{ "segments": [ { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 860.825, "end": 872.225, "text": "Uh administration, clerks, uh people in the gallery, people on the phone online, welcome to February CDC meeting. Um we'll start with the roll call. Thank you, clerks.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 873.185, "end": 879.285, "text": "Thank you, Chair, to confirm quorum. Councillor Tyres? Thank you. Councillor Atkinson. Thank you. Councillor Clark.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 881.105, "end": 881.525, "text": "Present.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 881.805, "end": 883.545, "text": "Thank you. Councillor Johnson.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor L. Johnston", "start": 884.485, "end": 884.685, "text": "Here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 884.965, "end": 886.445, "text": "Thank you. Councillor Kelly.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor D.J. Kelly", "start": 886.925, "end": 887.225, "text": "Present.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 887.385, "end": 899.785, "text": "Thank you. Councillor Ewell. Thank you. Councillor Shabot. Councillor Jameson. Councillor McClain. Councillor Pantasopoulos. Councillor Schmidt. Councillor Ward. Councillor Ennis. Chair Farkas. And Chair Dolegal.", "segments_merged": 9 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 900.385, "end": 900.845, "text": "I'm here.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 901.045, "end": 902.245, "text": "Thank you. Chair, we do have quorum.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 902.745, "end": 908.165, "text": "Thank you, clerks. I'm gonna go over to Councillor Atkinson. Thank you for volunteering for the land acknowledgement.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_05", "start": 909.965, "end": 987.385, "text": "My pleasure. Oki, Ambawastich, Danitara, Tanshe. Indigenous peoples have their own names for this area that have been in use long before settlers came to call this place Calgary. In the Blackfoot language, it is called Mokinstis. The Iythka Nakota Wiscabe nation refers to this place as Winchispa Oyade, and the people of the Tsutina Nation call it Guts. The Metis call this area Otis Kwane. We appreciate and acknowledge that we are gathered on the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot nations, the Sigziga, Bigani, and Guinei First Nations, the Ithka, Nodi, Wiscabe First Nations, comprised of the Chinniki, Bearspaw, and Good Stoney First Nations, and the Tsutina First Nation. The city of Calgary is also homeland to the historic Northwest Metis, to the Ote Pimsuwak, Metis Government, Metis Nation Battle Rival 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": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 989.745, "end": 1041.745, "text": "Thank sorry, yeah. Thank you, Councillor Atkinson. Um, you know, it's hard, uh, but we start today's meeting. With a broken heart. Cameron, Cosorso, J.G. Wright, and Caden Finn, three young kids, budding hockey stars, were killed in a car accident near near Staveley, Alberta. It's devastating. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends, and neighbors. As a committee here, we also stand in solidarity with the entire Southern Alberta Mustang community. So with that sad news. Once again, our condolences are with all those who are affected. We will go to confirmation of agenda. Can Councillor Atkinson can you move agenda, please?", "segments_merged": 13 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_05", "start": 1042.845, "end": 1043.245, "text": "Moved.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 1043.605, "end": 1060.805, "text": "Thank you. We will go to confirmation of minutes. Councillor Ewell, can you move minutes? Thank you. Nothing on consent. Clerks, I think we can go to item number seven point one. Oh sorry, two.", "segments_merged": 7 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 1060.945, "end": 1064.345, "text": "That's correct. There's no items on consent, so committee can go right to item 7.2.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 1064.665, "end": 1093.725, "text": "Thank you. 7.2 is community investment into community parks. Council committee. Let's stay on very tight on our questions, to the point, on topic. We have a colleague who's online who's heading to our sister city to represent our great city of Calgary. And I think he's gotta be at the airport by 11. So hopefully we can uh wrap this up uh so he can make his way to the airport. With that, we'll go to the presentation.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1095.745, "end": 1623.665, "text": "Thank you. Good morning, Chair Dollywell and members of committee. My name is Allison Fifield. I'm Community Parks Initiative's Lead for Parks and Open Spaces. I'm here today to present the 2026 Special Tax Bylaw, which aims to support community investment into our parks. Under the Municipal Government Act, special tax levy can be added to homes for local infrastructure or community enhancements. This park special tax bylaw serves as a funding source for communities without an existing funding source, such as caveat on title. The funds collected are directly invested into the boulevards, parks, and open spaces in these neighborhoods. This program is community-driven, requiring two-thirds or 66.7% majority agreement to implement. Once approved, we collect the funds, pass them on to community organization who manages the work. Before I proceed, I must apologize, there was an error. Attachment number two included through eScribe was an older version. I believe Clerks has an updated attachment two. The only difference is we're always looking to be more transparent and make sure we're being very specific. So we work with law a lot on this, and so we decided to move away from the map and to actual addresses so that we're talking about the parcel. So that's that's the main difference, the only difference really. Next slide, please. Previous council direction. Thanks to council approval, we have supported the community-led initiative since the inception in 1996 with Christie Park and its formal adoption by council in 2002. This funding method allows property owners to invest in enhanced landscape and winter maintenance activities in their communities. The reason I'm here today and why you'll see me every year is that the MGA requires council to approve the updated special tax bylaw annually. Next slide, please. So the recommendations before you are that the Community Development Committee forward the report to the February 24th regular meeting of Council. And that the Community Development Committee recommends that Council give three readings to the proposed 2026 Special Tax Bylaw 2M2026 attachment to. Next slide. Council has the authority to approve and apply special tax bylaw to raise revenue for specific services or purposes, including boulevard tax or recreational services tax under Section 382 of the MGA. Approval of this special tax bylaw allows communities to raise funds for activities related to enhanced landscape maintenance activities beyond the base service level done by the city. These activities can include mowing, trimming, tree well, shrub, flower bed maintenance, litter control, snow and ice maintenance. The services and activities executed in each committee were identified as a priority for that community and outlined in the initial community petition that was then voted on and requires the 66.7% agreement. Next slide. The process with community reaching the process starts with the community reaching out to my team. For information on the program. We then support them as they demonstrate community support through a petition or vote. Once they have confirmed their community support and we've validated it, we can add them to the next annual special tax levy bylaw that council will need to approve in Q1 of that year. This ensures the funds will be collected through the standard tax process. During this time, my team also has the community enter into an agreement to ensure the base service level will match every other community. So they will still ensure that they meet what Parks currently does, and then they can go above and beyond that. We support these groups each year as they engage their community to promote the program and through a reaffirmation vote every five years. Special tax levy was established as a tool to support communities that do not have the ability to generate these funds. These funds are used to invest in landscaping, horticulture, and beautification in their neighborhoods and contribute to the overall organizational health. of community partners by providing a sustainable funding source. Additionally, special tax levies contribute to the local economy as each community hires its own contractors or staff supporting local businesses and sourcing products locally. Next slide please. As you can see in the chart of attachment three, there are currently 12 communities that participate in special tax levy program. These special tax levy communities make up less than half of the communities that participate in what we call the Enhanced Landscape Maintenance Program. As mentioned, a small portion, this is a small portion of the Elm, Enhanced Landscape Maintenance Program, that utilizes these funds. All of the other communities are able to generate their own funds because when the developers built it, they put a caveat on title. And so they have an RRA typically residence association or a HOA. Thank you. Those communities that do not um sorry if this is not approved today, these twelve communities expecting these funds will have no funds to pay for their planned 2026 work. This may mean they will default on agreements with contractors that they have in place. It would also mean that these groups would no longer be able to participate in the ALM program. There's currently one community, Mackenzie Lake. I always have to kind of note because they're the only outlier with this group, they only use their money for winter maintenance. So they're in a snow and ice, so their special tax levy money goes there. So if the special tax bylaw is approved today, the total additional 2026 investment provided by 26,845 property owners will be over 1.7 million into Calgary's Parks and Open Spaces. I would like to highlight a recent note we received from a homeowner. They just said, I wanted to reach out and tell you how much I enjoy and appreciate the beautiful additions to landscape my compute community. It is very apparent that a great deal of planning consideration goes into the program. The special tax at $61.80 per household is money well spent. So it's a Scenic Acres homeowner. And I think that's the key. It's all community driven, and they have to make sure that the community is still still approves of it. Next slide, please. So how can I start? As I mentioned earlier, communities reach out to my team, start the process. Communities do not have to use This is typically only ones that don't have caveat on title. I know we've talked in the past. They could possibly do special tax levy, but there's really usually no reason for one that doesn't have or a group that already has caveat on title. We have to determine if they have capacity to manage this because it is a it's probably our most resource-intensive program. Parks offers a suite of options for people wanting to do work in parks, and this is probably the one that requires the most work. And then they have we work with them to support to demonstrate community support. So, like I mentioned, currently this is done through a community wide petition, which is significant undertaking considering the number of properties, communication methods, and level of volunteer support needed to complete a petition. Next slide. Uh next slide. I think I had two of the same. There you go. Another um question we receive often is there Kent, how do we stop a special tax levy? So there's four ways. Council could remove specific community special tax levy from the bylaw, or they could not approve or rescind the special tax bylaw, and that would impact all communities if they rescinded. The second way is community based organizations choose to discontinue the special tax levy and submit notice to terminate with the city. Third way is a sufficient community-wide petition to remove the tax levy is submitted to the city and validated and then brought to council. And finally, the community based organization fails to receive adequate homeowner support. So this goes back to what I mentioned about the every five years there's a reaffirmation vote. We have to make sure that there's still that support. Next slide. That concludes my remarks for today. Happy to answer any questions.", "segments_merged": 30 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 1629.365, "end": 1656.105, "text": "Thank you for the presentation. Before we go to uh questions, uh We're gonna open public speaking uh here. Anyone here in the chamber online or on the phone who would like to speak to this item? Go second, third. We don't hear none, see none. We're gonna end the public speaking portion. And now we will go to questions, Councillor Cali.