Calgary mayoral candidate, Sonya Sharp, guested on Western Standard’s Cory Morgan’s show, covering a range of topics, including the two top concerns of Calgarians during this election campaign: blanket rezoning and safety in the city.
On blanket rezoning, Sharp said Wednesda., “I'm committing to repealing it. It's got to go back to the way it was prior to that public hearing that we all sat through and didn't listen to anybody. My colleagues and I listened, but a majority of council did not.”
“We need to go back to where it was. And we can look for efficiency in the planning process to make sure builders and developers have some certainty. And we're getting shovels in the ground faster. But blanket rezoning itself is not working, so it needs to be repealed.”
At a press conference on Wednesday following Morgan's show, Sharp and her Communities First party members, signed a pledge to repeal the bylaw that was approved by the outgoing council, despite a majority of Calgarians being against it.
Three other mayoral candidates, Jeromy Farkas, Jeff Davison and Sarah Elder have announced they would also repeal blanket rezoning if elected.
In a press release on Thursday, Farkas said Calgarians needed certainty that by working hard, they can afford a home; that communities should be city partners and; building a full range of housing is necessary.
“Blanket rezoning failed to deliver that certainty,” said Farkas in the release. “Zoning alone doesn’t build homes, builders, infrastructure and community support do. That’s why I’ll work with council to repeal blanket rezoning and replace it with a smarter, targetted approach.”
On Morgan’s show, Sharp also talked about safety and the Calgary Police Service.
“We’ve talked about increasing the number of police officers just to get us up to the national standard,” she told Morgan. “The issue is, it hasn't been a priority for the last council or the council before and two of my opponents voted to defund the police.”
“They’ll rebut that and say, ‘we gave money back at budget time’ and my rebuttal to that is, it doesn't matter. When you defunded the police during your term, that said you didn't care about the police, and you didn't care about the frontline and those that could keep your city safe.”
One of the planks in Sharp's platform is to hire an additional 500 police officers, plus establish a 24-hour station downtown and closing the Sheldon Chumir injection site in Beltline.”
On Thursday morning, at a presser at Calgary Police Services headquarters, Sharp and her nine Communities First Party members, received what is being called an unprecedented endorsement from the Calgary Police Association (CPA).
CPA is the professional association representing more than 2,300 Calgary police officers, whose president, John Orr said, “Sonya and her team of candidates get it. They are responding to a call for assistance from front-line officers.”
Orr added, “policing is increasingly difficult in Calgary, with the service currently well below its appropriate service complement.”
“Our Cop-to-Pop ratio is well below the national average. District patrol teams and investigative areas are operating at dangerously low levels, requiring an ever-increasing amount of overtime and callout, just to meet insufficient minimum staffing levels”.
Sharp said she and her colleagues are “humbled and honoured” to have CPA’s support and will find “budget savings and reallocations to support re-investment in the police service”.
“We’re committed to adding 500 more police officers in the next four years, based on a plan we’ll be looking for from the chief and commission. Community safety begins and ends with having an effective, professional and well-resourced police service, and our team is 100% committed to delivering it,” she said.
She added the funding needs to come in lock step with a change of tone in city hall about law enforcement itself.
“The police have the difficult job of upholding our laws and standards, fairly, without bias or favour,” she said. “They need to be supported in that, to know if they do their jobs professionally and in good faith, they will always have the backing of city hall and Calgarians.”
The nine Communities First councillor candidates are: Kim Tyers, Ward 1; Jeremy Wong, Ward 4; Terry Wong, Ward 7; Cornelia Wiebe, Ward 8; Alison Karim McSwiney, Ward 9; Andre Chabot, Ward 10; Rob Ward, Ward 11; Shane Byciuk, Ward 12, and; Dan McLean, Ward 13
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