Calgary’s Comeback: focusing on economic recovery

On Monday, Oct. 7, City of Calgary Manager David Duckworth shared his vision for our city and what Calgarians can expect to see in the coming weeks and months.

It’s all about Calgary’s comeback, our commitment to the city’s economic recovery, and making life better every day for citizens, communities and businesses.

“We’re doing great things on behalf of Calgarians to respond to the economic downturn and help with Calgary’s economic recovery. But I don’t think we have necessarily done a great job communicating what we’re working on in a clear and consistent way,” said Duckworth. “As Calgarians, we read things in the news about the non-residential tax shift, budget reductions, and service impacts, the downtown vacancy rate and unemployment numbers. It’s a lot to take in. What’s not clear is what our local government is doing to support individuals, families and the community.”

In the coming weeks and months, citizens will see and hear more about the actions supporting Calgary’s comeback. We are focusing on and communicating around three core areas for economic recovery: supporting businesses, downtown strategy and fiscal responsibility.

• Supporting our local businesses, because businesses are integral to our success.

Work is underway to reduce the time to open and operate a business and the cost of doing business in Calgary. You’ve heard us talk about being business friendly. This is what supporting businesses is all about.

• Revitalizing our downtown.

Council has committed significant capital investments by approving key landmark projects such as the Event Centre, Arts Commons, Green Line and BMO Centre. We are also upgrading existing infrastructure to change the landscape and improve the aesthetics of downtown, with projects like the underpass art project, 17th Avenue extension and redesign, and enhancements to Stephen Avenue.

• Fiscal responsibility.

We are engaging Calgarians and working together to ensure our service commitments are delivered in a fiscally responsible and affordable manner. We have an upcoming update around the important work being done around sustainable tax policy. Figuring out a solution to this complex problem is the underpinning of Calgary’s financial health and competitive position.

Calgary has been in tough spots before with the downturns in the ’80s, '90s, 2009 and 2015 through to today. Our ambitious spirit and rich history makes us unique, vibrant and proud. We are a city where our people are the backbone of our strength and where we rise in the face challenging times.

Calgary’s comeback is here and we are ready to embrace new opportunities and make doing business here better. We are committed to our economic recovery.

We are here to make life better every day for citizens, communities and businesses.

The City Manager’s vision for Calgary includes ensuring we deliver high quality, affordable services in a fiscally responsible manner, and that we are an open, accessible, transparent, trustworthy and business friendly municipal government.

You can learn more about what we are doing to achieve this at Calgary.ca/comeback