Tough choices needed to save our great city

Tax changes required, George Brookman says.

It is time for all Calgarians to realize that we are in a serious economic crisis and that a few tweaks to the municipal budget are not going to get us out of this.

I have lived in Calgary my entire life, have survived a few downturns including the National Energy Program of 1982, but I am as worried today as I have ever been about the next five to 10 years in our city’s history.

We have enjoyed the lowest residential tax rates in the country for many years, bolstered and subsidized by an incredibly successful and affluent business community concentrated in our downtown. Today, we have millions of square feet of empty office space, which only serves to drive our retail spaces into vacancy. Small businesses are failing as rising taxes and a shortage of customers simply does not allow them to keep going. Major buildings are running 50 per cent empty and Calgary has gone from being the darling of the commercial development industry five years ago to an absolute pariah as we end this year.

It is time for major action on all fronts if we are going to turn our great city around. It is also going to take the enthusiastic support and the goodwill of all citizens. It will not be easy.

First and foremost, our civic leaders must dramatically cut expenses. I know that over $600 million in expenditure reductions have been put in place over the past three years, but to put it mildly, that is not enough. Tearing up roads, increasing exotic garbage programs, four-car LRT trains with very few passengers, incredible spending on the planned Green Line — this all has to stop.

Yes, we will lose some services. Yes, we will not like some of the inconveniences. But as responsible citizens, we are going to have to grin and endure it. I hope this is a short-term issue but based on the policies of both our provincial and federal governments, we may have to face all of this for some time.

Second and most painfully, there has to be

As responsible citizens, we are going to have to grin and endure it.

a significant shift of property taxes from the commercial sector to the residential sector. None of us wants to hear that, but the reality is that Calgarians have been living with a false sense of well-being when it comes to property taxes for many years and that bloom is off the rose today.

Finally, we must get more active. We must speak up and let our voices be heard. We must let our federal and provincial governments know that we are not happy. The fiscal policies of all governments and the lack of action to solve the problems of our energy industry are literally driving our community into the poor house.

Increased taxes for pet projects and ideological initiatives have to stop. Governments at all levels must cut the philosophy and focus on providing the basic and important services that all Canadians need, and not the grandiose schemes that none of us has asked for and certainly do not need. I have actually heard expenditure numbers on the Green Line, but I will not even repeat them here because I simply cannot believe that we are doing that in today’s current situation.

So, my fellow citizens, get ready for reduced costs and reduced services in the coming years. Get ready for increased taxes in spite of dropping property values and get ready to speak up and say to our elected leaders, “Focus on what we need to do, not on what it would be nice to do.”

Calgarians can and will get through this crisis, but first we must recognize that it is a crisis and dreaming about a golden future is of no use unless we are all here to enjoy it.