This news article highlights the major challenges faced by Calgary council in 2024, including public backlash against new bag fees, a lengthy public hearing on city-wide rezoning, and a failed recall attempt against Mayor Jyoti Gondek. The article also discusses the declining approval ratings of the mayor and council.
Just two weeks into the new year, Calgary council faced its first hurdle of 2024: backlash over bag fees . The city's single-use items bylaw went into effect on Jan. 16 and the repeal process for the contentious bylaw started by the end of the month. 'I think it's ridiculous,' Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said at the time.'I doubt they're going to start lowering the price of Big Macs if they're not giving you your bags.
' The new event centre—named Scotia Place – officially broke ground and had its development permit approved by the planning commission; the expanded BMO Centre officially opened up just before the Calgary Stampede. Spring at city hall was then dominated by Calgary's longest-ever public hearing on proposed city-wide rezoning. Over a span of about 100 hours, 736 people spoke to council on the issue. Nearly 70 per cent of the people who spoke were against blanket rezoning, city officials said. Regardless, the land use amendment passed by a 9-6 vote after the three-week public hearing. An effort to recall Mayor Jyoti Gondek was launched in February and failed after organizers of the petition submitted just over 72,000 of the necessary 514,000 signatures needed to be considered. Still, the petition's organizer said, the effort sent a message to the mayor and politicians to listen to the people. 'The mayor should be afraid. The mayor should be afraid of the people – all elected officials should be afraid of us,' Landon Johnston told CTV News in April. By the summer, the approval ratings of the mayor and council had fallen to what one pollster said was an all-time low. An online survey conducted by ThinkHQ in June surveyed 1,114 adults. Mayor Gondek's approval at the time was 26 percent, while only 33 percent of respondents said they approved of their councillor. 'For as long as there have been municipal polls in Calgary, this would be the low watermark.
CALGARY COUNCIL BAG FEES REZONING PUBLIC HEARING APPROVAL RATINGS
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