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1658.165, "end": 1688.905, "text": "Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. It's great. It was really nice to be able to see this as like one of the first things that we as a committee are really taking a look at. In Ward 4, uh Edgemont is one of the communities, and I've heard nothing but great things about their Anlis program from the community association. They're huge fans. Just a couple of questions more for me than anything else. Just um around the special tax levy, do we have to do this every year? Is there a way for us to be able to do this for a period of multiple years?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1689.425, "end": 1718.665, "text": "Uh through the chair, thank you for the question, Councillor Kelly. It is annually. We have looked a number of times to see if there's another way because it really is a wash, rinse, repeat sort of situation, but it is a requirement to come because it's a bylaw, and then it also can't be on consent because it has to go to council for the three readings. So it's it's one of the more um onerous pieces required through the MGA. The MGA has certain requirements, and that's like probably the biggest one for special tax levy in particular.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1718.925, "end": 1725.525, "text": "And so there's nothing in the MGA if we wanted to uh approve a tax levy for two years or four years or something like that.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1726.465, "end": 1727.385, "text": "Unfortunately, no.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1727.525, "end": 1752.205, "text": "Okay, that's fair. Uh you're from the parks, an open spaces team, but I recognize the fact that this uh uh the special tax levy covers multiple city services. Um I'm just wondering if you can speak to that. Like we only have uh, I think it's however many are are specifically about parks, but one is about snow and ice control. I'm just wondering if you can sort of speak to like why is this coming from parks and not from a yeah.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1752.265, "end": 1785.385, "text": "Very fair question. So pathways used to be under parks pre-realignment. And so we used to do the SNIC or the snow and ice control agreements and sign them through our management. We have offered to continue to work. We work with mobility and make sure that mobility understands what the community is asking for and has that all documented, and it's mobility that signs off on it now. So it's just more of a collaboration because we're both working in the communities and it's one way in to be able to support those communities in a better way.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1785.905, "end": 1789.645, "text": "And is this managed out of the Parks and Open Spaces team?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1789.925, "end": 1801.445, "text": "Yep, so on my team I have a strategist and a field operations person who support the Elm program and various other programs, and then I have two contract coordinators as well to support this work.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1801.465, "end": 1811.145, "text": "So there is potential other city services that could be petitioned for, but as it stands right now, it makes sense within your team because that's what Elms is primarily what people are asking for.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1811.145, "end": 1811.585, "text": "Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1812.025, "end": 1856.785, "text": "Okay. I wonder if you could just what are the definitions around community boundary? Specifically, I'm I'm wondering in terms of like, is it neighborhood? Uh what I'm getting at here is sort of two examples, and I'll use Word4 as an ex as a hypothetical example. We have uh we use Edgemont as an ex uh as an example. They have multiple sort of mini neighborhoods, if you will, within there. Is there an ability within? that like is it about neighborhood? Is it about community association or is it about the the 66% of people within that particular area? And then one other one example in Ward 4 as well is we have uh we have two neighborhoods represented by one community association. And so I'm just sort of curious what that", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1857.945, "end": 1937.945, "text": "Yep. So the boundary I would say is determined for at petition, at time of petition. And so when I think of those neighborhoods, the It c it typically is one group leading it. So even to what you talked about, the two communities have one group managing it. So they enter into the agreement even though they kind of work together. And so right now, and as of 2018, council had endorsed moving the Elm program to be the complete community. Prior to that, you'll see like Christie Park is only one median or one boulevard. And so there's different communities that are a little bit different. But in in time for Edgemont, we determined that we wanted the Elm program to encompass the entire community so that there wasn't haves and have-nots. That being said, we're looking into because this is a common thing where there's multiple uh HOAs or RAs and trying to figure out a way to make that work where they can kind of come together and work on that together. So we are in the process of reviewing the Elm program to see how we can better support that. I know there's one, um, I think it's in Ward 12 that has four HOAs in one small neighborhood. And so we need to be able to enter into an agreement with one group and have them kind of manage it and work together.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1938.165, "end": 1946.705, "text": "And that kind of leads me to the next related question. Is just can you define group in this particular case? Like can a like a group of neighbors get together, like all the people on one street?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1946.805, "end": 1975.105, "text": "They have to be a duly organized society. So a C A H A H R H O A or R A. And so we for the Elm program, it's not an individual that can participate. It has to be a group. They have insurance, they have all the requirements to ensure our liabilities are kind of covered off there. And if it was more of an individual looking to do things, then we have things like adopt a park, adopt a rink, a variety of other opportunities for groups, if they're individuals in particular.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 1975.145, "end": 1993.745, "text": "Perfect. And then last question for me is just uh around the engagement for the two thirds to begin with. Um obviously, in terms of the presentation of the program, this is very focused on homeowners. Um I'm wondering if you can speak to what that engagement looks like for residents of an area who may not be a homeowner.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 1994.225, "end": 2024.925, "text": "So the requirement for special tax levy is that it's only the homeowner that can vote on it. And so renters would be engaged the same as any other group with signage out there or ability to attend an AGM and hear about what's going on in the community. Their vote though would not be included because it needs to be the property owner. And just in case there was, let's say, a one individual who owned multiple properties, they would only have one vote for that. And so that's how that works.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 2024.925, "end": 2027.545, "text": "So it's not one vote per property.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2027.785, "end": 2030.605, "text": "It it's not if it's the same homeowner.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 2030.945, "end": 2031.545, "text": "Interesting.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2031.545, "end": 2031.965, "text": "Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 2032.365, "end": 2037.285, "text": "And are all of those regulations defined in the MGA? None of that is city regulation.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2037.425, "end": 2037.705, "text": "No.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 2038.065, "end": 2040.085, "text": "Okay. Thank you. Appreciate the question uh the answers.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2043.205, "end": 2046.525, "text": "Uh thank you. Uh over to Councillor Yule.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2047.145, "end": 2060.585, "text": "Um just talking about the level of support for a successful petition, uh d it was two thirds, is that the okay. And that's of all home or owners in that area or members of that HOA like", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2061.765, "end": 2066.465, "text": "It's of all the people included in the community, the boundary that's", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2066.465, "end": 2066.765, "text": "found.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2066.765, "end": 2067.065, "text": "Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2067.065, "end": 2075.405, "text": "Okay. Um and uh uh is it the same level to to to break that um", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2076.605, "end": 2131.425, "text": "It it is. So you'd need to do a petition. Um I kind of mentioned earlier we're doing a review of all these kind of programs to ensure because Councillor Kelly mentioned Edgemont was the last one to get into this program because it's very onerous. And so um right now we're looking at right now they could um Have a reaffirmation vote, and it could happen at an AGM, and the rule is 50 plus one, they require to keep going. But right now, the an AGM could only have 10 people. So you could have a very small number of people say that this is not working. And so this is actually one of the concerns of special tax levy communities that we're working on. So we're working on making sure that if something like that happened, they would have another year to engage to make sure that it's truly the will of the community, not just a small group of people that got together to kind of challenge it.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2132.465, "end": 2149.445, "text": "um and then You talked about a base level of service, so their maintenance has to to to meet this the quality that the city in these in these areas we're not seeing any duplication of service.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2149.705, "end": 2174.425, "text": "No, we work hard to avoid that. And so with that, they also receive the operating funds. And so the money that parks would have spent to do that base level service in that community, they receive. And so that's usually done in Q1 of each year. They receive that money and then all of the additional money, whether it comes from the Cave Down title or the special special tax levy, is where they kind of do the enhancements.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2174.605, "end": 2190.545, "text": "Okay. So now now based on the communities that are subscribed to this, um they all kind of is it is it different by community on what like what those enhancements are?