that you're hearing from COAC, the Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, you're not hearing from IRO or the Indigenous Relations Office because that's part of administration. Okay. Excellent. Okay. I think I'm less confused. But thank you so much for coming to present and all your good work. You're quite welcome. Anytime you guys are welcome to our meetings. We'd love to see you. Thank you. All right, uh, you are off the hook. We will move now to Calgary Planning Commission. Thank you. The slides are all right up. Thank you, clerks. Uh good afternoon, Mayor and Council. While most of you have spent more time with me in these chambers than you probably deserve to be subject to, my name is Christian Lee. I'm one of the managers with community planning, and I also serve as chair of Calvary Planning Commission. I am pleased to be joined today by fellow Commissioner Charles Beckler, who is a seasoned development industry expert in his own right, and also has served as a valuable member on CPC thus far during his inaugural term, which started in January of this year. Next slide, please. 2026 marks the Commission's 115th anniversary, and while the scope and way that it operates might have changed and evolved over time, its mandate has not. And that is to provide expert advice on technical planning matters to assist council in sound decision making on how our city grows. Its current scope is outlined on this slide. The bread and butter of the Commission is composed of land use applications such as rezonings and policy amendments, with a sprinkling of acting as the development authority on high impact development permits and outline plans. Next slide, please. The Commission is currently composed of 12 members, 10 of which are public members, and two members from administration, myself and Director Tom Mahler as vice chair. Public members are appointed by council and include a range of experts from professional architects, planners, engineers, and community members that present the competencies required of commissioners to participate meaningfully in the debate. Next slide, please. The Commission has been busy. While Calgary has earned the reputation of being Canada's housing engine, we have also been busy with a lot of the other stuff. Between May of 2025 to April of this year, CPC reviewed 183 reports and made 170 recommendations to this council. These are the items you see before you at public hearings. And this is the Commission's core work. Next slide, please. This year we continued implementation of the 2024 CPC governance review. This work is ongoing and includes the development and implementation of a framework for land use applications that could qualify to skip CPC and come straight to a public hearing. This is work we expect to finish before the end of the year. We also welcomed the new commissioner, Mr. Beckler, who is with me today. And CPC also provided expert external feedback on some pretty major planning initiatives going on within the planning department. Next slide, please. I'd like to share some of the meaningful projects that CPC has signed off on as the development authority. First off is the Walden Library and Fire Hall. This is the first public library to be established in Ward 14 and creatively integrates a fire hall into a single, elegantly designed building. Next slide, please. This is one of the largest outline plans reviewed by CPC in the past year and is located in Belvedere. It established the neighborhood of Bellwether and covers about 64 hectares of comprehensively master planned land uses, including open spaces and natural areas. It is anticipated that once fully built out, it will provide over 3,500 homes for existing and new Calgarians. Next slide, please. This project is Broadway on 17th, right on the edge of the Belt Line at the northeast corner of 17th Ave and 4th Street. This was a major mixed-use development composed of three towers, ranging from 34 to 43 stories in height. It was approved for just over 1,000 units of housing and commercial upgrade. Next slide, please. Like many other areas within the organization, CPC is committed to continuous improvement, streamlining, and efficiency. Specifically, the continued implementation of the governance review from 2024. As mentioned previously, we are currently working on a framework to have some land use applications go straight to public hearing. Other work also includes revisiting the list of development permits that are required to go to CPC, establishing a framework for administration to be able to render decisions on minor outline plan applications or minor updates to existing ones, and finally revisiting the types of applications that go to CPC for early review. Next slide, please. This concludes the presentation. Commissioner Beckler and I would be happy to take any questions you have. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? Councillor Benazopoulos. Thanks so much for the presentation. Um the industry is is is quite small, the planners, et cetera. Uh they have lots of clients current, former, and obviously perspective. They're the ones making the evaluations. Can you talk a bit about governance and making sure uh real or perceived conflicts of interest? How are they managed? And do we do a look back, go back as new commissioners come on, look at their clients, et cetera? Just maybe reconcile that given the smallness and intimacy of the community. Yes, so I before every single commission meeting, we do have a briefing meeting with all of the commissioners where they are required to declare any conflicts of interest perceived or real. And so far uh we haven't had any issues with these declarations as far as um the the governance around say someone leaves an employer and then stuff like that. We do we do have law present in almost all of those meetings to help provide some advice in terms of whether or not uh the well, first of all, if the conf the conflict is real or perceived, but also just providing advice as to the perceived portion, as we do not want to create any scenario where there's even a perception of conflict on on commission. Perfect. And maybe finally, we're a new council, we're making decisions very different from prior councils. Does the CPC ever sort of look back and do a check in to think, okay, what decisions? Obviously, CPC has approved certain matters and we're, for example, rejecting or accepting. Is there any look back, feedback, sort of saying, okay, what's the will of council, or is it truly technocratic, whatever their belief in the rules are? Uh we're gonna approve or or reject. I think it would be a disservice to say they're purely technocratic. I would say that they are very cognizant of this council's will and direction. I would say most of them as being a part, most of them being a part of industry, whether as consultants or developers or planners, architects, etc. I would say that they are interested in making sure that the recommendation recommendations provided to council from commission are sound, that they are based off of uh evidence-based decision making, and uh that council can at least have confidence that the technical merits of the application are sound. As far as the um will of council, I'm assuming let's talk about um the repeal, for example. If there are certain discussions or debates occurring around the requirement or expectation around community engagement, for example, commission is very in tune with this, and a lot of commissioners have started asking questions what engagement have you done? What uh what and what did you do with that that information? That is some of the questions that are being asked at CPC. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much for being here with us. We'll uh move next to our Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee. A little bit weird to be over here again, guys. Gotta be honest. Good afternoon, members of council. For those who I haven't met, I'm DJ. No. I'm your chair of the Calgary Salutes uh uh coordinating committee. So uh it's my pleasure to bring forward this briefing on Calgary Salutes to you here today. I want to welcome uh John Terrell as the vice chair of uh the Calgary Salutes Coordinating Committee and chair of our heritage and history subcommittee, as well as uh Tim Mowry from the Office of Partnerships, who is the administration representative of the coordinating committee. Both are here to help answer any questions that you may have. But I also want to acknowledge Councillor Johnston, uh, who, along with me, are your representatives on the coordinating committee. Uh, next slide, please. We thought this annual report would be a great opportunity to provide council with an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Calgary Salutes. So maybe let's start with a quick review or a quick overview. Calgary Salutes brings together the city, the military community, and partners through ceremonial events, public engagement, and initiatives that honor service and our city. At its core, Calgary Salutes strengthens the relationship between the city and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, veterans, and their families, building on a long standing connection that is part of Calgary's history and identity. We are a young BCC, and over the past year we've been focused on building momentum and improving coordination. Looking ahead, the focus is on visibility, consistency, and stronger communications. Next slide, please. Calgary Salutes was originally established in 1993 through a strong civic and military collaboration. John Terrell, who's here with us today, helped lead that charge at that time. Following changes in Calgary's military footprint in the mid 1990s, such as the closure of the Curry Barracks, that connection became less visible. So in 2023, Council re-established Calgary Salutes, recognizing the importance of maintaining and rebuilding those relationships in a modern context. Next slide. Calgary Salutes operates through a coordinating committee supported by three subcommittees the Community Engagement Committee, Friends of HMCS Calgary, and the Heritage and History Committee, which John, who's with us here today, chairs. Together, they support the overall mandate of Calgary Salutes. Next