The kind of budget we need in 2020

Talking city budgets on world kindness day

2020 is the year for kindness. It’s the year we can recommend mindfulness meditations to strangers with only a slight self-conscious twitch of the eyelid.

I’ve been thinking about kindness because I’ve been thinking about the City budget.

Twitch.

There was a time - like, August - when talking about budgets and kindness in the same sentence was difficult for me, as a woman specifically. It seemed like a good way to be shrugged off, show maybe I don’t know the “way things work”. 

Ok.

Are budgets meant to be unkind? Are they meant to be neutral?  Cut-throat? A City budget is how we pay for things we value collectively. Neutral or cut-throat seem like odd descriptors for collective decision-making.

Was I the only one mainlining the Wolf of Wallstreet as a youth? As I write this, I feel I’m the one who’s late to this party. 

Well, like someone who’s just discovered therapy, oversharing and stating the obvious all at the same time, I’m going to go ahead and announce: I would like a kind budget this year. It’s been a tough one. We should be there for each other, and THAT is how we’re going to make it through. Our budget can have rigour, efficiency, a sweet workplan. It will have to address difficult tradeoffs and budget cuts head on. Its creation will involve disagreements on strategy. But let’s aim to have each others’ backs.

Next week we’re diving into the City budget, which goes to Council November 23. It’s going to be a tough one, in the context of budget cuts, pandemic, climate change. We’ll be looking at two overarching questions: Does the budget make life better or worse for those facing tough times? Is it better or worse for climate? To help answer these questions, we’ll reflect on what Calgarians have shared with us over the last 7 years; our design explorations and research; and economic recovery strategies. 

Celia Lee