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2191.065, "end": 2239.985, "text": "It it does. And it's funny because every I have to come back every year as I mentioned. And Councillor Carab was always big on can't we just pick, for instance, Mackenzie Lake is like five dollars. Can't we just increase by five dollars? Each of these communities are structured differently, they have different priorities. Some of them are not really looking for flowers or don't have the capacity for, so that's not something they're looking for. And so each of them pick what is the priority for their group and that's why you can see the different different prices. So Hamptons, for instance, is probably no, which one am I thinking? I'm thinking Royal Oak Estates is one of our highest. So they do more. And so it's a dis it's a dis a decision by the community what they want to do.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2240.845, "end": 2257.565, "text": "Now uh in my area, um the previous Councillor, Councillor Mian, um uh did a report on uh signage for communities. Um is is this a type of levy that could be used to enhance the signage for communities?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2257.665, "end": 2305.565, "text": "So this can only be used for landscape maintenance, and so we have to be very careful, and so we continuously work with the groups too to ensure that they're putting the money where it's supposed to per the MGA. I was involved in the community sign work as well. Very few of those community signs currently are on park space, but what parks does with those types of infrastructure, those hard infrastructure, if it's on park space, we have an optional amenity agreement. So typically with a developer, we would receive rehab and removal funds so that the taxpayers are held whole. But the problem that Councillor Meean brought up, and it's a very valid problem, is that these signs are getting older and there's not necessarily funds either through the community group or through the city to manage them currently.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 2305.665, "end": 2309.285, "text": "Okay. Just wanted to check in that. Um yeah, that's all my questions. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2310.305, "end": 2312.125, "text": "Thank you, Councillor. Over to Councillor Tyres.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2313.405, "end": 2328.745, "text": "Uh yeah, thanks for the presentation. Um okay, so I see that the proposed uh tax uh proposed revenue is one point seven eight million. Is that um how is that in comparison to like last year, year before?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2329.105, "end": 2354.305, "text": "Yeah, so I think it's at the bottom. 2025 was one point one million seven hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine, and then this year is one million seven hundred eighty-seven six eighty-seven. So it's about twenty thousand more. Okay. And where that comes from is they are given the option to increase or decrease based on inflation by up to five percent.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "Councillor, Vice-Chair K. Tyers", "start": 2345.145, "end": 2345.205, "text": "Okay.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2354.905, "end": 2360.805, "text": "And so um yeah, so that just helps them when the costs increase, they're able to do that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2361.325, "end": 2374.045, "text": "Okay. And this is all just revenue collected from the tax from the tax levy. So once you guys collect it, that's put towards the program, there's no other money that goes towards it.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2374.065, "end": 2411.725, "text": "N no, so it actually gets sent it gets delivered to the community group. So we collect it through the tax system and then each of the amount for each community. So if I was looking at Christie Park, they would have um Over $54,000, just a little bit over $54,000 then provided to them. We manage ensuring that the money is being used, as I mentioned to Councillor Ewell. They have to use it for landscape maintenance. There's some specifics around there. So we my team ensures that they kind of see the see the invoices, see those things to ensure it's being used properly. But yeah, it's the community that gets the money and uses the money then.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2411.885, "end": 2425.485, "text": "Okay. And um do you have uh I guess any kind of information about any potential communities that want to bring this on or in reverse uh communities that want to get rid of it?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2426.145, "end": 2467.045, "text": "We don't have communities that want to get rid of it. I would say that every September we do a letter of intent. The community does a letter of intent. And at that time they let them know about the inflation and how much it's going to be this year. And we've really updated that letter to ensure that the homeowners understand community. I would say we received maybe 10 inquiries, and every once in a while there's like three people saying, I want out of it, because they think they can just opt out of it on their own. And so at that time we provide them the various options that they could uh work on if they did want to work with the community to remove it. But um sorry, what was the second part of that?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2467.965, "end": 2470.685, "text": "Oh, just like the the reverse your resonance.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2470.685, "end": 2514.625, "text": "Yes. So we have had a few, and this is back to the program review. We've had a few. It's a very onerous project to try and get two-thirds voting or petition. So right now we're working with Sherwood. They've been actively trying to get into this for a while. And so we're hoping to pilot with them a new version of how we could do special tax levy. We're always trying to do that balance. We know counselors need to know that there's that community support, but we also know that the communities have to actually be able to achieve this. And so we're looking at possibly doing a vote instead of a petition and having a few more options. So we're just working through the details of that now. I know Nolan Hill as well is interested in it.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2514.925, "end": 2546.505, "text": "Okay, excellent. Um yeah, I noticed that the quote was actually from my community in uh CAKER, so they love it. I also saw that Royal Oak Estates, another one of my communities has it, and Valley Ridge. Um and the feedback that I'm getting from it is like it's a great volunteer run program. A lot of passionate people in the community are taking care of it and appreciate that you guys um Organize that for them. And so thank you. So yeah, I uh I I support this and uh encourage my colleagues to as well. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2549.365, "end": 2570.605, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Tyres. Having three communities will give you the right to move this when the time comes. Um y so I put myself at the last. Every I don't see anyone else. Just a couple questions for clarification. MGA doesn't allow community associations to collect the taxation. We collect on their behalf and pass it on to community associations.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2570.605, "end": 2579.045, "text": "Yeah, it it's it's for the municipality. So the municipality has this option to be able to support groups for these specific reasons.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2579.045, "end": 2583.565, "text": "It's not the money that we charge. We are just men, if you want.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_00", "start": 2583.565, "end": 2585.265, "text": "Exactly. It's it's a separate.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2585.345, "end": 2597.245, "text": "Yeah. And we do keep our administration fee to administration. Okay, perfect. Just wanted to clarify. Okay, great. Um so with that, I'll uh go to Councillor tires to move this item.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2598.505, "end": 2599.745, "text": "So moved. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2602.205, "end": 2606.165, "text": "Any debate? I don't see any. You want to close?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 2608.505, "end": 2609.025, "text": "Closed.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2636.185, "end": 2640.965, "text": "We're waiting for East Scribe. Can we do the voice vote instead? Oh, it's okay, it's good.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 2659.365, "end": 2674.865, "text": "The that first vote didn't didn't take. Councillor Clark, your vote please. Yes. Thank you. Chair, all the votes are in.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2675.605, "end": 2692.905, "text": "Thank you. Can we display the votes, please? That is carried seven nothing. Thank you, colleagues, and thank you for your presentation and answering all the questions. We go to item 7.3 Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta grant application.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 2711.365, "end": 2781.345, "text": "Uh good morning. Uh my name is Tom Jukes. I'm one of the Assistant Deputy Chiefs of Operation with the Calgary Fire Department. I'm joined today by my colleagues Aaron Corgon, who's an issue strategist with Calgary Fire Department, and Mary Keppernchenko-Hill, who's our quality assurance and accreditation manager. We don't have a presentation today for you. We're here uh with the report that was submitted um seeking uh council support uh for a grant that we are submitting. Uh so the community development committee recommends that council support the application to the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta under the FireSmart program for up to $200,000 to support a citywide wildland fire public aid public safety education campaign. To provide a bit more context, what we're wanting to do, uh we already have a very uh well-established uh wildland fire both program, uh both with regards to response as well as community education. We're trying to adapt those materials and make some very specific resources to uh the city of Calgary uh to better inform communities and be able to work with communities we've identified as high risk. Um, and as part of that grant application, we do require support of council for that. Uh I'll gladly answer any questions.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2785.245, "end": 2845.705, "text": "There's no presentation, but uh Uh there may may be questions. Um you can get into the queue, but we need to go to public section and invite anyone who's in the gallery or online uh if they they wish to speak to this item. Hear none, seeing none, we'll uh close the public portion. Uh thank you for your presentation. Uh before I go to questions, if it's okay, colleagues, if we can go to Councillor Clark, as he's uh he's limited on time, he has a school in uh in the audience. So before I go to Councillor Clark, Councillor Clark, do you mind turning on your camera? Because we want to show your face to the class here. So I'm gonna pass on. Yeah, if you can go ahead and introduce the class and yeah.", "segments_merged": 11 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2848.145, "end": 2876.005, "text": "Uh pardon me, my uh committee colleagues, and to the students visiting uh today, but I do not have any notes uh in front of me as to who's there to to see us. So but it's quite nice to to see you and uh and like I'm on my way to Quebec City to visit our sister city on official City of Calgary business, and uh and that's why I'm not there today. So I do apologize to miss you, but I hope you have a wonderful time.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2876.045, "end": 2889.905, "text": "So, Council Clark, we can help you here if you want to say a couple of words. This is a Sherwood School, group number two. These students, amazing students. There are 20 of them from grade five, and they're led by Christine Kerrick, who's their teacher.