'Alleviating the burden on Calgarians'; Conservative-leaning councillors offer proposals for budget savings

Five conservative-leaning councillors said Tuesday they plan to bring forward at least 20 proposals to help trim city spending, including axing plans to procure electric buses and consolidating two chief executive positions into one role, as council continued its mid-cycle

budget deliberations.

The group - Sonya Sharp, Dan McLean, Andre Chabot, Terry Wong and Jennifer Wyness - say they aim to reduce the tax burden on Calgarians, bring more transparency to the budgeting process and eliminate some of the city's redundancies.

During a break in Tuesday's

meeting, Sharp said the amendments, if approved, would collectively save more than $70 million in operating expenses and $4 million in capital investments. "These are little things that actually add up in the budget," she said. "Even if we can find a per cent, we're alleviating the burden on Calgarians."

One of the proposed amendments is to consolidate the chief administrative officer and chief operating officer positions. Those positions are currently served by

David Duckworth and Stuart Dalgleish, respectively.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who said Tuesday she hadn't yet seen the five councillors' list of amendments, claimed council doesn't direct the CAO - who is council's only hired employee - on how to structure the corporation.

"If we're interested in seeing some sort of a structural change, we would really need to bring it to him and ask him to consider implementing it," she told reporters.

"We can certainly provide our perspectives, but to eliminate an entire position or to combine offices, that's absolutely an operational decision of the chief administrative officer."

A motion from Wyness will advocate for the city to shift away from electric buses in favour of natural gas vehicles, which she argues are more affordable and reliable.

The city has plans to transition its bus fleet toward zero-emission vehicles as part of plans to create a net-zero city by 2050. The transition includes a pilot project to deploy several 40-foot battery electric buses.

But that pilot has faced recent hiccups and delays, including the termination of its contract with a B.C.-based supplier of electric buses and plans to scale back the number of buses the city would purchase.

The city should focus on providing full and reliable buses, Wyness argued, rather than "fancy complicated buses" that operate fewer hours per day.

"We need a focus on what is best for bus riders and not what is best for bureaucrats,"

she said.

The five councillors also want their colleagues to reconsider their decision in 2023 to shift the tax share between residential and non-residential properties by one per cent annually for three years. The shift would see residential properties shoulder 54 per cent of the city's overall tax responsibility in 2025, while commercial properties take on 46 per cent. Two years ago, the split was 52:48.

City assessor Eddie Lee has claimed the one per cent annual shift is necessary to keep the city's tax ratio under the province's legislated maximum of five-to-one.

But Wong said the timing is poor to pass more of the tax burden onto residences in the midst of an affordability crisis. Asked why businesses should instead shoulder that burden, he said the city can support commercial properties through other mechanisms.

"We can solve the non-residential problem through other ways of providing financial relief or supports, whether that be through fees, whether that be through the permit licence fees ... there are other ways of helping them," he said.

Council is expected to pass its 2025 budget adjustments on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. The budget proposes an average 3.6 per cent property tax increase. sstrasser@postmedia.com