slide. Over the past year, Calgary Salutes has made some strong progress. Internally, we were focused on the boring foundational stuff. The terms of reference were updated and the subcommittee structure was finalized. We also onboarded two new council representatives and a new chair, and you can imagine how that went. We're doing our best, right? On the programming side, though, in all seriousness, many, many other activities were led by volunteers across Calgary. Some of those that Calgary Salutes supported include the 80th anniversary of VE Day, as well as milestone events recognizing our namesake HMCS Calgary, including the annual barn burner in both Calgary and Esquimalt, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the ship and raised funds to go to the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society, the Veterans Society, and Trellis Society. And we also continued the advancement on the Veterans Walkway Project, which is a series of medallions funded by the Legion on the occasion of their 100th anniversary and placed in the path along Memorial Drive, collectively telling a large portion of Calgary's military history story. Together, these efforts are strengthening community connection at a critical time as the federal government looks to expand investment in defense, potentially having a significant impact on Calgary's economy. Looking forward, our focus is on delivering signature events, including our annual Barn Burner. You all will be receiving an invitation if you haven't already, as well as improving our communications and visibility, expanding programs such as lectures and public engagement, and continuing to support the installation of the Veterans Walkway. As a new committee, there are expected challenges, including resource constraints and clarity around our coordination role. The four committees are funded by $30,000 from the Partnership Office. While I don't expect any additional budget ask coming in November, it is important to note that this is a very challenging amount to work within. I want to point out that this committee structure and mode of operation is also very unusual when it comes to the other BCCs. These challenges are not unexpected at this point, but they do highlight the importance of continued clarity and support to ensure the committee can fully deliver on its mandate. Next slide, please. Oh, I forgot to skip forward one. I'll skip forward to the next slide. Sorry about that. I want to highlight why this work matters for us as a city. Calgary continues to be a military city with a strong history and an active defense community. Across the city, there is a network of commemorative spaces that support engagement and remembrance. Calgary Salutes helps connect and coordinate that landscape, ensuring that recognition is consistent and visible. Importantly, while Calgary is not a primary base city, it is playing a role in Canada's defense sector through industry and innovation. Combined with our history, this creates real opportunities for Calgary at the national level with the potential to open the door to partnerships, economic growth, and stronger connections within the military community. Next slide, please. In closing, Calgary Salutes represents steady and purposeful work rebuilding and strengthening an important relationship within our city. Thank you to the committee members, the subcommittee members, administrations, and administration, and all of our partners for helping advance this work. Especially Krista from the Office of Partnerships and Rooksar from my staff office. And to all of council, thank you for your continued support in this work. Next slide, please. Thank you, and we're happy to answer any of your softball questions that you may have. But while we do that, also happy to note that this appendix slide highlights the depth of Calgary's military history from active units and historic regiments to significant sites, landmarks, and individuals that continue to shape our city's identity. All right, better up, Councillor Clark. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um this is so cool. I I'm gonna take I'm gonna enjoy this moment for a second, but I really didn't have much. I didn't have much of a question. Let's all enjoy the moment. Wanted to encourage or uh congratulate you on your efforts and uh to say that I've heard wonderful things about these barn burners and I I do look forward to my invitation. Uh and for those of you who would like to, if you're really last minute tickets, the Esqualma Barn burner is this weekend in BC. Uh so I will be hopping on a flight tomorrow morning uh for a quick forty-eight hour trip to Victoria for the barn burner. Councillor Johnston, please. So I read uh in the news that Edmonton was debating whether or not to eliminate their Calgary Salutes committee. Um what would be the consequences to us eliminating this committee? Yeah, uh for council's uh uh uh information, uh the city of Edmonton is looking to streamline all their entire committee structure, and uh uh part of that is the elimination of some of their uh boards, commissions, and committees, including Edmonton Salutes, which as I understand it, John, is a committee that was modeled very much on Calgary Salutes, the original Calgary Salutes. Uh yeah, I definitely would not recommend that for us at this particular moment in time, uh, simply because of the fact that uh uh the Defense Department is looking to uh invest considerably uh in uh defense spending across the country right now. And while this committee is not specifically mandated with economic development, it is establishing a strong relationship with the military units that are currently uh located in Calgary, including uh HMCS Tecumseh, the Naval Reserve, and 41 Brigade uh uh uh Brigade, which is uh uh the reserve that you probably are familiar with, the King Zone Regiment and the Calgary Highlanders, which are part of that, along with several other units as well. Uh maintaining those strong relationships is how we have a relationship with the Canadian military and how we know what's coming down the pipe, and how uh we have an opportunity to be able to have conversations with them to get out in front of uh potential items as well. Could we maintain that relationship more as a supporting role, or does this committee provide that role beyond what we could do as a counsel outside of the committee? Yeah, the commander of HMCS Tecumseh and uh uh the uh the colonel in charge of uh 41 Brigade actually sit on, as you know, uh on the coordinating committee, thereby giving us first hand relationships with them when we meet with them on a on a uh a regular basis. Could we could we do this uh external? We probably could, but it would be much more difficult, much more timely, and we would not be formalizing it in a way that shows that the city of Calgary values this relationship with uh with the military uh here in Calgary. Good answer. Thank you. I should let you answer it. Can you answer your own question? Probably not. All right. Thank you so much. Now on to our climate advisory committee, please. Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and members of council. I'm pleased to be here to share the highlights of the Climate Advisory Committee's important work from the last year. My name is Pat Letizia, and professionally I've been with Alberta Ecotrust Foundation for almost 30 years, and also fortunate to have served on many advisory committees and projects with the city during that time and through many different councils and mayors. I am here today as chair of this committee. Next slide, please. A critical component of climate action is taking the long-term approach. As leaders, our ambition should be for the long-term wellness, prosperity, and resilience of Calgary's children. I have a young granddaughter, and I often think about the uncertainty of the future of children today. I worry about their future resilience to the policies and regulations made by all orders of government today. I worry about them growing up with wildfire smoke and particulate matter filling their lungs every summer, and the kinds of health impacts this will have as adults. Next slide, please. Our committee's mandate is to advise council and administration on policy and strategic initiatives related to both the need for lower emissions and adaptation to the impacts of a changing and warming climate. Climate may seem intangible to many Calgarians, but it simply refers to the long term average of weather conditions temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind, typically over a 30 year period or more. So, based on those trends locally, regionally, and globally, regionally, and locally, municipalities can make some predictions about the pace and duration of weather events in order to reduce the financial, social, and environmental implications of these changes. It's all about risk, readiness, and resilience. Our committee has discussed readiness because we don't get from risk to resilience without being ready with plans and policies. We are also paying more attention to the people and other species who live here because it's very easy to focus on built infrastructure and emissions when talking about climate, but we're really talking about the resilience of humans and wildlife to adapt to a sometimes rapid change and the severity of weather events. And not just flooding, but drought and water shortages, particulate matter and respiratory illnesses, high heat days where cooling needs are becoming as important as heating in our homes, and potential food shortages, all in a dynamic geopolitical environment. Our role is to assist all of you and the people in administration in drawing attention to the biggest risks and opportunities in all of these systems. Essentially, we can pay now or later. And with our water feeder main, we have all learned what happens when we defer risks and liabilities for future councils and generations or Calgarians to deal with. Calgary has a great opportunity to showcase our commitment nationally, recognizing that approximately 50 to 60 percent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions are generated directly within cities, stemming from urban transportation, residential buildings, and