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2892.125, "end": 2895.925, "text": "Hello, Sherwood School. I'm so glad you can make it to City Hall.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2896.865, "end": 2901.245, "text": "You want to ask them to stand so we can give them a round of applause.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2901.905, "end": 2910.125, "text": "Would you please stand so that you can be recognized by my council colleagues in the chamber? Right on.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2913.745, "end": 2926.825, "text": "Welcome to our community development committee. Thank you, Councillor Clark. And uh the the big question do you want to talk to this before you leave? Their big question is where do I belong in Calgary? That's a great heavy question.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2930.425, "end": 2931.765, "text": "Is that a question for me?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2931.765, "end": 2936.065, "text": "You can talk to the class. What do you think about it while you're here, right?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 2936.725, "end": 2960.265, "text": "My efforts to the class from Sherwood today, the efforts we're trying to make here with my council colleagues is so that you feel welcome and as though you belong everywhere in this city, because that's that's our biggest and and most important priority. And uh I just want to make sure that you know that uh to us, you know, you do belong everywhere in this city. And we'll do everything we can to make that feel true.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 2961.305, "end": 2992.185, "text": "That's an amazing answer. Thank you so much, Councillor Clark, for doing that. And students, once again, welcome to City Hall. This City Hall belongs to you. You guys are the future champions and leaders of this city. And today's topic that you're gonna hear is uh we are applying for a grant to provincial government 200,000 uh for the wildfires. Uh so uh you guys can listen to this. Thank you, Councillor Clark. You can turn off your camera if you wish. Thank you. And have a safe trip. We will go to Councillor Kelly.", "segments_merged": 4 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 2993.805, "end": 3009.145, "text": "Uh thank you very much. Just a quick question. So we're applying for the grant for $200,000 and you need council permission to be able to do that. Just want to A confirm that. And then B, uh if you're not successful in the grant, will you still be going forward with the program?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3009.905, "end": 3052.085, "text": "Uh yeah, so that's a great question. Uh so through the chair to uh Councillor Kelly, um we're the grant is up to $200,000. We're actually only applying for $25,000 uh for this for this year. Um if we are not successful in the grant application, we will still be moving ahead uh with our regular wildfire public education. Uh what will not be able to happen is uh to reach the expansion. So these funds are gonna allow us to expand the program, for example, to convert some materials so they're multilingual, uh, to expand some of our social media targeted to specific areas and just have some more general overall outreach to areas that we deem high risk because they're either uh in that forest area or or adjacent to.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 3052.285, "end": 3059.965, "text": "Got it. And the uh uh the base funding that you currently have for the program is supported through the regular uh uh city budget, correct?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3060.005, "end": 3061.905, "text": "Yes, through the fire services budget. That's correct.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_08", "start": 3062.085, "end": 3063.085, "text": "Thank you. No questions.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3064.265, "end": 3066.825, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Kelly. Over to Councillor Johnston.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3071.705, "end": 3075.325, "text": "This um in collaboration with FireSmart Alberta,", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3077.585, "end": 3107.205, "text": "Yes. So through the chair to Councillor Johnson, yes, this is in collaboration with uh Fire Smart Alberta as part of the grant application. We've been in touch with them again to have a letter of endorsement and also working with Alberta Forestry to make sure endorsing. One area we are very well aware of and working closely with Fire Smart Alberta is uh we will be modifying some of their literature so to make sure that we're being respectful and uh make sure that we're not changing literature in a way that's gonna impact them or branding it under their brand and making sure that's specific to the city of Calgary.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3108.865, "end": 3115.405, "text": "but they will also be doing similar um outreach, right?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3115.705, "end": 3139.605, "text": "So through the chair uh to councillor Johnson, uh no they won't. So Fire Fire Smart Alberta is the best way to look at it is an overarching resource that Cal Ray Fire Department, like many other fire departments, utilize. They do have online campaigns and different initiatives that that are available to the public as well as fire service. However, they don't go out in the same manner that a Calgary Fire would uh joining community events or doing door knocking or things such as that.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3140.425, "end": 3145.325, "text": "And do you find that the current outreach or if we were to expand this has been successful?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3145.765, "end": 3211.865, "text": "Yes, so we've had some early engagements. For example, we participated last year in Discovery Ridge at a community event. So far, every time we've connected with the community has been quite impactful. The one thing that's a little bit different with Fire Smart literature, it looks at the province as a whole. And wildfire risk throughout the province is very different, depending if you're in the northern part of the province, backing onto some of the Boreal Forests and things such as that. One of the areas that we really want to be able to do is looking at the city of Calrie, which is a very unique environment. A lot of the Fire Smart literature is very good literature and provides great recommendations, but it doesn't quite align with some of our grasslands. As well as when we look at some of our communities, oftentimes people feel that they're most at risk because they're backing onto the forest area. And people living within those communities, a block, two blocks, three blocks away that aren't backing onto the forest don't always recognize that they themselves are in that hazard area and really being able to provide recommendations based off our landscape, our topography in areas that are very city of Calgary specific, using the great work that FireSmart's already completed, but just enhancing it to make sure it aligns with the needs of Calgaryans.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3213.365, "end": 3217.985, "text": "Does the Calgary Fire Department um have a mascot like Smokey the Bear?", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3218.325, "end": 3223.125, "text": "Uh so we we use S Sparky, uh is the mascot for the Cowry Cowrie Fire Department.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3223.125, "end": 3225.005, "text": "Sparky the Bobcat or", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3225.205, "end": 3225.985, "text": "Spark of the dog.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3225.985, "end": 3230.945, "text": "a dog? Okay. Delmation. Okay. Um okay, those are my questions. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3231.765, "end": 3239.165, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Johnston. That was an amazing question. That's we all, I think, learned something there. Thank you. Over to Councillor Tyres.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 3239.725, "end": 3253.485, "text": "Uh yeah, just one question. Um you're talking about the high risk wildland urban interface communities that you're focused on. Can you give us some examples of which communities specifically are close enough to these uh force?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3253.685, "end": 3286.305, "text": "Yes, uh so through the chair to uh Council Starks. Um we we have a list of our top ten communities. Uh we constantly are doing regular wildland updates uh using things such as uh call responses and historical data as well as doing ongoing assessments of everything from pathways and access to water uh to how the forest is changing. Um, some of our higher at risk communities are the communities of Cranson, Discovery Ridge, uh Douglasdale, Edgemont, Haskane, uh, Inglewood, Sage Hill, Silver Springs, Tuscany, and Wildwood are our top 10 communities that this campaign would really be focusing on.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_02", "start": 3287.865, "end": 3288.565, "text": "Thank you very much.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3290.185, "end": 3292.185, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Tyres. Over to Councillor Ewell.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 3292.585, "end": 3307.005, "text": "Yeah, you you kind of already touched on it, um, but just uh you know it's labeled forest resource improvement, um, but uh we can use that for grasslands because we Calgary is very much a grasslands city.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3307.445, "end": 3330.025, "text": "Yes, so through the chair of the council. Yes, 100%. So although it's through forestry, we only touch a very small portion of the Calgary Forest area area, specifically to our our west southwest quadrant of the city, mostly to the lands that are connected with Soutina. But yes, we can use that for grassland and our, I guess, urban areas with within the city that don't fall under the forest protection area.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_09", "start": 3330.345, "end": 3338.805, "text": "Yeah, 'cause I know we we get lots of grass fires on on Nose Hill and um so yeah, wanna make sure that we're covering that. So nope, looks good. Thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3340.525, "end": 3350.405, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Ewell. I don't see anyone else in the queue. I got a couple things. What year, like how many years uh we've been like applying and getting grant for this program?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3350.725, "end": 3382.445, "text": "So I believe this is our first, this is our first year. Sorry, through through the chair, this is our first year applying for this grant. Um Calgary Fire is increasingly over the last five years really put a lot of efforts to expanding our ability both to respond appropriately to wildland emergencies as well as recognizing the public expects, and we have ownership to make sure that we're providing the best educational material similar to what we've done and expanded with smoke alarm programs, uh escape plans, things such as that. This is that next evolution uh of that uh to be able to grow.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3382.865, "end": 3388.005, "text": "Then there's other municipalities, maybe mostly rural municipalities who apply for this grant.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3388.245, "end": 3427.965, "text": "Yes, that is correct. There is other municipalities that do apply. One thing to note, we have been in contact and received endorsement from Soutina Nation, specifically just as some of these forest areas do share with. And hopefully in future years, this is something that we create a Calgary-specific literature and information. We like to support our neighboring municipalities. And if it's information that works well in Calgary, again, being a good larger fire service, it's really important that we work with those smaller fire services that may not have the opportunity or the resources to be able to share what we've learned in our program, to be able to support them because ultimately a fire that happens in Rocky View could actually end up impacting the city of Calgary and vice versa.