A former member of city council says before the city seeks more cash from the province, it needs to demonstrate money already received was well spent.

Alberta Transportation Minister, Ric McIver, tells The Calgary Sun the province always takes into account the previous spending records of municipalities when hammering out new funding deals.

The Chair of Calgary’s Finance Committee, Alderman Gord Lowe, is not impressed with McIver’s comments.

Lowe tells 660News McIver and his provincial colleagues should review their own spending habits.

The debate over the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on public art initiatives is what brought the issue of political accountability to the forefront.

The City of Calgary, like many other centres in North America, has a policy of allocating one per cent of an infrastructure project’s budget to public art.

Lowe says in the case of the west leg of the LRT, they could have put aside more than $10-million, but at the moment only $8.5-million is committed.

The matter is currently under review, and that figure could be reduced to $3.5-million.
 
Lowe says the last thing he wants is to live in a grey, boring city.