municipal waste. Those are all areas where we can see big multi solving winds in and in conjunction with similar achievements in other Canadian cities. We are then collectively part of a unified national set of municipal solutions. Next slide, please. The Climate Advisory Committee brings many perspectives on multi-solving opportunities in Calgary with an efficient and independent panel of expert practitioners. We look at long-term risk to our water resources, biodiversity, infrastructure and people through the lenses of those on our committee. This includes people working in power and utilities, health and medicine, insurance, finance, clean tech and renewables, engineering, biology, environmental science, hydrology, land management, and energy engineering and meteorology. And that's the resume of everybody on the committee. The members of this committee choose to participate as expert advisors because we are all impacted by an uncertain future and feel the need to be represented as part of the solutions. Our concerns are very real for us and our fellow citizens, and we feel a strong responsibility to sign up and participate. We understand and appreciate that cities are getting more complex, and we know how many priorities and issues you as elected officials must all deal with in your own roles, and we've been hearing that today. It's an endless stream of information coming into your inboxes and many, many concerns. And so that's why experts on this committee want to share the load and support you in ways that work for you. Next slide, please. Because of the climate connection to every system, our role is to help the administration and council make informed, evidence-based decisions using good business sense and a long-term view. This business sense is supported by our volunteer members from industry, academia, government, finance, and clean tech businesses. We are also adapting to changes internally. Last year we invited members of the Biodiversity Committee to join us as their committee mandate was completed. Before the end of their term, three of them volunteered on our one of our subcommittees, and subsequently one of their members was brought on to our full climate committee this year. Next slide, please. As cities get more complex, the systems we operate and live in become more interconnected: social systems, economic systems, governance systems, and ecosystems. Our committee continues to work closely with administration where we both seek and provide input on ideas, plans, and programs. And to maximize the opportunity to work together, the Climate Advisory Committee continues to work in five subcommittees that primarily align with the pillars or focus areas within the implementation plan. We've condensed several of the key priority areas into a smaller number because we just don't have the manpower to have seven or eight different communities, subcommittees. But working in subcommittees enables us to better understand the city's work on environmental and climate action, to dig deeper on issues with internal and external experts, and engage others in Calgary working on similar issues. As we know, there is an army of problem solvers available to the city from the private sector, other orders of government, and the nonprofit and charitable sectors. We strongly encourage you to review our subcommittee recommendations in our annual report. They reflect a lot of collaboration from this committee, administration, and a number of businesses, companies, and organizations working in all sectors within Calgary on climate action. Next slide, please. Getting to our the recommendations that are included in our report. These recommendations are about integrating climate thinking into core city decisions, such as zoning, housing, budgets, infrastructure, and economic planning. Climate is not a separate issue, it's about Integrated it into reliable services, public safety, affordability, and long-term competitiveness. Our focus areas align with the implementation plan, as I mentioned, subcommittee work and council priorities. So they include to improve integration. We have seen an incredible amount of integration over the last four years, more than I've seen in my entire uh adult life working in the environmental community and supporting the city of Calgary. It's been really quite remarkable. And that's because when we're looking at things like building roads or you know other kinds of infrastructure, it just means look ahead to what's coming up so that we make the appropriate decisions and use the appropriate materials, perhaps. Progress reporting. We recommend regularly measuring and sharing how we as a city are doing on our climate goals. And I know that that has been of interest to some of you, and I think that you've seen a lot of that data come forward. To keep building internal knowledge so all city departments work together on resilience. Next slide, please. Our recommendations on education, affordability, and advocacy are practical. Presidents or residents need clear information about risks and the steps they can take to protect themselves. And we're also recommending smart staged investment because the cost of mitigation should always be lower than the cost of impact. Early upgrades help reduce emergency repairs, lower long-term costs, and maintain the uninterrupted services citizens need. This also supports Calgary's growth and helps attract investment while in strengthening the case for provincial, federal, and external funding. All sectors are affected. And when we talk about advocacy, we're talking about advocating for the city of Calgary to those who are in a position to partner with us, align with us, and financially support us. Last slide or next slide, please. Looking ahead, our work plan is focused on alignment and action. We will align with the new council priorities. We've we've been discussing them, but we haven't actually put pen to paper on what those connections are. That's in our imminent work plan. And also the upcoming updated climate implementation plan. We want to strengthen engagement with council. We've met with some of you. Some of you are have invitations in your inboxes, and we are endeavoring to meet with each and every one of you over the next month or two and hopefully to continue to have casual, informative conversations with all of you. We are here to support you. Our role is to provide expertise and advice as needed. Remember that committee members. Are also Calgrarians who want a livable city, and they bring practical evidence-based expertise to support informed decisions. Taken together, these recommendations and priorities are intended to support resilient, affordable, and investable Calgary for the long term. Thank you. Thanks. Uh I will perhaps I'll jump in. Uh you're probably aware that council is looking at a few uh notices of motion in an upcoming meeting as it relates to the uh emer climate emergency declaration of the previous council. Do you have a view on whether that declaration of the emergency achieved what uh it was setting out to do in terms of funding, additional economic benefits? Uh is it your recommendation that we exist in a permanent state of emergency? Do you see risks or benefits from rescinding that declaration? I yeah, um, first of all, uh just a tiny bit of history on the the declarations themselves. Um sorry, I have some notes here. I was anticipating this question. The declaration itself is just a public acknowledgement that the serious impacts of climate change present a clear and present threat to the world. That was the basis of discussions that were actually happening globally. This is a global initiative. And starting around 2019, I think, cities across the world started to, and and and governments started to, sorry, like other uh levels of government started to consider joining into this kind of growing movement. In uh so the the government of Canada in 2019 declared a climate emergency. The chiefs uh in a the in assembly form uh formally declared a global First Nations climate emergency. Um Calgary was the last city, a major city in Canada to officially declare a climate emergency, and there are over 650 municipalities in the country that have such a declaration. If we rescind the declaration, we will be the first city to do that. The first city in Canada. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but um, and people aren't gonna say, oh, that council created the emergency and that council rescinded it. It will be Calgary declared an emergency and Calgary rescinded it. And I think that if we uh are concerned at all about our reputation and our brand, as uh you know. Something that should be representative of this beautiful, amazing city that we all live in. I think that that's a big risk. Every time this comes up in council, the media uh takes it up. And I think if we are to actually rescind, I think that the national media would be paying attention to this, not just the local media. So I I worry about that. I whether we say it's an emergency or not in this uh in this council, that doesn't mean it's not an emergency. The science is clear, and that is why these these declarations are happening. What I have seen since the the declaration was um a lot more notice and um maybe um emphasis on the climate and and environmental department, uh being able to go much deeper internally into uh you know biodiversity, into um Planning, how how our cities are laid out, the creation of parks and green spaces, paying attention to our water resources. We've got you know old infrastructure and a growing city, so there's lots of challenges there. Those are all integrated with how the climate department works. And so I think the budget expanded. There was a real emphasis on doing this work. There was, I think, a lot more respect for the people who were working in this space, both within the city and in the broader community. And I think it followed the um the the move that uh industry was making every every energy company every industry every financial institution in the country has uh identified climate risks they they are they look ahead uh you know just like um other governments should be doing and so um i I guess I would be very disappointed if if if it was rescinded I I do