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3428.245, "end": 3461.425, "text": "Great. Thank you for answering all those questions. And when we look at we we've been talking about water a lot. Source water management plan. Wildfires are actually identified as one of the top risks to our source water. So I'm glad we are doing more of that education piece. Council, uh sorry, committee, um, I'm guilty of this, but if you allow, give me a latitude, I gotta ask one question if you allow me. How can communities or these students can invite Sparky the dog to their events?", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3461.625, "end": 3508.165, "text": "Yeah, so that's a fabulous um question. So Cowrie Fire obviously does everything possible, support communities, and have uh outreach. Um, we utilize the 311 system for a lot of our community connection, uh, both that allows us to track both from a statistical standpoint, but also to make sure that our public engagement calendar is supporting communities while still ensuring we have the ability to respond. I highly encourage anybody to reach out through 311 and request what the community event is. The other part is we we really push our firefighters well out in the community. We're always available, nobody's involved. So to the students and to any Calgaryans listening, if you see a fire truck out, by all means, please feel welcome to stop, talk to the crew, ask questions, ask for a tour of the truck. Or if you're just in your community, feel free to ring the doorbell and stop in a station, uh, and the crews will gladly give you a tour or answer any of your questions.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3508.725, "end": 3540.985, "text": "That's an amazing, amazing answer. Thank you. And students 311, ask your parents if you want them to meet the Sparky. And Councillor Johnston, you will get a chance to meet Sparky at the Scalrified Department's Tempe barbecue. So Yes. Thank you so much for answering all the questions. With that, I'm looking for a mover on this item. Who? Okay. Okay, uh Councillor uh Atkinson was first, so I'll go to Councillor Atkinson.", "segments_merged": 5 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_05", "start": 3542.985, "end": 3555.125, "text": "Moved. It's uh sounds like a a great initiative and glad to see we're we're leaning into delivering this in in other languages so it's more accessible to Calgarians. Wherever they're at.", "segments_merged": 2 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3556.185, "end": 3557.565, "text": "Great, thank you. Any debate?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3559.265, "end": 3559.605, "text": "Sorry.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3559.805, "end": 3560.785, "text": "Go ahead, Councillor Johnson.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3560.845, "end": 3575.865, "text": "Um just on the Calgary Fire website, um there there's already handouts in uh eight different languages already. So what what's different about what you're proposing?", "segments_merged": 6 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_04", "start": 3576.285, "end": 3620.625, "text": "Through the chair to Councillor Johnson. So the information that's on the Calgary Fire website, and by all means my counterparts, if I say something correct, please correct me, is very specific to other other initiatives. This is us enhancing FireSmart literature and creating new literature specific to Calgarians based off the FireSmart uh material. So as an example, a lot of the FireSmart material speaks to zones around your your your home. Again, if you think of areas like Slave Lake where people are living living more rurally on acreages, where that's not something that's possible within the city of Calgary and the municipal environment. So it's looking at changing some of that. And as a big piece of that, it's making sure that that literature is available to people of multiple uh languages. Yeah.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_03", "start": 3621.925, "end": 3622.665, "text": "Okay, thank you.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3625.145, "end": 3631.265, "text": "Any other debate? I don't see it any. Uh Councillor Atkinson to close.", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "Councillor M. Atkinson", "start": 3631.925, "end": 3632.245, "text": "Close", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3633.485, "end": 3636.325, "text": "Thank you, Councillor Atkinson. Can we go to Eastcribe to vote, please?", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 3649.425, "end": 3650.545, "text": "Councillor Clark, your vote please.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "Councillor H. Clark", "start": 3651.945, "end": 3652.425, "text": "Yes.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 3653.145, "end": 3654.425, "text": "Thank you. Chair, all the votes are in.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3654.845, "end": 3669.365, "text": "Thank you. Can we display the votes, please? That's carried seven nothing. Thank you once again for your presentation and answering all those questions. Clerks, can you confirm this is the end of our agenda for today?", "segments_merged": 3 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_06", "start": 3671.425, "end": 3674.365, "text": "Chair, I can confirm that is the last item on your agenda for today.", "segments_merged": 1 }, { "speaker": "SPEAKER_01", "start": 3674.645, "end": 3708.145, "text": "Okay, before I go to adjournment, Council Clark, have a safe trip and thank you for representing our city uh at uh at Quebec Festival. Thank you all the best. With that, can I get you my friends? Can I get someone to adjourn? Councillor Kelly to adjourn. Anyone opposed to it? Seeing hearing none, that motion is carried. We are adjourned. And great work, Council uh committee. This is for this uh term, our term, this is record. So great. Thank you. With that we are returned.", "segments_merged": 4 } ], "full_text": "Uh administration, clerks, uh people in the gallery, people on the phone online, welcome to February CDC meeting. Um we'll start with the roll call. Thank you, clerks. Thank you, Chair, to confirm quorum. Councillor Tyres? Thank you. Councillor Atkinson. Thank you. Councillor Clark. Present. Thank you. Councillor Johnson. Here. Thank you. Councillor Kelly. Present. Thank you. Councillor Ewell. Thank you. Councillor Shabot. Councillor Jameson. Councillor McClain. Councillor Pantasopoulos. Councillor Schmidt. Councillor Ward. Councillor Ennis. Chair Farkas. And Chair Dolegal. I'm here. Thank you. Chair, we do have quorum. Thank you, clerks. I'm gonna go over to Councillor Atkinson. Thank you for volunteering for the land acknowledgement. My pleasure. Oki, Ambawastich, Danitara, Tanshe. Indigenous peoples have their own names for this area that have been in use long before settlers came to call this place Calgary. In the Blackfoot language, it is called Mokinstis. The Iythka Nakota Wiscabe nation refers to this place as Winchispa Oyade, and the people of the Tsutina Nation call it Guts. The Metis call this area Otis Kwane. We appreciate and acknowledge that we are gathered on the ancestral territory of the Blackfoot nations, the Sigziga, Bigani, and Guinei First Nations, the Ithka, Nodi, Wiscabe First Nations, comprised of the Chinniki, Bearspaw, and Good Stoney First Nations, and the Tsutina First Nation. The city of Calgary is also homeland to the historic Northwest Metis, to the Ote Pimsuwak, Metis Government, Metis Nation Battle Rival 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. Thank sorry, yeah. Thank you, Councillor Atkinson. Um, you know, it's hard, uh, but we start today's meeting. With a broken heart. Cameron, Cosorso, J.G. Wright, and Caden Finn, three young kids, budding hockey stars, were killed in a car accident near near Staveley, Alberta. It's devastating. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends, and neighbors. As a committee here, we also stand in solidarity with the entire Southern Alberta Mustang community. So with that sad news. Once again, our condolences are with all those who are affected. We will go to confirmation of agenda. Can Councillor Atkinson can you move agenda, please? Moved. Thank you. We will go to confirmation of minutes. Councillor Ewell, can you move minutes? Thank you. Nothing on consent. Clerks, I think we can go to item number seven point one. Oh sorry, two. That's correct. There's no items on consent, so committee can go right to item 7.2. Thank you. 7.2 is community investment into community parks. Council committee. Let's stay on very tight on our questions, to the point, on topic. We have a colleague who's online who's heading to our sister city to represent our great city of Calgary. And I think he's gotta be at the airport by 11. So hopefully we can uh wrap this up uh so he can make his way to the airport. With that, we'll go to the presentation. Thank you. Good morning, Chair Dollywell and members of committee. My name is Allison Fifield. I'm Community Parks Initiative's Lead for Parks and Open Spaces. I'm here today to present the 2026 Special Tax Bylaw, which aims to support community investment into our parks. Under the Municipal Government Act, special tax levy can be added to homes for local infrastructure or community enhancements. This park special tax bylaw serves as a funding source for communities without an existing funding source, such as caveat on title. The funds collected are directly invested into the boulevards, parks, and open spaces in these neighborhoods. This program is community-driven, requiring two-thirds or 66.7% majority agreement to implement. Once approved, we collect the funds, pass them on to community organization who manages the work. Before I proceed, I must apologize, there was an error. Attachment number two included through eScribe was an older version. I believe Clerks has an updated attachment two. The only difference is we're always looking to be more transparent and make sure we're being very specific. So we work with law a lot on this, and so we decided to move away from the map and to actual addresses so that we're talking about the parcel. So that's that's the main difference, the only difference really. Next slide, please. Previous council direction. Thanks to council approval, we have supported the community-led initiative since the inception in 1996 with Christie Park and its formal adoption by council in 2002. This funding method allows property owners to invest in enhanced landscape and winter maintenance activities in their communities. The reason I'm here today and why you'll see me every year is that the MGA requires council to approve the updated special tax bylaw annually. Next slide, please. So the recommendations before you are that the Community Development Committee forward the report to the February 24th regular meeting of Council. And that the Community Development Committee recommends that Council give three readings to the proposed 2026 Special Tax Bylaw 2M2026 attachment to. Next slide. Council has the authority to approve and apply special tax bylaw to raise revenue for specific services or purposes, including boulevard tax or recreational services tax under Section 382 of the MGA. Approval of this special tax bylaw allows communities to raise funds for activities related to enhanced landscape maintenance activities beyond the base service level done by the city. These activities can include mowing, trimming, tree well, shrub, flower bed maintenance, litter control, snow and ice maintenance. The services and activities executed in each committee were identified as a priority for that community and outlined in the initial community petition that was then voted on and requires the 66.7% agreement. Next slide. The process with community reaching the process starts with the community reaching out to my team. For information on