Putting equity and climate accountability in our budget
by the Calgary Climate Hub and Sustainable Calgary
This is our submission to the 2021 Calgary Budget consultation. If you’d like to weigh in on budget deliberations, register to call in at the November 23 meeting by contacting publicsubmissions@calgary.ca or share you thoughts using this online form.
We appreciate the work Administration has done in a difficult time, and support positive moves, such as maintaining transit fares. We do have concerns, however, and want to remind Council of some important priorities.
Process: We ask that The City make it easier for ordinary Calgarians to understand how the proposed adjustments will affect their lives and communities. A return to participatory budgeting, based on documents readily understandable to non-specialists would be helpful. We ask for more clarity and information on how the budget affects the following priorities:
Social and Geographical Equity: The City has signaled its intention to apply an equity lens to all its activities. We know this is ongoing with respect to the MDP and CTP. The budget documents need to clearly articulate its equity implications. Specifically,
The budget needs to clarify how it improves the lives of Calgarians who are already struggling. Are the decisions to cut specific services and spending based on a sound assessment of the hidden economic and social costs they will have on Calgarians? Does this budget do the least harm of all possible options?
Are all Calgarians impacted the same way or will some Calgarians be impacted more because of which services they use or the area of the city they live in?
Climate Accountability:
We need to take immediate action on climate to build a city which can meet the challenges of the future. How does this budget reduce our carbon emissions and support the Climate Resilience Strategy, the MDP and CTP, and other plans related to transit and active transportation?
We ask that Council apply a climate lens to ensure spending decisions contribute to reducing carbon emissions and meeting targets.
Leadership on a Just Recovery: We would like clarification on how the budget supports economic recovery and diversification through a low-carbon just transition.
Investment and Revenue Generation: In a time of crisis we need to go beyond budget cuts to embrace bold investment in a just recovery, including consideration of more appropriate revenue sources such as progressive taxes and user fees, freezing/delaying capital/service costs, better use of reserve funds, and raising money through green bonds.
Our specific recommendations on the budget:
Future-Proofing Reserves: Create a Climate Action Reserve, identify unallocated funds from the reserves listed in Table 1, and transfer half those funds to the Climate Action Reserve and half to the Established Areas Infrastructure Investment Fund (Amendment #11 to PFC2020-0963 recommendations), retaining – as appropriate – the original objectives of the funds. Rationale Doing so will reduce the number and complexity of reserves and ensure that City investments are made through the lenses of climate action and service to existing communities.
Operational Reduction Reinvestment and Capital Reallocation:
Re-direct the money listed in Table 2 to strengthen and enhance the City’s work on climate, improved mobility, and aiding the most vulnerable. Fund those measures using money from the reserves specified or a combination of:
Reducing contributions from operations to reserves
Income and above-target funds in the Fiscal Stability Reserve
CERF and capital funds in the Budget Savings Account Reserve
Delay a portion of the funding proposed for Stoney Trail and 144 Avenue NW projects sufficient to re-instate Mainstreets and transit funding for 2021. Rationale: The proposed budget has only marginally addressed the key challenges facing Calgary, that is, climate change, reliance on the automobile, completing the communities we already have, and reducing the burden borne by the most vulnerable.
Net-Zero Upgrades: Identify the amount of funding required to achieve ‘net-zero’ status on Major Capital Building projects before committing further funds to them. Rationale: The Major Capital Buildings will be with us until at least 2050, the year The City is to achieve its climate goals. They need to be as close to net-zero as possible to ensure climate success in 2050.
Growth Due Diligence: Suspend servicing for the 14 suburban communities approved in 2018 until the preconditions in Table 3 have been met. In the meantime, put the tax and user fee savings in the Future-Proofing Reserves. Rationale: With an excess of approved suburban land and an economy in a nosedive, Council needs to be quite certain that the risks The City will assume are justified.
Equity in Revenue Generation: Direct administration to develop recommendations, by Q2 2021, for more equitable and progressive systems of revenue generation to replace current flat taxes and fees, aligning with the stated objectives of the MDP and CTP. Options to be considered should include separate assessment of land and building property, with progressive tax brackets. Rationale: The City needs to acknowledge that Calgary is the most unequal large city in Canada according to CPA Canada and identify and reduce inequities in revenue generation.
Cost of Living Increase: We recommend City Council approve a 2% increase in the property tax and use the Property Tax Assist Program to support low-income Calgarians. Rationale: According to the Altus Group Benchmark Report, Calgary has the 3rd lowest residential property tax rate in Canada. In the Fall 2020 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, 52% of Calgarians agreed that Council should raise property tax to at least to the rate of inflation to protect the delivery of city services. Such an increase would result in a tax increase of about $1.50 per month for the average single detached home.