worry every day about the impacts of climate and um I wish sometimes I'd worked harder to make it happen faster. Just to follow up on that, can you be a bit more specific in terms of what you see the downside to be? For example, I'm I'm trying to view this uh i in a practical way. Like I came, I'm I think I'm the only. I'm the first mayor in a hundred years to come from being a rancher to the mayor's chair. I worked leading an environmental NGO. I very much believe that this needs to be part uh like living within our means is a financial concept, a social one, an environmental one. It should be baked into what we do with less performative actions and more substance. I look at, say, us declaring the state of emergency on the feeder main, uh, implementing the immediate actions, lifting the state of emergency. The fact that we lifted the state of emergency didn't mean that all of a sudden it was tools down and we weren't fixing the pipe anymore. It was just We stabilized the immediate situation and we baked it into the course of our governance to fix the water pipes. Same thing with stating the state of emergency in the 2013 flood. We instituted that, we took the immediate actions, and then we built long term toward flood resiliency. Can you make the case to me for a perpetual state of emergency specifically on this? Given that we we brought it in, we lifted it on other topics, but it didn't mean that we all of a sudden stopped caring about those things. Yeah, that's a really good question. Um I think it's almost semantics, right? The there is an emergency where something breaks and um people are without water. That's urgent, it's compelling. We we have to solve that problem right away. Sometimes no matter what it costs, right? It because it's always costs more to repair an emergency than it does to uh prevent one. Um So the the use of the term emergency can be confusing when we're talking about emergency management, for instance. I guess a better word might be urgency. I do believe that there are hundreds of millions of people living in the world where climate uh the changing in climate and the the warming of the global temperatures is definitely an emergency. There are already climate refugees in in the world and um I guess, you know, there'd be a lot of explanation that we'd have to uh deal with publicly, I guess, about what we mean by it not being an emergency, or we've we've put some budget into it and and you know now we're good to go. Um I d I I I don't know if I have an answer for you about how to manage the language around a an emergency declaration that's initiated globally and followed nationally. Um I and again to me it doesn't matter if we declare it as an emergency because I believe it still is. So just just to be crystal clear, as long as the actions are there, you you don't have an opinion in terms of the semantics? Well, I do worry. I worry about r a lot of associated risks with with rescinding the um the climate emergency, but I think there's there just are uh so many different ways we can work around that if that if that's the concern, if language is the concern, it I would say that shouldn't be the priority. The priority should be taking action. And I believe that the the emergency positioned the city to take more action, more direct action, more strategic action that it had to date. And so it it definitely created the the fuel and the impetus to make climate and and uh the corresponding um like systems impacts to be a priority. And I I take your point well in terms of you would you would be disappointed if the state of or the state of emergency or the expression may expression of emergency would be lifted. Are you similarly disappointed that we're not in a state of emergency on the floods? Like a like do you do you grant that we've in we've baked this into the course of the action of the city, or do you still feel personally that it's a it's of urgent importance for you that we be in that state of emergency here municipally? Well, I don't I don't know that it means that we're in a state of emergency, um again, using language from emergency management. And maybe it's easy to get confused between the two things. I think they're quite different. I'm just trying to think of the See that that's exactly my challenge because at the municipal level, like the rules matter, the law matters. If we it's if we declare an emergency, there's certain legislative requirements around that, which is why for me it's a bit confusing. If this was purely performative, what is it? What was the point of it? Sorry, I've I'm getting into a little bit of the the point of declaring the emergency was to address the global emergency, I guess, or urgency of a changing and warming climate. We are um we know what will happen to humans and and wildlife and ecosystems at certain temperatures. We're trying to hold it globally to 1.5. We're not gonna we're not gonna make it. We're we're gonna be beyond. My personal doomsday opinion is that we're gonna get to three degrees probably by the end of the century, which Is catastrophic to humanity. And so is that an emergency? I think it is. I think as a city, we at and and and as as a council, I think that you probably all have the ability to figure out how to deal with that terminology because I think it is a terminology issue, not an action issue. thank you so much. Uh over to Councillor Johnson, please. Yeah, thank you for coming. Um you answered uh a lot of questions uh that I was gonna ask, but I guess eliminating the declaration, um could you see that being positive in that there wouldn't be such an Sorry, ideological cloud over the department that actually does the work in stewardship of the land. So could you see that being slightly of a benefit without having it politicized every time it's brought up? Well, in the four years I've been on this committee and in working with council and administration, not once has the term environment environmental emergency come up. It is not the frame that is um like driving our discourse. So I don't think it's ideological at all. Um I I don't see it as political either. I see it as collaborative. We're we're we're we're um We're saying to the the our fellow Canadian cities that we we're we're with you, we we understand what's happening, we're gonna be working on this too, you're not alone. Um 75% of Canada's population lives in lar major cities. That's 31 million people. And so we're gonna say, okay, there's you know, we're gonna take our 1.7, you know, um million uh population, like met from a metro region, out of that 31 million, you guys are on your own. That's kind of what it I think it will sound like. Um I don't I don't know uh I d I don't know if I've answered. Sorry, I'd say political cloud would be more that. Um even door knocking, a lot of people questioned why do why are we under an emergency? We're one of the cleanest cities, we have some of the best practices, we have one of the cleanest LRT programs in the world. Um we're great with watershed improvement, flood mitigation. Um, and so that question came up a lot. And to me, that's ideological in some cases and politicized in a lot of cases that that was a reason why um a lot of people had issue at the last council that was performative when really the results were evident by the department doing good stewardship for the environment and you know if we're under emergency as the mayor said where is the emergency action to that like my question always was is if we're under emergency why isn't council leading the pack and taking transit to work every day right and I questioned the last mayor on that because she didn't take transit but our mayor here takes transit all the time leading by example and we don't need a title or a declaration to do the right thing and I'm just saying if there is potentially a cloud with that terminology maybe getting rid of it would allow our Stuarts are departments to do more work without such a heavy burden in some cases, is what I would see it as, right? And now I have talked to other jurisdictions and other council members, other mayors right across the country, and they're looking to us to see if this can show um leadership in proving results over performative declarations. You're you're and you're just at time, uh Councillor Johnson, so maybe a response uh for me, Pat. I really don't see it as performative. And um uh I I pay a lot I I look at a lot of public opinion polls. The the majority of Calgarians, over 75%, continue to say that climate change is important to them and they are concerned about it and they want to know what to do about it. They're also concerned about other things because you can be concerned about a whole bunch of things at the same time. I yes Calgary did a good job in stewarding the environment. That's always been something that I personally have worked towards and supporting, and I think that's there. But climate is different. It's it's the science is complex. It's it's not um it's not something that's really tangible that we can see all the time, so it it's hard. But I look at the science, that's what I pay attention to all the time. I don't pay attention to the politics, and I the science compels me to um address the issue with the utmost urgency. I think this is the most important role I've had in my entire career. Thank you. We'll go to Councillor Clark, please. Yeah, thank you, Chair. I think um it's quite fascinating to have observed a bit of this conversation because I think um it we could spend the rest of the year probably sitting and and discussing it from this position, this angle. But I think what's interesting is you've reiterated a number of times that regardless of whether or not we declare a state of emergency or what like there's action that should be taken, there's action that's being taken. And I want to re uh Focus my attention to your presentation and the work that's being accomplished alongside the City of Calgary administration. It was the urban affairs committee uh chair that was speaking and said that um she would like to see confirmation of like you know that advice being provided. And it got me thinking that I wonder how your like how would my office engage with yours if I was seeking expertise, if I was looking to deliver a