the program. We then support them as they demonstrate community support through a petition or vote. Once they have confirmed their community support and we've validated it, we can add them to the next annual special tax levy bylaw that council will need to approve in Q1 of that year. This ensures the funds will be collected through the standard tax process. During this time, my team also has the community enter into an agreement to ensure the base service level will match every other community. So they will still ensure that they meet what Parks currently does, and then they can go above and beyond that. We support these groups each year as they engage their community to promote the program and through a reaffirmation vote every five years. Special tax levy was established as a tool to support communities that do not have the ability to generate these funds. These funds are used to invest in landscaping, horticulture, and beautification in their neighborhoods and contribute to the overall organizational health. of community partners by providing a sustainable funding source. Additionally, special tax levies contribute to the local economy as each community hires its own contractors or staff supporting local businesses and sourcing products locally. Next slide please. As you can see in the chart of attachment three, there are currently 12 communities that participate in special tax levy program. These special tax levy communities make up less than half of the communities that participate in what we call the Enhanced Landscape Maintenance Program. As mentioned, a small portion, this is a small portion of the Elm, Enhanced Landscape Maintenance Program, that utilizes these funds. All of the other communities are able to generate their own funds because when the developers built it, they put a caveat on title. And so they have an RRA typically residence association or a HOA. Thank you. Those communities that do not um sorry if this is not approved today, these twelve communities expecting these funds will have no funds to pay for their planned 2026 work. This may mean they will default on agreements with contractors that they have in place. It would also mean that these groups would no longer be able to participate in the ALM program. There's currently one community, Mackenzie Lake. I always have to kind of note because they're the only outlier with this group, they only use their money for winter maintenance. So they're in a snow and ice, so their special tax levy money goes there. So if the special tax bylaw is approved today, the total additional 2026 investment provided by 26,845 property owners will be over 1.7 million into Calgary's Parks and Open Spaces. I would like to highlight a recent note we received from a homeowner. They just said, I wanted to reach out and tell you how much I enjoy and appreciate the beautiful additions to landscape my compute community. It is very apparent that a great deal of planning consideration goes into the program. The special tax at $61.80 per household is money well spent. So it's a Scenic Acres homeowner. And I think that's the key. It's all community driven, and they have to make sure that the community is still still approves of it. Next slide, please. So how can I start? As I mentioned earlier, communities reach out to my team, start the process. Communities do not have to use This is typically only ones that don't have caveat on title. I know we've talked in the past. They could possibly do special tax levy, but there's really usually no reason for one that doesn't have or a group that already has caveat on title. We have to determine if they have capacity to manage this because it is a it's probably our most resource-intensive program. Parks offers a suite of options for people wanting to do work in parks, and this is probably the one that requires the most work. And then they have we work with them to support to demonstrate community support. So, like I mentioned, currently this is done through a community wide petition, which is significant undertaking considering the number of properties, communication methods, and level of volunteer support needed to complete a petition. Next slide. Uh next slide. I think I had two of the same. There you go. Another um question we receive often is there Kent, how do we stop a special tax levy? So there's four ways. Council could remove specific community special tax levy from the bylaw, or they could not approve or rescind the special tax bylaw, and that would impact all communities if they rescinded. The second way is community based organizations choose to discontinue the special tax levy and submit notice to terminate with the city. Third way is a sufficient community-wide petition to remove the tax levy is submitted to the city and validated and then brought to council. And finally, the community based organization fails to receive adequate homeowner support. So this goes back to what I mentioned about the every five years there's a reaffirmation vote. We have to make sure that there's still that support. Next slide. That concludes my remarks for today. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you for the presentation. Before we go to uh questions, uh We're gonna open public speaking uh here. Anyone here in the chamber online or on the phone who would like to speak to this item? Go second, third. We don't hear none, see none. We're gonna end the public speaking portion. And now we will go to questions, Councillor Cali. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. It's great. It was really nice to be able to see this as like one of the first things that we as a committee are really taking a look at. In Ward 4, uh Edgemont is one of the communities, and I've heard nothing but great things about their Anlis program from the community association. They're huge fans. Just a couple of questions more for me than anything else. Just um around the special tax levy, do we have to do this every year? Is there a way for us to be able to do this for a period of multiple years? Uh through the chair, thank you for the question, Councillor Kelly. It is annually. We have looked a number of times to see if there's another way because it really is a wash, rinse, repeat sort of situation, but it is a requirement to come because it's a bylaw, and then it also can't be on consent because it has to go to council for the three readings. So it's it's one of the more um onerous pieces required through the MGA. The MGA has certain requirements, and that's like probably the biggest one for special tax levy in particular. And so there's nothing in the MGA if we wanted to uh approve a tax levy for two years or four years or something like that. Unfortunately, no. Okay, that's fair. Uh you're from the parks, an open spaces team, but I recognize the fact that this uh uh the special tax levy covers multiple city services. Um I'm just wondering if you can speak to that. Like we only have uh, I think it's however many are are specifically about parks, but one is about snow and ice control. I'm just wondering if you can sort of speak to like why is this coming from parks and not from a yeah. Very fair question. So pathways used to be under parks pre-realignment. And so we used to do the SNIC or the snow and ice control agreements and sign them through our management. We have offered to continue to work. We work with mobility and make sure that mobility understands what the community is asking for and has that all documented, and it's mobility that signs off on it now. So it's just more of a collaboration because we're both working in the communities and it's one way in to be able to support those communities in a better way. And is this managed out of the Parks and Open Spaces team? Yep, so on my team I have a strategist and a field operations person who support the Elm program and various other programs, and then I have two contract coordinators as well to support this work. So there is potential other city services that could be petitioned for, but as it stands right now, it makes sense within your team because that's what Elms is primarily what people are asking for. Yeah. Okay. I wonder if you could just what are the definitions around community boundary? Specifically, I'm I'm wondering in terms of like, is it neighborhood? Uh what I'm getting at here is sort of two examples, and I'll use Word4 as an ex as a hypothetical example. We have uh we use Edgemont as an ex uh as an example. They have multiple sort of mini neighborhoods, if you will, within there. Is there an ability within? that like is it about neighborhood? Is it about community association or is it about the the 66% of people within that particular area? And then one other one example in Ward 4 as well is we have uh we have two neighborhoods represented by one community association. And so I'm just sort of curious what that Yep. So the boundary I would say is determined for at petition, at time of petition. And so when I think of those neighborhoods, the It c it typically is one group leading it. So even to what you talked about, the two communities have one group managing it. So they enter into the agreement even though they kind of work together. And so right now, and as of 2018, council had endorsed moving the Elm program to be the complete community. Prior to that, you'll see like Christie Park is only one median or one boulevard. And so there's different communities that are a little bit different. But in in time for Edgemont, we determined that we wanted the Elm program to encompass the entire community so that there wasn't haves and have-nots. That being said, we're looking into because this is a common thing where there's multiple uh HOAs or RAs and trying to figure out a way to make that work where they can kind of come together and work on that together. So we are in the process of reviewing the Elm program to see how we can better support that. I know there's one, um, I think it's in Ward 12 that has four HOAs in one small neighborhood. And so we need to be able to enter into an agreement with one group and have them kind of manage it and work together. And that kind of leads me to the next related question. Is just can you define group in this particular case? Like can a like a group of neighbors get together, like all the people on one street? They have to be a duly organized society. So a C A H A H R H O A or R A. And so we for the Elm program, it's not an individual that can participate. It has to be a group. They have insurance, they have all the requirements to ensure our liabilities are kind of covered off there. And if it was more of an individual looking to do things, then we have things like adopt a park, adopt a rink, a variety of other opportunities for groups, if they're individuals in particular. Perfect. And then last question for me is just uh around the engagement for the two thirds to begin with. Um obviously, in terms of the presentation of the program, this is very focused on homeowners. Um I'm wondering if you can speak to what that engagement looks like for residents of an area who may not be a homeowner. So the requirement for special tax levy is that it's only the homeowner that can vote on it. And so renters would be engaged the same as any other group with signage out there or ability to attend an AGM and hear about what's going on in the community. Their vote though would not be included because it needs to be the property owner. And just in case there was, let's say, a one individual who owned multiple properties, they would only have one vote for that. And so that's how that works. So it's not one vote per property. It it's not if it's the same homeowner. Interesting. Yeah. And are all of those regulations defined in the MGA? None of that is city regulation. No. