Working for Calgarians

Prioritizing Safety and Essential Services for Calgarians

Being Mayor of Calgary has meant building and fostering strong relationships between City Council, other orders of government, organizations, and Calgarians to get important work done. For too long, important basic needs were pushed to the sidelines. Since becoming Mayor, I’ve prioritized improving transit, making our streets – particularly downtown - safer, and ensuring critical infrastructure is cared for and funded.

To keep the city working to its fullest potential and serving Calgarians, it’s crucial to ask the right questions and make sure were addressing real issues, not spending frivolously. Sometimes, this means taking a big picture approach so that we can get to the root of a problem and provide long-term results.

Clean water from your taps, taking care of roads and garbage, ensuring buses arrive on time, and providing the opportunity to live with dignity in a home you can afford in a neighbourhood you love are essential, along with great parks, recreational programs, and reliable emergency services. This is what Calgarians want and what you deserve.

Read How Mayor Gondek is working for you

What We’ve Achieved Together

In the first three years of her term as Mayor, Jyoti Gondek has…

Lead City through Water Emergency

Throughout Calgary’s water emergency, the Mayor was at the forefront, communicating to Calgarians about all of the newest updates. Connecting with other orders of governments, organizations, and even international municipalities allowed Calgary to quickly recover from a significant infrastructure emergency.

Balanced Calgary’s Budget

Balancing the budget requires balancing current needs and future goals. With consistent re-evaluation, the budget adapts to changing city circumstances while also ensuring that we can take advantage of meaningful investments that build Calgary’s future.

Delivered Event Centre Promise

By finalizing plans and breaking ground on Calgary's new event centre, Mayor Gondek demonstrated her understanding of the generational impact Scotia Place will have on the city. Whether it’s creating spaces for community gathering or contributing to the revitalization of Calgary and renewing our place as a global destination, Scotia Place has room for everyone.

Advocated for Housing

Calgary’s housing strategy directly addresses the city’s housing crisis through government-supported initiatives, re-zoning, and innovative downtown conversions. By ensuring affordability and fair housing market access, Calgary will remain one of the most liveable cities in the world.

Provided Relief for Local Business

Local businesses play an essential role in Calgary's flourishing economy and the City has taken a more active role in supporting them. Mayor Gondek's advocacy for non-residential property tax adjustments and grant funding for businesses impacted by construction on main streets enables Calgary businesses to remain dynamic and competitive.

Approved the Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw

The Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw promotes safety, inclusivity, and diversity in public spaces, such as libraries and recreational facilities, by limiting protests which challenge the human rights of LGBTQ2S+ Calgarians.

Made Calgary’s Streets Safer

Through initiating the Downtown Safety Leadership Table to address the root issues of Calgarians’ safety concerns and providing appropriate funding to Calgary’s emergency services, Mayor Gondek has taken diverse action towards creating a safer city. By speaking with experts and community members, these actions will create long-lasting and meaningful impact in the wellbeing and comfort of all Calgarians.

Led Transformation of Calgary’s Arts and Culture Sector

The Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza transformations will enhance the way Calgarians experience and access our vibrant arts and culture sector.  Collaboration with other orders of government have established this as a key expansion to the revitalization of our city.

Priorities

As Mayor of Calgary, my top priorities are ensuring the safety of our community, practicing fiscal responsibility, and investing in critical infrastructure to meet the needs of all Calgarians.

1.

Public
Safety

Making sure that every Calgarian feels safe living in our city has been a top priority since I was elected. Bringing together a leadership table to determine best first steps in addressing public safety concerns and creating meaningful solutions helped City Council find opportunity for stronger investment in public transit safety, emergency services budgets, and taking proper care of our vulnerable communities.

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2.

The
Economy

Growing our economy means expanding our investment opportunities, being fiscally responsible and making bigger, bolder decisions towards our future. Calgary’s innovation and creative action has led to an increase in investments towards greener infrastructure development, helping ensure Calgary is a place people want to keep calling home and to keep attracting new talent.

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3.

Water
Infrastructure

Demonstrating leadership during Calgary’s recent water emergency, the Mayor's advocacy with other orders of government was critical. Her ability to communicate with Calgarians, collaborate with third-party experts in the oil and gas industry, and lead the City during a state of local emergency ensured a swift resolution and minimized future risks. And she’s committed to protecting the City’s infrastructure now and into the future.

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Issues

Housing

Ensuring all Calgarians have a place to call home amidst a housing crisis is a critical component to building vibrant communities and a thriving city. As more people from across Canada, and the world, choose to establish Calgary as home, it is becoming evermore important that everyone has access to dignified housing.

We have made strides through the city’s housing strategy to maintain access to affordable housing. Leading the country in innovation, downtown office conversions in our city centre have started to develop housing that will contribute to our downtown revitalization. In collaboration with other orders of government, we can provide Calgarians with more housing opportunities to ensure that no-one is left behind.

Budget

Creating a balanced budget in a world of changing circumstances requires saving responsibly for the future, while also taking advantage of current opportunities. Allocating the budget to build initiatives and programs that better the lives of Calgarians means investing into the now, and the future of our city for long-lasting impacts.

We have increased funding for programs that will ensure our city’s growth, like investing in clean energy projects or increasing budgets that contribute to building safety in Calgary. Previous savings have allowed us to start development on new infrastructure that will contribute to a growing economy and culture.

New Arena

In October 2023, Mayor Gondek reached final agreements to begin developing a new space for Calgarians to connect. A project of this scale represents significant investments and collaboration between different orders of government and local organizations - it signifies the opportunity to revitalize our city and attract talent from across the world.

A new events centre in Calgary will contribute to the city’s economic development and downtown revitalization strategy by creating thousands of jobs, garnering substantial investments into our city, and fostering spaces for community building. Whether you’re a Calgary Flames fan or learning to skate, the new arena and surrounding area will have something for everyone.

Arts Commons

Being home to countless arts productions and programs, and host to an unforgettable 1988 winter Olympics and place for community gathering, the Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza have played a significant role in shaping Calgary’s arts and culture sectors.

The ways in which Jyoti has advocated to other orders of government for these transformations is a testament to its importance to Calgary’s growth. Expanding and modernizing the Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza is a commitment to Calgary’s downtown revitalization strategy, and investments will help enhance the ways and opportunities in which Calgarians can interact with these sectors of our city.

Greenline

The Greenline has been under significant consideration for over a decade and has required serious commitment from the city and its advocacy to other orders of government to begin development. Transit systems that work efficiently are transit systems that people want to use, that is why investments into this project go beyond installing train tracks and are investments into the livelihoods of Calgarians.

The Greenline contributes to accessibility by providing Calgarians with reliable transit services across different corners of the city. Phase 1 connects our downtown and existing LRT systems to growing communities and commercial sectors in the southeast. Improving traffic flows by reducing vehicles on major roadways also helps in lowering Calgary’s carbon footprint, meaning that the Greenline not only makes life easier now, but it will also improve our future.

Water Emergency

When the Bearspaw main water feeder broke on June 5th, it shaped the way the city responds to emergencies. Communicating with Calgarians, not only about critical updates, but about how we can best support our communities and neighbours, was crucial to maintaining sustainable water levels in the Glenmore Reservoir. Providing Calgarians with knowledge and motivation, the city was able to conserve water and efficiently repair the pipe.

This was not possible without the tireless efforts from construction crews who worked around the clock to return water flow to all Calgarians, or the oil and gas companies and other orders of government who provided their insight so that the city can monitor and improve maintenance strategies on our water infrastructure. A big thank you to everyone who played their part and went above and beyond during this emergency.