notice of motion, and where Where that exists like as you deal with administration um where we could see that sort of overlap where you are written into the work that's being presented to us. Well, in some cases we are. Um, you know, we we work behind the scenes primarily. You know, we're not public facing. But uh you know, we check in with the uh our admin liaison and uh and and the the people who come to us. Um sorry my mouth is really dry. Um And and they have told us that they are now um coming to us much sooner in their processes because the advice that we provide for to them uh are often just little things they hadn't thought of, but we you know we can bring this kind of external expertise. There's a lot of expertise in the city, uh i i in all departments. Uh um but You know, they're kind of hyper-focused on the things that the city are doing, whereas we're paying attention to what's going on in the broader community. So we have their feedback is thank you so much, is that our support is making a difference. The meetings that we have had with counselors have been very positive. It's very easy for you to direct, and I'm sure your staff will know how to do this, a direct uh a query to our committee through our administrative liaison, and we would meet, we'd have a quick meeting to see who's who's best to respond, and we would we would get back to you. Sometimes it's just what do you think about this, what do you think about that, or uh you might you might want to know something more specific. Yeah, I I think about um you know we've spent a lot of time recently talking about recreation and how we might deliver those kinds of facilities in community and I think about the connection there how to plug in like cooling centers, right? Like as we go about designing these new facilities, that integrated space, so that a senior or an individual who is like, you know, if we do have a heat event, which inevitably we will, we'll see a 45-degree day again, no doubt. Um, but to have built in those spaces, those integrations, I feel like, like you've said before today, like that work is being done uh regardless of of whether or not what we call it. Right. So what you know when the flood when the flood happened, we learned about floods. We learned about floodways and floodplains and where we should have and should not have built houses and buildings and downtown, right? We didn't know that a hundred years ago when the city was being built. But if we look back and you know, I w I I I say this to people all the time a hundred years ago, if people were standing on the confluence of the bow and the elbow, would they have seen the city? In their lifetime, would they have imagined what we are now? I don't think so. And so if we stand in that same spot today, And we think about uh the world a hundred years from now, we we now have learned from those last hundred years and we um we will make better decisions on all kinds of things, not just climate change, because knowledge and information is really important to, you know, making better decisions. Yeah. Well thank you for your contributions and your time today. You're welcome. I'm very happy to be here. I'm about to go to Councillor McLean, but uh before I do, colleagues, uh, we're coming 10 minutes away from break after this. We have three other uh bodies. I'm gonna suggest that we just push through rather than go on the 30 minute break and come back for 15 minutes after that. Uh if that is okay, could I make or could I invite somebody to make that motion? Uh moved by Councillor Ward, seconded by Councillor Kelly. Uh maybe just give us a moment to get that uh Ready. Or I'll come back to this maybe after I hear from you, Councillor McClain, and I'll go back to the clerk. Okay. Oh my gosh, they have it already ready. Okay, it's that is on the screen. Uh all in favor, colleagues? Any opposed? Saying none, that motion is carried. Uh back to you, Councillor McClain, for uh Climate Advisory Committee. Thanks. Uh I wasn't uh Had any questions, but we've we started a debate, so I just was curious on your input. Start a debate. Sorry? Sorry, I didn't mean to just start it, start a debate. No. No, I We can't go and break either, can you? I'll make it quick because we do want to get this finished. But you know, the climate debate, it seems to, you know, fluctuate and was very, very important. I my my question is what do you think the effect of the increasingly huge demands of energy for these data centers? This is all we hear about in municipalities across the world. They consume an immense amount of energy and water. You know, again, not if it's going to be oil and gas driven or coal even. And so it seems like uh again, huge concern of the environment, but it's they're investing trillions. Trillions have been invested into climate change initiatives. Again, we can argue about whether the results are the tangible at what we can see. But I my opinion, and I'm I'm interested in yours, it seems like a lot of people are steering away from the climate change because it's always seems to be about the money. And there's a lot of money in data centers, and so now it's not so important. We're building pipelines, we're We're uh we're less concerned about the environment because of the money and the need to generate for these AI data data centers. So what do you think that's going to do? Do you think that's affecting the climate change narrative? well I think anytime you have a large intrusive um industrial complex, you know, there's there's always considerations. And as we um face this this growing um demand for data and AI, um I I'm not I'm definitely not an expert. I don't feel like I can comment on that specifically, but I do know that in Alberta and and in other jurisdictions, I've seen I think three different applications for data centers that are using recycled water and recycled energy. So they're trying to limit or reduce the amount of energy they're gonna need. They're not gonna be completely self sufficient, but they are trying to reduce their footprint. Whether or not the provincial regulations are going to make it harder for them to just kind of come in and and um do what they want or use as much mud or water as they want. I was at a uh a lunch with the previous environment minister who said that they were confident they could rely on best practice. So I'm not sure what the regulations are going to be for these things and um yeah, it it's I don't have an answer. That's not my area of expertise, I'm sorry. I think we're all trying to get it brush up and see Frustrating and sh and it's scary to me. No, yeah. Uh two sides of the coin there. So yeah, I mean it's progress happens, right? Well, I guess that was kind of I guess uh what maybe what your input is on seeing if uh with regulations and the climate change or the emergencies that maybe make uh It's less competitive. 'Cause I think in that AI not to go too deep in debate, but there's a debate who's going to get it first or how much who's going to benefit from it. So if other jurisdictions have a whole bunch of climate regulations and utilize that technology and profits and uh faster, then are we slowing ourselves down? And I that's I think the only reason why we're gonna be we're looking at the declaration is if if there's regulations around so many things in our building where we're building homes, we have climate regs from all levels of governments and that that's an added cost. So Um it's just a discussion and I was just curious because it seems like the narrative of the climate change is once it seems to be the more profitable thing now, it seems to be the AI centers. Thanks, Councillor McLean. You're just at time, perhaps. We don't know where we're going. Thank you. All right, Councillor Atkinson, please. Um just from uh your point of view excuse me, wasn't ready. Um what what have been the most Effective actions that administration has taken, like climate has been a part of conversations across the different business units. Where have you seen the largest impacts of the actions taken? And where do you see maybe the the most impacts or opportunities going forward to take action? Um I think one thing that that that we've really noticed is that it's not just the climate and environment department coming to our meetings, um sharing their their plans and projects with us, it's uh it's other um departments, and uh more and more we're we're being approached by other committees um across the city to say how can we work together? Climate is also really important to um our committee and and the people that we serve. And so I think that this integration of climate this goes back to that point that um uh ev you know, even the the the safety and well being uh teams uh You know, they came to one of our meetings, made their presentation, and then we started to talk about social disorder and heat influences on behavior, and that was something that they were really not that familiar with. And so it was something that kind of opened their eyes, probably put a new lens on some of the work they were doing, expanded their thinking. And so we don't have a lot of tangible metrics that we can use to show that change is happening, but we anecdotally we can we can see it. Well, just where you see like further opportunity for uh action to really advance Calgary on the climate um side of things. Uh they know this city as well as anybody else. They know the physicality of this city, the constraints, the restraints, the opportunities. You know, we're talking about land management, we're talking about uh water, we're talking about air quality, you know, there's there's just such a everything is related, everything is connected. And so um I I think that we we should look to the mistakes of the past when we're we're building, developing, and planning for the future. So, for instance, I know it's more expensive to make affordable housing energy efficient, but any building or home that's built that is not is a retrofit. And so we we don't pay that little extra now to get good windows or good insulation. Then the people who are living there can't afford their energy bills. And so If you um it's i uh uh th this may not be a good example, it just popped into my mind, but we know that in high heat