dave bronconnier to step down as mayor

After nine years at the helm, Dave Bronconnier decides not to run again

February 24, 2010
By Kim Guttormson, for the Calgary Herald

In an unexpected move that triggers a wide-open mayor’s race for the first time in a decade, Dave Bronconnier announced Tuesday he is stepping away from public life and will not seek a fourth term.

Bronconnier’s decision will see him spend his last months in office fighting to close the book on provincial infrastructure funding, while trying to keep aldermen — many now thinking about his job — focused on day-to-day business.

“Just because I’ve made an announcement today, I’m not going anywhere,” he said after delivering the news in his annual state of the city speech.

“There’s still many outstanding issues we’re going to keep working on.”

Continue reading this article here.

On a personal note, regardless of ones position on Bronconnier’s policies and approach to governance (the alignment of the West LRT and the pedestrian bridge are decisions, right or wrong, that will surely continue to crop up again and again over the coming years), his strong advocacy for the City at the scale of provincial resource allocation is undeniable. The departure of Bronconnier leaves many questions about the future direction of Calgary’s development, many which surely revolve around fiscal responsibility, but as Bronconnier’s experience shows, it will be vital for his successor to continue to engage upper echelons of governance in order to bridge the gulf between the City’s widening set of responsibilities and static sources of resource generation.

Of particular importance will be recent budget cuts made by the province which will impede the development of important local infrastructures and impair the ability of Calgary to sooner realize some of the objectives that City Council unanimously passed in the latest Municipal Develop Plan (Plan-It) in September of last year. Will Calgary’s next mayor be able to hold the province to account while sticking to the fiscally- and environmentally-responsible goals of the new MDP, or will he be overcome by the market-fundamentalist, growth-at-all-costs imperatives that are disproportionately (and sometimes unfairly) represented in Calgary’s planning and policy discourses? Stay tuned for more in the next municipal election this October.

Tom Howard
President, UrbanCSA

Event

MDP

On Wednesday, February 17th, the City of Calgary’s Standing Policy Committee on Land Use, Planning and Transportation met at Old City Hall to discuss implementation strategies for Plan It!, the City’s new Municipal Draft Plan and Transportation Plan. This was a public hearing and members of the public were free to comment on the topic at hand.

What is a Standing Policy Committee (SPC), anyway? According to the City of Calgary, an SPC is responsible for policy formulation, and for decision making within existing Council policy. A Chair is appointed from among the aldermen, and chairmanships of the Standing Policy Committees run for a maximum of one year at a time, except for special instances. Any Member of Council can serve as Chairman for any Standing Policy Committee once during the 3-year term commencing October. Alderman Colley-Urquhart is the Chair of this particular SPC.

So the action got underway at 9:30am, at which time the agenda was shifted around so they could look at Plan It! implementation first thing in the morning. What do we mean by the implementation being undertaken? Plan It! was passed this September. Council recommended that an implementation committee be set up to create a framework for sustainment of Plan It! and smooth implementation starting on April 1st, 2010, when Plan It! comes into effect. The implementation committee is as follows:

-2 members of Council

-2 Industry Stakeholders

-2 Administration Representatives

-2 Community Stakeholders

Everyone who spoke that morning – from the aldermen reviewing the implementation strategies to the public commenting on the outcome – expressed their appreciation of the implementation committee’s hard work in making a sustainment plan come together.

civic engagement is finally cool again

Avenue magazine has just named civic engagement as one of five reasons to love Calgary, in particular focusing on the vibrancy and success of our friends at Civic Camp. Who knew that civic engagement could be so fun and interesting? You did, of course. That’s probably why you are looking at this website right now, you big silly.

Read the Avenue piece here, and then check out Civic Camp’s blog. If anything, it should be good place to start if you want to try some of this sexy civic engagement business yourself.

Chris Ollenberger on Community Development

Chris Ollenberger is the president of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), which is the City of Calgary’s development arm.  As such, the CMLC will be the main actor involved in the redevelopment of Calgary’s ‘East Village’.

Prior to joining the CMLC, he was president of Three Sisters Mountain Village, leading the development of one of Western Canada’s premier resort communities in the challenging regulatory environment of the Rockies, with its interlinked municipal, provincial, and federal government interests.

Chris Ollenberger

Chris will be speaking on his experiences and challenges in community development and this will provide an excellent opportunity for students to gain insight of how development occurs in Calgary.  This is also a great opportunity to engage an important figure that will be re-shaping Calgary’s urban identity.

Chris will be speaking this Friday, February 12th in the Bianca Room in Mac Hall.  The talk goes from 1:00 – 2:00 pm. If you need it, this map can help you find the Bianca Room

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