City Aligns Senior Leadership to Deliver on Council’s Direction

CALGARY - Today, The City of Calgary announced services and program adjustments designed to improve coordination and alignment in order to respond to Council’s priorities and better serve citizens. These adjustments support a strong emphasis on capital investment and economic resilience, which requires an increased focus on infrastructure, urban strategies, refinement of the development approval process and strategic management of city-owned real estate.

“We have incredibly talented and committed people throughout this organization,” said City Manager Jeff Fielding. “By aligning our people in a way that creates capacity for them to focus even better on their areas of expertise, and create opportunities for increased collaboration, we strengthen our ability to effectively deliver on Council’s priorities.”

The changes include:

Formation of a new corporate initiative called Infrastructure Calgary, which will significantly enhance Administration’s ability to prioritize and manage capital projects across departments, better coordinate capital spending, address risk, and ensure effective use of staff resources to deliver projects on time and on budget;

Creation of a new urban strategy to enhance the development of our downtown core, inner city, urban corridors and re-development along the Green Line LRT;

A renewed focus on growth management and the development approval process, to enhance investment by the private sector;

Strategic management of city-owned real-estate;

Enhanced delivery of Council’s affordable housing objectives, through alignment of affordable housing initiatives under the Calgary Housing business unit; and

Alignment of support services to enable these new initiatives.

“Our city is facing complex and changing circumstances including economic challenges, new leadership at the provincial and federal orders of governments and the promise of significant infrastructure funding from other orders of government,” said Mayor Nenshi. “I am very pleased with the direction Administration is taking. These changes align with Council strategies to better serve citizens, address our cyclical economy and take advantage of anticipated economic stimulus. Together these steps will help maintain citizen satisfaction, provide a high quality of life and support a vibrant, healthy, well-managed city.”

Through recent citizen surveys, 75 per cent of Calgarians indicated now is the time for The City to invest in new projects like public transit, roads, water services and community and recreation centres. Additionally, 92 per cent of citizens feel The City should continue to invest in growth management, 93 per cent want investment in city land use planning and 83 per cent want continued investment in downtown revitalization.

The new alignment within City Administration will better position the organization to respond to the changing environment and better serve the citizens of Calgary. This includes accelerating the capital investment program to provide Calgarians with additional employment opportunities, investing and building needed infrastructure such as the Green Line, advancing transit oriented development, and moving forward with initiatives to support citizens in their daily lives. Together, we will make Calgary a great place to make a living, and a great place to make a life.

Visit calgary.ca/organizationalupdates to view the letter shared with City Council and the Summary of Responsibility Changes.

-30-