A bumper sticker pertaining to politics in the US became popular several years ago. It read: Elect a clown, expect a circus. It easily applies to some members of Calgary city council in 2024, where the clowns inflated a lot of balloons that were popped by Calgarians, proving you can fight city hall, which they did on two big issues. In review: The single use bylaw This gem came into law on January 16, requiring grocery stores, restaurants and other food vendors and retail outlets to eliminate plastic bags and instead charge for paper or reusable bags (15 cents or $1 respectively) at the point of sale to take the purchased items home. The rates were scheduled to increase, respectively, to 25 cents and $2 in 2025.Succinctly, a shopper at Safeway could not use a plastic bag at checkout, even though plastic bags were readily available to purchase, at Safeway. Supposedly, the bylaw would limit the number of single-use items in city landfills. And if customers wanted other single-use items such as napkins or plastic utensils or other food-ware items, the seller could not offer them, customers had to request them. Calgarians raised hell, prompting council, by a vote of 10 to 5, to hold public hearings. On May 7, council repealed the single-use items bylaw, meaning customers would no longer need to pay for single-use or reusable bags at checkout. After the vote, Cllr. Dan McLean, not one of the clowns to vote for the bylaw, when asked why the clowns flip-flopped said, “So they could get re-elected.” Blanket upzoning This one really got the attention of Calgarians, in their hearts and at their front doors. Blanket upzoning called for the elimination of any areas in Calgary zoned only for single-family homes, allowing home owners to sell their homes to developers, who could build infill homes with up to eight separate homes on the lot where the single-family home stood. Council voted to hold a public hearing on the blanket upzoning, which turned into the largest one in Calgary history. Over two weeks more than 6,100 Calgarians expressed their opinions on the proposal, with a full 75.6% decidedly not in favour. But the fix was in. At least one councillor, Gian-Carlo Carra said before the public hearing he would vote for the new zoning, calling those against it “racists” but Calgarians didn’t stand a chance because, in a letter from Liberal Housing Minister Sean Fraser, he said the government had promised the City of Calgary $228.5 million in taxpayers' money from its Housing Accelerator Fund, only if the bylaw was approved. The usual clowns who voted to take the money and run, democracy be damned, were Mayor Gondek and Cllrs. Penner, Walcott, Carra, Pootmans, Dhaliwal, Spencer, Mian and Wyness. Saying no to the dough were Cllrs. Sharp, Chabot, McLean, Chu, Wong, and Demong. Mayor Gondek, after the sawdust settled, said “Before the public hearing began, it was clear that housing is the top issue on Calgarians' minds and is truly the problem of our time.”“The stories Calgarians shared over the past few weeks painted a stark picture of the housing challenges being faced in this city. Council's decision confirms our commitment to meet that problem with the tools and plan we have.” Council's tools + plan = $228.5 million from the feds. But, it’s not over yet. The grins on the clowns may turn to frowns, after almost 300 Calgarians signed an application to fight council’s decision in court on December 11 to have it overthrown. The application asked the court “to overturn the bylaw due to numerous procedural and legal errors made by Council in reaching its decision. The errors outlined in the Application include bias, acting outside of the authority granted to City Council by the Municipal Government Act (“MGA”), the unreasonable encroachment on private property rights, the wholesale elimination of a citizen’s right to a hearing on a zoning change and the failure to provide accurate and consistent information regarding the impact of the City’s agreement with the Federal Government for Housing Accelerator Funding.” "This isn't about development per se. It's about taking your rights away without the full consideration by council and study of the infrastructure and the impacts on community," said group spokesman, Robert Lehodey, KC, adding there are 311,573 properties affected by the bylaw. “By approving zoning changes to that number of properties without procedural fairness, without properly considering the impacts of that change on water infrastructure, electricity, garbage, parking, the environment,” he added. “Just look at the water main break we had, that’s just one example of an infrastructure defect that will be compounded if you increase the density throughout existing neighbourhoods, which is what they’re proposing. This rezoning will significantly change these districts.” “And it will not result in more affordable housing for Calgarians, but instead create smaller, equally unaffordable homes.” In court on December 11, presiding Justice Michael Lema, reserved his opinion. “He said he's going to try and render his decision expeditiously,” says Lehodey. “He did suggest it could be before Christmas but it will probably be the first little bit in January, which is fast actually. We’re happy with that, I think it’s an indication of how important he sees it in closing,” But the clowns downtown aren't the real story. That belongs to the thousands of Calgarians who fought city hall.'Calgarians may have lost the fight against upzoning in council chambers, but they came out to fight it last week. In this city that's as close to a victory as we've seen in years.The single-use bylaw was repealed after Calgarians vented their frustrations and anger. So too can this council be ‘repealed’ at the next civic election on October 20, 2025. In order for that to happen Calgarians must turnout at the polls in greater numbers than in the past. The same motivation that resulted from the rage of the single use bylaw and large showing at the blanket zoning public hearing is what is required to turn out to pasture the clowns on council who voted in favour of it.
