City Hall ponders options through economic uncertainty

From staying the course on infrastructure projects to streamlining departments to staff pay cuts, Calgary City Council is going over a number of options about how to get through this economic downturn.

City administration presented a report called Leading Through Economic Uncertainty Tuesday afternoon which included six key strategies, such as continuing to provide service delivery to residents and proceeding with strategic infrastructure investments.

The manager of the Action Plan, Sarah Woodgate said the City is very well-positioned financially, but did say it isn’t business as usual.

“We’re used to cyclical changes in our economy and we need to have a significant focus on monitoring it more closely and responding as the year unfolds,” she said.

While the City’s Chief Economist Patrick Walters said there hasn’t been signs of a recession yet, they will feel the impact and 2015 will be a slower year.

Following the presentation, councillors put forward suggestions about what the best options could be and afterwards Mayor Naheed Nenshi said everyone knows the slowdown is coming, but he’s hopeful it won’t yield to a recession.

“Calgary is about way more than one number, we are about way more than the price of oil,” he told reporters, adding the City made it through the 2008 recession better than most of the rest of the world because of strong regulation, resiliency in the energy sector and re-investment. “I’m confident that many, many of those same ingredients here in Alberta and here in Calgary will help us get through whatever’s coming next.”

During council, Nenshi reiterated his previous position that staying the course on infrastructure spending is a good thing when the economy slows down when prices are low and the economy can be stimulated.

When asked about possible cuts from the provincial government, Nenshi said he’s confident the Tories have heard the City.

“Cuts to MSI just mean downloading debt from the province to the City at a high interest rate, I’m confident they’ve heard that message,” he said.

For Ward 12 Councillor Shane Keating, his key focus was on where savings could be found.

“Are we getting the absolute best value for our capital projects, are we saving as much as we could by having people come in and look at it or do we need to centralize, some say that maybe a public works department, where that department with the City does all capital projects,” he said, adding value management is critical.

“If we ask the question, if you changed one thing in the project, you might save $400,000, that’s what I’m looking for, the savings,” he said. “It’s time that we looked at all of these aspects, totally and completely on a continual basis rather than just saying here’s a project, let’s make sure we get it in time and on budget. What I’m saying is on time, under budget.”

One of those suggestions on saving money came from Ward 4 Councillor Sean Chu who admittedly said he will be the most unpopular member on council by bringing up the possibility of a five per cent pay cut to council, as well as staff.

“I think that could be an option, even though we already have the contract with the union and maybe we should start a talk, because there’s thousands of people being laid off right now and it doesn’t look good,” he said, adding he hadn’t brought up the idea with his colleagues or the union yet.

Chu said the cut could lead to reducing property taxes down to 3.3 per cent.

When it came to the possibility of changing the operating budget, Nenshi said councillors are welcome to bring their ideas.

“We had two whole weeks of talking about the operating budget, line by line by line in the fall, I don’t recall any suggestions at that time from those councillors,” he said. “If they have them now, if they’ve had some time over Christmas and over the break to look and come up with some new ideas, I’d love to hear them.”