events domestic violence goes up. So it so and that could be even just in the summertime and so That might be where social service agencies or those those folks working in the city, you know, with people who are vulnerable can pay extra attention to anticipate some problems, maybe get people into a safe place. So they they use the knowledge that's provided to them to make uh better decisions. They're not changing a whole bunch of things, they're not adding new programs, they're just adding a little bit of depth to what they're already doing and improving it. So I don't know if that answers your question. It's not I'm not being very specific. I feel like that's more of an administration question about what what the priorities would be, what you know what investing, um, where we should be investing. No, that's great. Yeah, I appreciate your insights. Yeah, thank you. Okay. Thank you. We'll now move to the Council Advisory Committee on Housing, please. Good afternoon, Mayor Farkas and Council. My name is Kevin Webb. I am the co chair of the Council Advisory Committee on Housing. My other co chair, Carly, sends her regrets, but I think a trip to Spain with a bunch of friends is a little bit takes precedence. Today I'm here to share a quick update on our mandate that we've worked the work we've done over the past year and what we're focused on. Next slide, please. Okay. As set out in the bylaw, we're a voluntary advisory committee that supports council's affordable housing goals. Our goal is to review council approved initiatives, keep an eye on the progress towards housing outcomes, and offer advice based on both sector experience and lived experience. Put simply, we're here to help connect council administration and the housing sector and Calgarians in a practical and constructive way. Next slide, please. One of our committee's strength is the range of perspectives around the table. We have members from market and non market housing, real estate, homeless serving organizations, indigenous communities, and people with lived experience of housing insecurity. This combination helps us offer advice that is both practical and grounded in real experience. We meet monthly, usually in person, and our meetings aren't open to the public. Next slide, please. I'd also like to thank our amazing support in administration that keeps us moving forward and online. Renee, thank you so much for that. Over the past year, we've come the committee has contributed in several important areas. We provided recommendations on last year's annual housing strategy update progress report, took part in engagement on Indigenous housing programs, reviewed the housing data dashboard, and sent letters on key councils of decisions, including non market land sale programs, budget deliberations, rezoning for housing, and housing progress updates earlier this month. We've also offered recommendations on achieving the targets of the 3,000 non-market units per year in outcome one for the housing strategy. Next slide, please. Our work continues to be guided in five housing in the five housing strategy outcome areas. After reviewing outcome one, we completed a review of outcome two and submitted recommendations as part of the 2026 housing progress update. We also endorse the community safety and wellbeing plan and have been discussing emerging issues such as landlord licensing, public participation in planning, and housing implementation plan refresh. Later this year, we'll complete a review of outcome number four and five, so stay tuned for that in your inbox. Next slide, please. Looking ahead, the committee will stay focused on three priorities. Increasing the supply of both market and non-market housing, strengthening collaboration and advocacy across the housing systems, and improving access to safe, appropriate, and affordable housing for Calgarians facing greatest needs. Housing, especially non-market housing, continues to be a significant concern for many people in the city, and we appreciate the opportunity to support council's work on this issue. Thank you so much for the this. Thank you. Any questions, colleagues? Seeing none, thank you so much for for being here. Thank you. We'll move now to subdivision and appeal board, please. Um excuse me, good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council. My name is Tim Bargsley, I'm the board chair. Um I was uh gonna just go through the slides with you, but I think in in view of the time and the types of questions, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to be a little more um educational in the sense of I think some of the members don't quite understand what we do, and give you a little bit of an update about where we've been and where we're going very quickly. That's your um thank you, sir. We are a quasi judicial body, which means we're like a court. Our mandate comes from the Municipal Government Act as interpreted by the courts. We have 10 hearings a month, which last typically from 9 to 4:30. We deal with all sorts of appeals from any development permit issuances in an order. If you know what an order means that the planning department says to somebody you're not doing something right or you're messing up something, we listen to an appeal if there is any from that. Last year we had 184 appeals, I believe it was, which is about twice what we had the year before. This is obviously because of the RCG rezoning, of course. This year I expect we're still going to end up with about 115. Which is busy, um, but not as busy. The uh the flavor of the month as I like to call it, is starting to become backyard sweets if you were interested. That's what people are appealing a lot of these days, but we have to get the the remainder of the RCG matters dealt with of course. We have 18 members, really good staff help, tremendously good staff help, I should say, from the clerk and also from Lori Sittler, the lady that started the talking, and Tracy Mancini, who was sitting here the whole time the carv was talking. We managed to stay out of trouble most of the time. But we have had a lot of redoing of things in the last two or three years. And the reasons for those are kind of three. First is my my background, I should tell you very quickly, is I've been a lawyer for 35 years doing planning and some other years doing crime, as I said. And also was sat on council for a while. So I've got a pretty good idea of I think how to get things organized. I've also got a lot of really good help. We have two vice chairs who are absolutely terrific. So in the last three years, we've revamped our code of conduct, our rules of procedure, our website, numerous communications we send to the public to make them all more readable and understandable. We've uh changed the way we do hearings with the focus again being on relaxing people, making sure they understand as far as we can let them what's going on. And that is work that continues. When we had the uh increase in appeals, as we did recently, because of the zoning, we completely changed the way we did business. We completely changed the system so we could accommodate it. And I'm pleased to tell you that in terms of time that things take to be decided in front of the board, we kept it to about six to eight weeks from the time we first see something. Which I think is pretty good, but it's even better if you consider that a month of that is taken up in requirements of fairness so people can exchange things back and forth. So we are very mindful that we are important to resolve things as quickly as we possibly can, but fairly, and we do the best we can in that regard. Um we do have a couple of things in the fire right now. Oh sorry, I almost said your worship. It's bold habit. One of the things is that we uh want to change our bylaw. It was passed in 1995. It's been amended about 3,000 times. I'm exaggerating. It's really out of date. But the amendments we're looking at are housekeeping, they're procedural basically to reflect how we do things now. And we're working with the clerk's department on that. You may see that this year. I think you'll find it it just is better to have a bylaw that actually reflects what you do. The last thing I wanted to leave you with is that uh the role of the board. We are um an administrative body, we're not a policy body, and a lot of times people expect us to say, for example, Do things contrary to what you've said we should do, or the zoning you've put in place, or something like that, because they feel that that's something we should have the ability to do and we don't. So one of the things we have to we we work on constantly is to try to familiarize people with what we can do and what we can't do. And it's it's a reason to do that, in my opinion, is because it keeps the expectations reasonable. Because it's a very emotional thing, as you all will understand, when you're dealing with these things on our end, where folks are really upset about whatever it is is in front of us, and rightfully so. And so you have to be very cognizant to be fair to them and and and also cognizant of the fact it's very emotional for them. With the developers, it's not quite the emotion, it's some other things, but in all in all, I think fairness is the main thing I want to leave you with. We're really concerned about that, and it's an ongoing process. So yeah, I'd like to tell you that I think you're in good hands with respect to the functions we perform. But we're always changing things and we're always looking at things. And I'll leave you with one quick thing if I might your worship just in some Mr. Mayor in terms of um I'm trying to break a 45-year-old habit. It's really hard. I I think it's it's according to protocol, it's only Nahadanchi who is forced to call me that. Yeah, well actually I started with Ralph Klein, and that's what we're supposed to call him. So it was better than Ralph the Mayor, not the dog. Um but still. In any event, the one thing is I think there's a bylaw change coming. I don't know where you're at with that. And staff will tell you this, but the one thing is when you don't like what we do as an applicant, you can take our decisions to the Court of Appeal, and because we've had a lot of appeals, you had a few more decisions go there. And if you