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate the question uh the answers. Uh thank you. Uh over to Councillor Yule. Um just talking about the level of support for a successful petition, uh d it was two thirds, is that the okay. And that's of all home or owners in that area or members of that HOA like It's of all the people included in the community, the boundary that's found. Yeah. Okay. Um and uh uh is it the same level to to to break that um It it is. So you'd need to do a petition. Um I kind of mentioned earlier we're doing a review of all these kind of programs to ensure because Councillor Kelly mentioned Edgemont was the last one to get into this program because it's very onerous. And so um right now we're looking at right now they could um Have a reaffirmation vote, and it could happen at an AGM, and the rule is 50 plus one, they require to keep going. But right now, the an AGM could only have 10 people. So you could have a very small number of people say that this is not working. And so this is actually one of the concerns of special tax levy communities that we're working on. So we're working on making sure that if something like that happened, they would have another year to engage to make sure that it's truly the will of the community, not just a small group of people that got together to kind of challenge it. um and then You talked about a base level of service, so their maintenance has to to to meet this the quality that the city in these in these areas we're not seeing any duplication of service. No, we work hard to avoid that. And so with that, they also receive the operating funds. And so the money that parks would have spent to do that base level service in that community, they receive. And so that's usually done in Q1 of each year. They receive that money and then all of the additional money, whether it comes from the Cave Down title or the special special tax levy, is where they kind of do the enhancements. Okay. So now now based on the communities that are subscribed to this, um they all kind of is it is it different by community on what like what those enhancements are? It it does. And it's funny because every I have to come back every year as I mentioned. And Councillor Carab was always big on can't we just pick, for instance, Mackenzie Lake is like five dollars. Can't we just increase by five dollars? Each of these communities are structured differently, they have different priorities. Some of them are not really looking for flowers or don't have the capacity for, so that's not something they're looking for. And so each of them pick what is the priority for their group and that's why you can see the different different prices. So Hamptons, for instance, is probably no, which one am I thinking? I'm thinking Royal Oak Estates is one of our highest. So they do more. And so it's a dis it's a dis a decision by the community what they want to do. Now uh in my area, um the previous Councillor, Councillor Mian, um uh did a report on uh signage for communities. Um is is this a type of levy that could be used to enhance the signage for communities? So this can only be used for landscape maintenance, and so we have to be very careful, and so we continuously work with the groups too to ensure that they're putting the money where it's supposed to per the MGA. I was involved in the community sign work as well. Very few of those community signs currently are on park space, but what parks does with those types of infrastructure, those hard infrastructure, if it's on park space, we have an optional amenity agreement. So typically with a developer, we would receive rehab and removal funds so that the taxpayers are held whole. But the problem that Councillor Meean brought up, and it's a very valid problem, is that these signs are getting older and there's not necessarily funds either through the community group or through the city to manage them currently. Okay. Just wanted to check in that. Um yeah, that's all my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Over to Councillor Tyres. Uh yeah, thanks for the presentation. Um okay, so I see that the proposed uh tax uh proposed revenue is one point seven eight million. Is that um how is that in comparison to like last year, year before? Yeah, so I think it's at the bottom. 2025 was one point one million seven hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine, and then this year is one million seven hundred eighty-seven six eighty-seven. So it's about twenty thousand more. Okay. And where that comes from is they are given the option to increase or decrease based on inflation by up to five percent. Okay. And so um yeah, so that just helps them when the costs increase, they're able to do that. Okay. And this is all just revenue collected from the tax from the tax levy. So once you guys collect it, that's put towards the program, there's no other money that goes towards it. N no, so it actually gets sent it gets delivered to the community group. So we collect it through the tax system and then each of the amount for each community. So if I was looking at Christie Park, they would have um Over $54,000, just a little bit over $54,000 then provided to them. We manage ensuring that the money is being used, as I mentioned to Councillor Ewell. They have to use it for landscape maintenance. There's some specifics around there. So we my team ensures that they kind of see the see the invoices, see those things to ensure it's being used properly. But yeah, it's the community that gets the money and uses the money then. Okay. And um do you have uh I guess any kind of information about any potential communities that want to bring this on or in reverse uh communities that want to get rid of it? We don't have communities that want to get rid of it. I would say that every September we do a letter of intent. The community does a letter of intent. And at that time they let them know about the inflation and how much it's going to be this year. And we've really updated that letter to ensure that the homeowners understand community. I would say we received maybe 10 inquiries, and every once in a while there's like three people saying, I want out of it, because they think they can just opt out of it on their own. And so at that time we provide them the various options that they could uh work on if they did want to work with the community to remove it. But um sorry, what was the second part of that? Oh, just like the the reverse your resonance. Yes. So we have had a few, and this is back to the program review. We've had a few. It's a very onerous project to try and get two-thirds voting or petition. So right now we're working with Sherwood. They've been actively trying to get into this for a while. And so we're hoping to pilot with them a new version of how we could do special tax levy. We're always trying to do that balance. We know counselors need to know that there's that community support, but we also know that the communities have to actually be able to achieve this. And so we're looking at possibly doing a vote instead of a petition and having a few more options. So we're just working through the details of that now. I know Nolan Hill as well is interested in it. Okay, excellent. Um yeah, I noticed that the quote was actually from my community in uh CAKER, so they love it. I also saw that Royal Oak Estates, another one of my communities has it, and Valley Ridge. Um and the feedback that I'm getting from it is like it's a great volunteer run program. A lot of passionate people in the community are taking care of it and appreciate that you guys um Organize that for them. And so thank you. So yeah, I uh I I support this and uh encourage my colleagues to as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Tyres. Having three communities will give you the right to move this when the time comes. Um y so I put myself at the last. Every I don't see anyone else. Just a couple questions for clarification. MGA doesn't allow community associations to collect the taxation. We collect on their behalf and pass it on to community associations. Yeah, it it's it's for the municipality. So the municipality has this option to be able to support groups for these specific reasons. It's not the money that we charge. We are just men, if you want. Exactly. It's it's a separate. Yeah. And we do keep our administration fee to administration. Okay, perfect. Just wanted to clarify. Okay, great. Um so with that, I'll uh go to Councillor tires to move this item. So moved. Thank you. Any debate? I don't see any. You want to close? Closed. We're waiting for East Scribe. Can we do the voice vote instead? Oh, it's okay, it's good. The that first vote didn't didn't take. Councillor Clark, your vote please. Yes. Thank you. Chair, all the votes are in. Thank you. Can we display the votes, please? That is carried seven nothing. Thank you, colleagues, and thank you for your presentation and answering all the questions. We go to item 7.3 Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta grant application. Uh good morning. Uh my name is Tom Jukes. I'm one of the Assistant Deputy Chiefs of Operation with the Calgary Fire Department. I'm joined today by my colleagues Aaron Corgon, who's an issue strategist with Calgary Fire Department, and Mary Keppernchenko-Hill, who's our quality assurance and accreditation manager. We don't have a presentation today for you. We're here uh with the report that was submitted um seeking uh council support uh for a grant that we are submitting. Uh so the community development committee recommends that council support the application to the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta under the FireSmart program for up to $200,000 to support a citywide wildland fire public aid public safety education campaign. To provide a bit more context, what we're wanting to do, uh we already have a very uh well-established uh wildland fire both program, uh both with regards to response as well as community education. We're trying to adapt those materials and make some very specific resources to uh the city of Calgary uh to better inform communities and be able to work with communities we've identified as high risk. Um, and as part of that grant application, we do require support of council for that. Uh I'll gladly answer any questions. There's no presentation, but uh Uh there may may be questions. Um you can get into the queue, but we need to go to public section and invite anyone who's in the gallery or online uh if they they wish to speak to this item. Hear none, seeing none, we'll uh close the public portion. Uh thank you for your presentation. Uh before I go to questions, if it's okay, colleagues, if we can go to Councillor Clark, as he's uh he's limited on time, he has a school in uh in the audience. So before I go to Councillor Clark, Councillor Clark, do you mind turning on your camera? Because we want to show your face to the class here. So I'm gonna pass on. Yeah, if you can go ahead and introduce the class and yeah. Uh pardon me, my uh committee colleagues, and to the students visiting uh today, but I do not have any notes uh in front of me as to who's there to to see us. So but it's quite nice to to see you and uh and like I'm on my way to Quebec City to visit our sister city on official City of Calgary business, and uh and that's why I'm not there today. So I do apologize to miss you, but I hope you have a wonderful time. So, Council Clark, we can help you here if you want to say a couple of words. This is a Sherwood School, group number two. These students, amazing students. There are 20 of them from grade five, and they're led by Christine Kerrick, who's their teacher. Hello, Sherwood School. I'm so glad you can make it to City Hall. You want to ask them to stand so we can give them a round of applause. Would you please stand so that you can be recognized by my council colleagues in the chamber? Right on. Welcome to our community development committee. Thank you, Councillor Clark. And uh the the big question do you want to talk to this before you leave? Their big question is where do I belong in Calgary? That's a great heavy question. Is that a question for me? You can talk to the class. What do you think about it while you're here, right? My efforts to the class from Sherwood today, the efforts we're trying to make here with my council colleagues is so that you feel welcome and as though you belong everywhere in this city, because that's that's our biggest and and most important priority. And uh I just want to make sure that you know that uh to us, you know, you do belong everywhere in this city. And we'll do everything we can to make that feel true. That's an amazing answer. Thank you so much, Councillor Clark, for doing that. And students, once