The City of Calgary wants to hear what residents have on their minds ahead of the spring provincial election and it hopes a newly launched website will be the perfect space in which to gather their feedback.
Yycmatters.ca was launched on Monday and the city wants to make it a go-to spot for Calgarians to learn more about four of its key priorities:
- Honouring commitments to Calgarians
- Supporting Calgarians
- Promoting economic recovery
- Closing Calgary’s infrastructure gap
The Green Line LRT expansion, Springbank Reservoir and low-income transit passes are among the projects listed on the website.
The city has also identified increasing affordable housing, Arts Commons upgrades, construction of a new field house and flood mitigation on the Bow and Elbow rivers as some of the “highest priorities” heading into the election.
“The people we elect this spring will make decisions that will affect Calgary’s economy and our future,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in a release. “Having a site that focuses on Calgary’s priorities will raise the quality of dialogue about our future.”
In the coming weeks, Calgarians can expect to see various questions posed to the province’s political parties and then the answers when they’re received, giving politicians “the opportunity to go on record about how they are going to address Calgary’s priorities and issues,” the city said.
People can look forward to weekly updates on things like provincial investments and how they’ll help the economy, city staff said.
“Calgary voters are going to play a significant role in this election,” Nenshi said. “We need the province to continue to work with the city as a partner in building Alberta’s future.”
The survey’s aim isn’t to support one party or another, Nenshi said, but to make their positions and priorities clear.
The city has hosted similar surveys in the past, including for the PC leadership races in 2011 and 2014 and for the 2012 and 2015 provincial elections.
— With files from Global News Radio 770 CHQR’s Aurelio Perri