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Well, after 7 days of discussing and debating the budget, City Council finally approved the 2012-2014 Business Plans and Budget. That works out to about 65 hours in the Council Chambers hearing public submissions, presentations from city staff, questions to staff and then amendments and debate on the budget document. I believe the entire document …

Those who have read my previous posts will know that I was against sending the budget back to administration for further work. I am glad Council decided in the end to do our job and craft the final budget. The budget process is about finding ways to balance citizen demand for protective services, street cleaning, …

There is a proposal by some of my colleagues to send the proposed budget back to administration for more work. I have clearly come out opposed to this as I do believe it is a shirking of our responsibilities as a Council. As a Council, all 15 of us, we have worked on this budget …

I am still working my way through the budget, and I am still getting a lot of emails and phone calls with your reaction to it. I am reading the document, line by line, looking to understand all the pieces that come together to form the budget with its proposed 25% tax increase over the …

A disheartening scene is unfolding before us. In the sphere of public “”debate””, the path to dialogue is closing, – actually, it is being slammed shut, by those who are simply not interested in having public discourse. I am appalled at the willingness of some, in the media and elsewhere, to obfuscate issues and mislead …

Council received the detailed budget information yesterday afternoon, and I immediately got to work reviewing it. I have also been hearing from Calgarians over the past few days, and I expect that to continue. Residents have been contacting my office to let me know of their concerns around the proposed budget and the associated tax …