don't know, because you probably wouldn't, I'm sorry I said that, I'm not with it. We have had nothing but problems with the definition of secondary suites. It's it's like Ridiculous that lawyers keep finding problems with it and judges keep saying, Oh yeah. So when you're revising the bylaw, I would really ask the staff, you know, because I know you folks have got too much on your mind, if they take a good look at that to try to cut down on the issues that it presents, because um it does slow things up and it really costs a lot of time, effort, and money, as you would expect, sir, to go through court processes. So we'd like to see that just maybe changed. That's not a nagg, it's just an observation from us. But otherwise, that's all I have to say. My apologies for the protocol breaches and getting a little off topic there. I think you have a question from Councillor Kelly. Go ahead. Thank you very much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. I want to uh take you up on the as you said at the beginning. You you took an education tack to this, so like I really appreciate that. Uh wanted to um uh ask a question in that vein, which is um Discretionary use. Yep. When you get a uh uh when you get an appeal uh that's usually based around that, I'm just wondering if you can maybe walk us through a little bit how uh your team um makes a decision based on that. Um Sure. I'll do the best I can to be efficient if I and and pardon me, like I was a lawyer for a long time, so I seem to slip into jargon occasionally and if I do that, please stop me. Because I know how irritating that can be. So what happens is when we get an appeal, first thing we do is take it to a procedural hearing to see how long it's going to take to hear it, if there's any issues with it being filed on time and so forth. When that's done, we set a date for it. And the reason we do it that way is to clear up any preliminary issues and speed the system up. And the other reason is because in the old days, when they didn't do that, you would wait six weeks for hearing and get adjournments. We don't get that anymore. So that's the first thing we do. The second thing is that we give people time to file any further material they want because of all our hearings being virtual, which is uh we give them a date for that, then all of that's put into what's called a board report, which is published a week before the hearing, roughly, that everybody should look at. When we get to the hearing, we explain to everybody how we conduct hearings, like who talks, who doesn't talk, what you say, that sort of thing, Councillor. And then we ask for people to make presentations, which they will. And uh the board members are the only people that can ask questions, so it's not a cross examination process. So we go through the appellants, the applicants, the city, and then we go back to everybody for second words and so forth like that. Then when all of that's done. We then convene in camera and we discuss all of the points necessary to make a decision and we all write our own decisions by the way. Um they're typically fairly lengthy if you've ever looked at one. They can be fifteen to thirty pages long. And in those decisions or discussions, I should say, the first thing we're always looking at is what have the parties told us is an issue, what is the city policy, what does the bylaw say, what does the planning policy say if there's like a local area plan, something like that. We go through all of that, we have a fulsome discussion, and it's uh uh basically up to a vote if there has to be one. We sit in panels of five, and the chair never gets a vote unless there's a tie. And I've been three years you've had me uh in this position, I think I've voted twice. So that's basically the process that we use. And after we make that decision, you have 15 days to write it up and send it out with reasons and so forth. I appreciate that that step-by-step process. I've only gone to SDAB like twice. And so as a result, it's that it's what I'm kind of getting at is like what happens in that back room, because that's kind of the mystery to us. But where I guess I'm sort of asking specifically here, though, is around those judgment calls that administration has made through uh we'd heard earlier from Planning Commission and and and the decisions that that that that get made there. When it's a judgment call, I'm wondering, as you said at the beginning, like you're not a policy body, you're interpreting the policy, but of course it's a judgment call. So I'm just I'm curious in terms of uh how you go about that process in terms of uh interpreting a judgment call. Well, fair enough. And that's fair. The law requires that these hearings will be called de novo, which means they're brand new. So it doesn't matter what happened before in terms of a decision. We're not constrained by that. That's the first thing you have to realize. The second thing you gotta realize is we will look at that judgment and see if we think that's appropriate. From our perspective. And we have a bit of a different perspective sometimes than the planners do. Sometimes they're they're just kind of everybody does it this way, so we'll do it that way type of thing. That doesn't bind us at all. So we take a measured review of all of those judgments to come up with our own. And it's I can't really explain, you know, obviously the back and forth of it. It's like asking you what happens at an in camera meeting. But the general sense of it is it's a robust discussion so we can form our own judgment. Not somebody else's. Interesting. Not at all what I was thinking. So I appreciate I appreciate that very much. You're welcome. That's all your worship. See, I'll still call them that. Awesome. Thank you, uh Councillor Kelly. On to tax incentive appeal board. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for being here, sir. Uh good afternoon, uh uh Mayor Farkas and Council members. I've got the uh enviable position or unenviable position of being the last presenter, so I will uh attempt to be as concise as possible. Um my name is Larry Revit. I am the current chair of the Tax Incentive Appeal Board, which we refer to as the TIAB. Uh the Vice Chair, David Oldring, sends his regards. Uh, however, he's recovering from a uh medical procedure, so he's unable to attend today. So, what is the TIAB? We are a reasonably new board created. Uh uh first uh board members were appointed in January of 2025. It's a specialized quasi-judicial tribunal established by the city of Calgary to hear appeals of tax incentive decisions made by the municipal assessor pursuant to the non residential tax incentive program for renewable energy projects on brownfields bylaw 23 2024, quite a mouthful. The appeal board itself was created under a related bylaw passed at the same time. The Brownfields bylaw offers a property tax incentive of up to 50% of property taxes assessed or to be assessed on a renewable power generation facility constructed on a brownfield property utilizing fuel sources such as solar or wind power. In general terms, a brownfield property is a non-residential property with identified environmental contamination, otherwise restricted, restricting or prohibiting development. An example of it is the solar project located at Barlow Trail and Glenmore Trail in Southeast Calgary. The bylaw is detailed in the eligibility requirements, but hopefully that brief general description gives counsel an idea of what it relates to. At the time of initially preparing my comments for today, Council was considering approving a tax incentive bylaw relating to potential industrial developments on greenfield properties in the City of Calgary as they are defined by the City of Calgary. As you're all aware, Council recently approved that greenfields bylaw, and the significance for the TIAB is that any appeals that may be forthcoming under that bylaw will come before our board. Briefly, the board itself consists of 10 members appointed by council, five from the Assessment Review Board, which I also sit on, and five from the License and Community Standards Appeal Board. No members of council are permitted to sit on the board, and the board members were initially appointed in 2025 and reappointed in 2026. What about activity for 2025? There was one appeal. It was uh in April of 2025, and the decision that was rendered by the appeal board has been filed in what's called Canley. In that particular appeal, the evidence presented resulted in the board finding in favor of the applicant, and the municipal assessor was directed to grant the tax incentive to the taxpayer. The appeal itself was quite complicated. It involved extensive disclosure and evidence from the parties and their legal counsel. The hearing was held in person with multiple parties, including a number of members of the public, observing. It is anticipated that any future appeals would be quite similar in the sense there would be multiple parties and the presentations would be sophisticated with quite extensive evidence. So, what to expect in 2026? Firstly, any appeals that may be forthcoming under either or both of the bylaws, obviously. Secondly, the expanded mandate to the Greenfield Appeals, the uh TIA B TIAB will offer education and training to ensure all board members are fully informed of the provisions, uh, recognizing the bylaw was, I believe, approved uh at the end of March. Uh thirdly, uh the There will be a review of the provisions of the TIA bylaw itself, which appointed the appeal panel. The reason being we discovered in the one appeal that we did have was that it's a lengthy appeal. It took a period of two days. Appeal has to be reheard before a new panel. That would incur inconvenience and additional expense to all of the parties. So that's something that we are looking at, and we're working with not only the tribunal council but the administration in an effort to potentially recommend amendments to the bylaw. Any of those amendments, of course, would be brought to the council for approval. I guess the other challenge faced by this particular appeal panel is with a very limited number of appeals that have taken place, and frankly, that may uh there may be a limited number of appeals in the future. The challenge is always to keep your board members uh engaged and informed as to what's going on. We have the luxury that the uh panel members come from either the assessment review board or the license and community standards appeal board, all of which are much more active boards. And as you heard uh uh earlier this afternoon, especially the assessment review board has uh an endless uh supply of appeals that are uh actually coincidentally starting this week. So, in closing, I would like to acknowledge the ongoing assistance from the uh BCC administration staff. They are very helpful, they provide us with all of the administrative information and support that we need. Um, and with that, I would thank council for the opportunity and invite any questions. Thank you, sir. Uh any questions, colleagues? Seeing none, maybe get out while you still can. Thank you. The advantage of being last. