CALGARY- Monday marks nomination day, and a new report has been released ahead of the official unveiling of who plans to run for city council.
The Manning Foundation looked at how the current council voted on taxes, to try and help voters make an informed choice.
“It is kind of nice we have somebody keeping track, and there’s always two sides to any statistics…and stats and lies,” says Calgary’s John McCormack, who plans to vote in the October election.
The report factored in 73 decisions between November 2010 and April 2013, rating councillors on who is the most taxpayer friendly.
For example, it found Ward 10’s Andre Chabot votes to keep taxes lower 75 per cent of the time, compared to Ward 7’s Druh Farrell who is only worried about the bottom line 16 per cent of the time.
However, the mayor says the statistics are useless.
“To look at the question of tax of spending in isolation, that doesn’t mean anything,” says Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “Maybe you’re in favour of a recreation centre in your neighbourhood. According to this, that’s spending money and bad no matter what. So it’s actually kind of worthless.”
Political analysts also question the value of the report.
“I think a lot of people do support fiscal responsibility, reducing spending where it’s possible, but also investing wisely where it’s appropriate as well,” says Lori Williams from Mount Royal University, adding that simply counting votes without context about what they concerned is unfair.
The study’s author maintains the only goal is to inform voters.
“The main thing about this is it’s up to voters to judge, and we’ve tried to do it in a value neutral way,” explains David Seymour, senior fellow at the Manning Foundation.
Read the full report below
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