Smith says election coming if Calgarians disapprove of blanket rezoning

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she is concerned Calgary city council approved blanket rezoning because of a bilateral deal it signed with the Canadian government. While it is uncertain if the Canadian government was pressuring Calgary city council, Smith said it “does concern me if municipalities feel that they have pressure from the federal government in order to get a couple hundred million dollars.” “That is part of the reason we brought in Bill 18 because we want to be able to be an advocate for all of our municipalities so that they don’t feel they have to be pressured into passing policies that will likely get some of them unelected in the next election and allow for us to be able to be that shield,” said Smith at a Wednesday press conference. “I don’t quite know how this is going to turn out for the various members who voted the way they did.” She said she has seen the polling on blanket rezoning in some wards. Since an election is coming up in one-and-a-half years, she said people will see if there is widespread acceptance then. Smith followed up by saying she is so concerned about Canadian government interference that the Alberta government has put forward legislation similar to what Quebec has, which would obligate it to work together at funding various projects. “Because we believe that we would then have the clout at the bargaining table to be able to say certain things are on and certain things are off,” she said. “I think any of these negotiations are important for the federal government to meet its target but also the provincial government to meet its targets and take care of all of our municipalities.” If councillors felt they had to make changes to access funding, she said that is “very concerning because the federal government should not dictate what municipal policy should be.” Under the Canadian Constitution, municipalities remain the sole authority of provincial governments. Calgary city council voted nine to six to approve the blanket rezoning bylaw on Tuesday. READ MORE: UPDATED: Calgary city council votes to approving blanket zoningCalgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek voted in favour of the bylaw. The city councillors voting against the majority of presenters in the longest, largest public hearing in council history were Evan Spencer, Jennifer Wyness, Courtney Walcott, Kourtney Penner, Raj Dhaliwal, Richard Pootmans, Gian-Carlo Carra, and Jasmine Mian. The vote came after more than three weeks of public presentations in council chambers, with 736 in total in person and over the phone. Additionally, the City of Calgary received 6,101 written submissions, with about 75% of them against blanket rezoning's implementation.