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for being here with us. All right. Madam Clerk, is there any other business before we seek a motion to thank the council committees and boards commissions and committees for their annual reports and presentations? None that I can see. Just think I'm over for that. All right. May I please have a motion to thank council committees and boards, commissions, and committees for their 2026 annual reports and presentations. Moved by Councillor Kelly, second by Councillor McLean. Madam Clerk, is it right that committees is uh twice on that? Council committees and boards, commissions and committees. Yes, Mayor, that is correct because council committees is defined in the procedure by law and boards, commissions, commissions, and committees is also a defined term in the procedure bylaw. Alright, sounds good. I won't get into a philosophical debate between what's the difference between a committee and a council committee. Maybe maybe I'll save that for uh Clerk Martin. Just kidding. All right, uh any further debate on this, colleagues? Uh if any of you would like to speak to ask any questions or follow ups for administration, now would be the time. Yeah. Uh yeah, question could just two questions for administration. Um is there were a number of recommendations made in the reports around ways to make things more efficient, effective from these BCCs in terms of administration. I'm just wondering how those recommendations are filtered and sort of potentially deployed within the organization, whether they are How do we not just have these die in these reports and as we say thank you? Uh I'm just gonna ask Deputy Fraser to come up and answer that as this is my first Thank you for the question, Councillor Atkinson. So, for the purposes of this particular report, the reports from the boards, commissions, and committees are not part of the recommendations of the overarching umbrella recommendation you see here to thank them for the presentations. Each of the boards, commissions, and committees or council committees that are presenting before you today have administrative resources and administrative support within administration, and they can work with those administration resources to advance recommendations for the council for further action. Today was an opportunity to give you insight into the mandates of the various council committees and boards commissions committees and the work plans that they have, well, review of their activities from last year as well as the work plans that they have for their actions this year in terms of actioning any particular recommendation that's been presented by a council committee or board commission committee that could be incorporated by way of amendment into the recommendations that are before council today, or they can be brought forward in collaboration with administration. Okay. I'll I'll pursue those off. Yeah. Um and then the other one was we heard from the assessment review board the website modernization being a uh a key piece, and I I feel like we definitely have some of these BCCs who are Doing things like there's the work that they're doing, and then there's the supportive resources that are needed for them to do the work. And I'm wondering if you could speak at all to the supports that they have, have access to, and ways we could better equip them so they're not building websites and instead reviewing tax assessments. That's a very particularly broad question, and I'm not sure I can speak on behalf of all of administration with respect to support of all of the different varying mandates of the committees that reported to council today. However, I can speak because we work particularly closely with the assessment review board in the city clerk's office a little bit about the technology issues that we've been grappling with. That has the technology issues as the chair, the general chair uh addressed in his presentation, rose to a level where it became a significant operational impediment to the board. And some of those technology issues have absolutely, as the general chair reported today, been addressed, and that's been a significant uh bit of progress, and it has involved uh a collaborative effort between the leadership of the board, the members of the board, as well as the administrative support of the board. With respect to some of the other technological pieces that uh are still hanging out there that require uh work and effort, they're certainly within the focus of the city clerk's efforts to support the assessment review board. Um, there is uh things, there are things like procurement uh and budget budget costs uh behind needing to advance those technology files that we are certainly working on and advancing in the background. Um, and you may see some of those come forward before council in the fullness of time, but it's certainly something we're working on. That's great. Thank you. Thanks for the answers. Thank you. Anyone else? Councillor Kelly uh to close? Yeah, I just wanted to as I was just gonna close, but I want to jump onto something that Councillor Atkinson brought up here because I I think it bears echoing that uh the support for the committees now having chaired one uh is spotty. And I think that we should have a bit of a conversation about how to best do that. So, like uh uh Calgary Salutes is an example. Uh, we needed a website. We didn't have one. Hard to sell tickets to the bar and burner without a website. Uh and we were before instead of just going forward and being like, hey, volunteer, go and do your thing, we did go to uh communicate marketing communications to ask, and we were quoted $200,000 to $400,000 for the suite of communications support we were looking for. Um We went forward with just a volunteer uh going ahead and doing it, as you can imagine, with a with an amount like that. But when I take a look at, for example, the assessment review board, I can see that like they have the My City ID on there. So like there is a connection into the city in terms of how to be able to, that from a technology side, in terms of how it works, but the website itself is not, doesn't look like it's hosted on city infrastructure. What I'm getting at there is simply like there is a very uneven experience that's going on here. And I think that it may come down to a little bit about have and have not boards, commissions, and committees, who can afford to have the city provide that for them, who is uh doesn't have the revenue within their committee to do it, or who hasn't come to council to ask for budget for it. I think that we do need to take a look at these as a whole to make sure, as Councillor Atkinson was saying, that we're providing appropriate service to all the boards, commissions, and committees so that they can uh uh that they can uh fulfill the mandate, as Councillor Atkinson said, focus on uh tax appeals rather than building and maintaining a website, for example. Uh Rob, and before I officially say close, maybe I'll just provide you an opportunity if if either of you want to respond to that. Well, I I'm not sure I have a response with respect to the resourcing. I think uh you made a a reasonable observation. I don't um in terms of actioning that that's not before council today. However, it it may be something we should be taking away and thinking about how we approach that, generally speaking, uh, because it sounds like there's a lot of issues there. I will just take a moment to correct uh one thing, which is although it looks like the Calgary ARB website is assessment review board website, is on a different platform, it is in fact hosted on the same platform as Calgary.ca. Yeah. Thank you very much for that clarification. And uh happy to work with any of my colleagues and to bring forward an appropriate notice of motion to help address this if if if need be. So uh look forward to having that conversation. But for what's before us here today, yeah, huge thanks to all the boards, commissions, and committees. Uh they are uh groups of volunteers who are doing absolute well, not all volunteers, but m many, many of them volunteers, doing amazing work. And uh certainly we wouldn't be able to uh uh operate as an organization without the support of all of those folks doing all the work that they do every single day in order to be able to make sure the Calgarians have a voice in the work that uh the city council is doing. So thank you uh formally to all of them, but uh officially um I'll pass it back to the mayor so that we can approve a motion to thank them. Yeah. All right, uh, Madam Clerk, let's engage the evote, please, on this. This is to thank the council committees and boards and commissions and committees for their 2026 annual reports and presentations. Council Yule is absent. Councillor Daliwall, absent. Councillor Chabot, absent. And Mayor Farkas, your vote, please? Yes. Mayor all votes are in. Thank you. Please display the results. On that, the motion is carried 11 to 0. Madam Clerk, are there any administrative inquiries? Okay. And I'll just mention uh Councillor Yule had to step out at 315 for council business. May I have a motion to adjourn, please? Moved by Councillor Atkinson, second by Councillor Panizopoulos. All right, all in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none, that is scared. 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