Calgary’s new city council sworn in

Mayor Nenshi once again took the oath of office on the Quran as he and 14 city councillors were sworn in, at a ceremony at City Hall on Monday night.

Nenshi’s chief of staff and longtime friend Chima Nkemdirim did the honours, with Nenshi’s sister and mother participating in the ceremony.

“It is always a sad day,” said Shaheen Nenshi Nathoo . “Sad, because our father is not here to share in this momentous occasion.”

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Mayor Nenshi said now that the election campaign is over, it’s time to get down to work.

“It’s time to park a lot of the rhetoric from the election and start on making the city better, and that means setting aside partisanship because Calgarians have told us over and over and over again, they don’t want a partisan council.”

Four of the 14 councillors are rookies, including Ward 1’s Ward Sutherland, Ward 2’s Joe Magliocca , Ward 4’s Sean Chu and Ward 8’s Evan Woolley.

Nenshi said one of his top priorities is coming up with an affordable housing strategy in the aftermath of the June floods, which have led to a housing shortage.

One of the first major decisions for the new council will be approving next year’s budget.