again, welcome to City Hall. This City Hall belongs to you. You guys are the future champions and leaders of this city. And today's topic that you're gonna hear is uh we are applying for a grant to provincial government 200,000 uh for the wildfires. Uh so uh you guys can listen to this. Thank you, Councillor Clark. You can turn off your camera if you wish. Thank you. And have a safe trip. We will go to Councillor Kelly. Uh thank you very much. Just a quick question. So we're applying for the grant for $200,000 and you need council permission to be able to do that. Just want to A confirm that. And then B, uh if you're not successful in the grant, will you still be going forward with the program? Uh yeah, so that's a great question. Uh so through the chair to uh Councillor Kelly, um we're the grant is up to $200,000. We're actually only applying for $25,000 uh for this for this year. Um if we are not successful in the grant application, we will still be moving ahead uh with our regular wildfire public education. Uh what will not be able to happen is uh to reach the expansion. So these funds are gonna allow us to expand the program, for example, to convert some materials so they're multilingual, uh, to expand some of our social media targeted to specific areas and just have some more general overall outreach to areas that we deem high risk because they're either uh in that forest area or or adjacent to. Got it. And the uh uh the base funding that you currently have for the program is supported through the regular uh uh city budget, correct? Yes, through the fire services budget. That's correct. Thank you. No questions. Thank you, Councillor Kelly. Over to Councillor Johnston. This um in collaboration with FireSmart Alberta, Yes. So through the chair to Councillor Johnson, yes, this is in collaboration with uh Fire Smart Alberta as part of the grant application. We've been in touch with them again to have a letter of endorsement and also working with Alberta Forestry to make sure endorsing. One area we are very well aware of and working closely with Fire Smart Alberta is uh we will be modifying some of their literature so to make sure that we're being respectful and uh make sure that we're not changing literature in a way that's gonna impact them or branding it under their brand and making sure that's specific to the city of Calgary. but they will also be doing similar um outreach, right? So through the chair uh to councillor Johnson, uh no they won't. So Fire Fire Smart Alberta is the best way to look at it is an overarching resource that Cal Ray Fire Department, like many other fire departments, utilize. They do have online campaigns and different initiatives that that are available to the public as well as fire service. However, they don't go out in the same manner that a Calgary Fire would uh joining community events or doing door knocking or things such as that. And do you find that the current outreach or if we were to expand this has been successful? Yes, so we've had some early engagements. For example, we participated last year in Discovery Ridge at a community event. So far, every time we've connected with the community has been quite impactful. The one thing that's a little bit different with Fire Smart literature, it looks at the province as a whole. And wildfire risk throughout the province is very different, depending if you're in the northern part of the province, backing onto some of the Boreal Forests and things such as that. One of the areas that we really want to be able to do is looking at the city of Calrie, which is a very unique environment. A lot of the Fire Smart literature is very good literature and provides great recommendations, but it doesn't quite align with some of our grasslands. As well as when we look at some of our communities, oftentimes people feel that they're most at risk because they're backing onto the forest area. And people living within those communities, a block, two blocks, three blocks away that aren't backing onto the forest don't always recognize that they themselves are in that hazard area and really being able to provide recommendations based off our landscape, our topography in areas that are very city of Calgary specific, using the great work that FireSmart's already completed, but just enhancing it to make sure it aligns with the needs of Calgaryans. Does the Calgary Fire Department um have a mascot like Smokey the Bear? Uh so we we use S Sparky, uh is the mascot for the Cowry Cowrie Fire Department. Sparky the Bobcat or Spark of the dog. a dog? Okay. Delmation. Okay. Um okay, those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Johnston. That was an amazing question. That's we all, I think, learned something there. Thank you. Over to Councillor Tyres. Uh yeah, just one question. Um you're talking about the high risk wildland urban interface communities that you're focused on. Can you give us some examples of which communities specifically are close enough to these uh force? Yes, uh so through the chair to uh Council Starks. Um we we have a list of our top ten communities. Uh we constantly are doing regular wildland updates uh using things such as uh call responses and historical data as well as doing ongoing assessments of everything from pathways and access to water uh to how the forest is changing. Um, some of our higher at risk communities are the communities of Cranson, Discovery Ridge, uh Douglasdale, Edgemont, Haskane, uh, Inglewood, Sage Hill, Silver Springs, Tuscany, and Wildwood are our top 10 communities that this campaign would really be focusing on. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Tyres. Over to Councillor Ewell. Yeah, you you kind of already touched on it, um, but just uh you know it's labeled forest resource improvement, um, but uh we can use that for grasslands because we Calgary is very much a grasslands city. Yes, so through the chair of the council. Yes, 100%. So although it's through forestry, we only touch a very small portion of the Calgary Forest area area, specifically to our our west southwest quadrant of the city, mostly to the lands that are connected with Soutina. But yes, we can use that for grassland and our, I guess, urban areas with within the city that don't fall under the forest protection area. Yeah, 'cause I know we we get lots of grass fires on on Nose Hill and um so yeah, wanna make sure that we're covering that. So nope, looks good. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Ewell. I don't see anyone else in the queue. I got a couple things. What year, like how many years uh we've been like applying and getting grant for this program? So I believe this is our first, this is our first year. Sorry, through through the chair, this is our first year applying for this grant. Um Calgary Fire is increasingly over the last five years really put a lot of efforts to expanding our ability both to respond appropriately to wildland emergencies as well as recognizing the public expects, and we have ownership to make sure that we're providing the best educational material similar to what we've done and expanded with smoke alarm programs, uh escape plans, things such as that. This is that next evolution uh of that uh to be able to grow. Then there's other municipalities, maybe mostly rural municipalities who apply for this grant. Yes, that is correct. There is other municipalities that do apply. One thing to note, we have been in contact and received endorsement from Soutina Nation, specifically just as some of these forest areas do share with. And hopefully in future years, this is something that we create a Calgary-specific literature and information. We like to support our neighboring municipalities. And if it's information that works well in Calgary, again, being a good larger fire service, it's really important that we work with those smaller fire services that may not have the opportunity or the resources to be able to share what we've learned in our program, to be able to support them because ultimately a fire that happens in Rocky View could actually end up impacting the city of Calgary and vice versa. Great. Thank you for answering all those questions. And when we look at we we've been talking about water a lot. Source water management plan. Wildfires are actually identified as one of the top risks to our source water. So I'm glad we are doing more of that education piece. Council, uh sorry, committee, um, I'm guilty of this, but if you allow, give me a latitude, I gotta ask one question if you allow me. How can communities or these students can invite Sparky the dog to their events? Yeah, so that's a fabulous um question. So Cowrie Fire obviously does everything possible, support communities, and have uh outreach. Um, we utilize the 311 system for a lot of our community connection, uh, both that allows us to track both from a statistical standpoint, but also to make sure that our public engagement calendar is supporting communities while still ensuring we have the ability to respond. I highly encourage anybody to reach out through 311 and request what the community event is. The other part is we we really push our firefighters well out in the community. We're always available, nobody's involved. So to the students and to any Calgaryans listening, if you see a fire truck out, by all means, please feel welcome to stop, talk to the crew, ask questions, ask for a tour of the truck. Or if you're just in your community, feel free to ring the doorbell and stop in a station, uh, and the crews will gladly give you a tour or answer any of your questions. That's an amazing, amazing answer. Thank you. And students 311, ask your parents if you want them to meet the Sparky. And Councillor Johnston, you will get a chance to meet Sparky at the Scalrified Department's Tempe barbecue. So Yes. Thank you so much for answering all the questions. With that, I'm looking for a mover on this item. Who? Okay. Okay, uh Councillor uh Atkinson was first, so I'll go to Councillor Atkinson. Moved. It's uh sounds like a a great initiative and glad to see we're we're leaning into delivering this in in other languages so it's more accessible to Calgarians. Wherever they're at. Great, thank you. Any debate? Sorry. Go ahead, Councillor Johnson. Um just on the Calgary Fire website, um there there's already handouts in uh eight different languages already. So what what's different about what you're proposing? Through the chair to Councillor Johnson. So the information that's on the Calgary Fire website, and by all means my counterparts, if I say something correct, please correct me, is very specific to other other initiatives. This is us enhancing FireSmart literature and creating new literature specific to Calgarians based off the FireSmart uh material. So as an example, a lot of the FireSmart material speaks to zones around your your your home. Again, if you think of areas like Slave Lake where people are living living more rurally on acreages, where that's not something that's possible within the city of Calgary and the municipal environment. So it's looking at changing some of that. And as a big piece of that, it's making sure that that literature is available to people of multiple uh languages. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Any other debate? I don't see it any. Uh Councillor Atkinson to close. Close Thank you, Councillor Atkinson. Can we go to Eastcribe to vote, please? Councillor Clark, your vote please. Yes. Thank you. Chair, all the votes are in. Thank you. Can we display the votes, please? That's carried seven nothing. Thank you once again for your presentation and answering all those questions. Clerks, can you confirm this is the end of our agenda for today? Chair, I can confirm that is the last item on your agenda for today. Okay, before I go to adjournment, Council Clark, have a safe trip and thank you for representing our city uh at uh at Quebec Festival. Thank you all the best. With that, can I get you my friends? Can I get someone to adjourn? Councillor Kelly to adjourn. Anyone opposed to it? Seeing hearing none, that motion is carried. We are adjourned. And great work, Council uh committee. This is for this uh term, our term, this is record. So great. Thank you. 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