Zed News YYC examines the Calgary mayoral candidates' views and priorities when it comes to the environment and climate change, transit, the economy, policing, and provincial relations to help you make an informed choice.Silvana
Hello, and welcome to Zed News YYC’ s podcast. We are members of the Alexandra Writers Centre Young Journalists program. As young journalists, we are passionate about creating balanced and engaging news that is relevant to us. We aim to keep the public informed, highlight solutions, keep the powerful in check, and give a voice to people who don't always get heard. Today’s podcast is about the municipal election in Calgary. Voters go to the polls on Oct. 18 to pick a new mayor and 14 city councillors. We’ve looked at the platforms of the candidates running for mayor to help you better understand your choices. Silvana So, Priya, what are the top candidates' views and priorities when it comes to the environment and climate change? Priya That’s a great question Silvana! Let’s start with Jeromy Farkas, who is Calgary councillor for Ward 11. One of Farkas’s main priorities is lower city transit fees and making the LRT more affordable for all Calgarians. He also wants to expand our C-train lines. However, he does not mention anything about climate change or environmental protection on his campaign page. As for our next candidate Jyoti Gondek, who is the councillor for Ward 3. A priority of her’s is expanding and strengthening our transit system. Another one of the top priorities she has on her website is ‘Climate and Environmental Resilience’, which states that Gondek intends to retrofit buildings and transit lines to be more resilient to climate change, she wants Calgary to transition to low-carbon electricity, and build up our city’s flood protection. Part of her plans for revitalizing our economy include expand Calgary’s green energy sector as well. The last candidate I am going to focus on is Jeff Davison, who is the councillor Ward 6. Davison has a section on his website titled ‘Protect our Environment’ that states he wishes to make our city greener. However, there is no other information about how he plans to do that on his website. Silvana: Thanks Priya, but I have a question for Heather. Who would I vote for if I want a more accessible public transit service? Heather To answer your question Silvana how about we start by looking at which candidates are interested in the city’s transit system. Jyoti Gondek is one of the candidates whose main priority is to help Calgary with it’s transit system. How Gondek is going to improve our transit system is to expand and help strengthen the green line, which is a new 5.5 billion dollar C-Train line from north to south Calgary. The next candidate who supports transit is Jeff Davison. Davison prioritizes developing the Green Line, as well as developing a railway between Banff, Calgary, and the airport. Davison had said, “Calgary has always been a place of opportunity and open doors. I’m running for mayor to keep it that way.” Another mayoral candidate, Brad Field, also advocated strongly for the train leading from the Calgary airport to downtown and Banff. Let’s dive deeper into what Jeromy Farkas is willing to achieve. Actually Jeromy Farkas doesn’t have a lot to say about transit. However, he says he’s the only candidate Calgarians can trust to keep the Green Line project team “accountable.” Silvana: That sounds so interesting, but Lucas, how will the Calgary economy strive this term. Who’s going to help restore jobs due to the huge unemployment rates the pandemic has left us with. Lucas: Well Silvana, let’s see which of the candidates have the most in-depth economical plans. Candidate Jan Damery has an economic recovery plan, which is hoping to help generate 80,000 new jobs by 2030, which includes creating 4,000 jobs by the end of this decade. Then, there’s Jyoti Gondek. She is pushing for refocusing our economic development agenda to aid in regional partnership and help build a strong industrial and commercial tax base. She is also prioritizing getting a portion of the 40 per cent property taxes dedicated to helping offset the gap in operating revenues during this time of decreasing market values. Jeromy Farkas is wanting to control city taxes and spending by introducing a four-year tax freeze, which will also help to prevent overtaxing for Calgarians and local business owners. However, Jeff Davidson by far has the most in-depth and extensive plan. During his candidacy, Davidson has been pushing hard for an economic development plan in order to help diversify and stabilize Calgary’s economy, and has seemingly found one in the form of The Calgary 2030 Plan. Very basically, the plan focuses on four main points; Authentic Collaboration, Continuous Learning, Stable Economy, and Talent Magnet, represented with the colours red, yellow, blue, and green respectfully, hence why those four colours are prominently featured in his campaign logo. The plan pushes for the prioritization of visits with investors in North America and innovation goals to help with business, supporting energy companies developing smart energy, providing incentives for campuses to help with the organization of educational and training institutions, incentivise innovation to generate jobs, fast-tracking permitting, which will help businesses like restaurants stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, and form stronger partnerships at all levels of government. Silvana Thank you for explaining. As we know Calgary is one of the safest cities in Canada. But it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. Kate, would you please explain to us about how each of our candidates plans are to lessen Calgary’s crime rate & try to solve problems within the police force. Kate Yes, of course. Why don’t we start off with Jeromy Farkas Jeromy thinks that we should reject defunding the police. In fact he wants to reopen downtown stations & adequately fund alternative response models, mental health & addiction supports, and accountability measures such as body cams. Jeff said nothing about tackaling racial profiling, systemic racism or opresstion againest minorities. Now, Jyoti Gondek She recognized that crimes against minorities have increased across the country & has caused unsafety in these groups. She talked a lot about systemic racism saying “in parallel, we are witnessing the beginnings of new reckoning with a particular focus on systemic racism, islamophobia, anti-indigenous and anti black racism.” She strongly believes we should commit to a more progressive police force & wants the city to enforce police partnering with people best fit to address complex social issues through both preventative and crisis-oriented supports. And last on my list we have Jeff Davison Jeff said very little about policing, but here are some of the things that he did say. He wants to increase police resources and personnel for safety downtown, but he made it clear that by saying additional people he does not mean more buildings. Sadly that was all of the information I could collect on him as the vast majority of his platform is aimed toward the economy. So, over all from the research I collected Jyoti spoke the most on tackling system racism, Jeff spoke the most on adding additional police personnel, and Jeromy spoke the most on NOT defunding the police and giving more funding to them. Silvana Well I for one am looking forward to having a safer community. Last but not least, Kristina is going to explain the plans for provincial relationships. Kristina Thank you Silvana! Looking at the main mayoral candidates, the ones that openly mention communication with the provincial government in their platforms are Jyoti Gondek, and Jeff Davison. Let's first look at Jyoti Gondek and her platform. Gondek aims to open up communications with the provincial government in terms of Calgary’s property taxes. Through discussion of a "Fair Deal for Calgary" with the provincial government, as she mentions in her platform, she will "eliminate the bureaucratic waste of sending money to the province only to later ask for it back through grants" -- and she hopes to stabilize the local economy. Next, let's look at Jeff Davison's platform and his beliefs. He believes that cooperation between all levels of governments will promote the city and foster positive relationships, and aims to work with the provincial (and on top of that, federal governments) to ensure good housing is available to all Calgarians. Similar to Gondek, he wants to negotiate with the provincial government in regards to economy and property tax. Silvana: Well that is our podcast. Who are you going to vote for? If you are undecided I hope this podcast helps. Thank you to all my co-hosts who helped develop and voice this podcast. This podcast was produced by Kristina, Heather, Lucas, Kate, and Priya, and me Silvana. For more news and podcasts from Zed News YYC please visit our website zednewsyyc.weebly.com Have a great day and see you at the polls.
2 Comments
|
|