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Taxpayer-funded greetings from Calgary councillors on public signage will quickly be a factor of the previous, after metropolis council supported a bylaw modification Tuesday that prohibits the observe.
Council voted 7-6 in favour of an modification to their budgets and bills bylaw, which can forestall councillors from utilizing their ward budgets to pay for personalised greetings on billboards or different public indicators.
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Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian proposed the modification, stating the greetings are a refined manner to make use of tax {dollars} to extend a politician’s identify and facial recognition.
Mian stated she has no concern with councillors’ budgets funding commercials for upcoming group occasions or “engagement alternatives,” however that expensing a billboard advert that solely needs constituents a cheerful vacation is a thinly-veiled campaigning technique that will increase incumbent candidates’ benefit throughout election season and “doesn’t present any tangible group profit.”
“It’s the distinction between saying ‘Completely happy Stampede’ on a billboard, versus saying ‘Completely happy Stampede — come to an occasion,’” she stated. “Should you’re offering a public occasion, that’s nice. That’s a chance to have interaction.
“However simply utilizing an indication to place your identify and face on prominently, I don’t assume it’s an excellent use of public cash.”
Whereas the proposed modification initially failed in a 3-3 tie on the council companies committee assembly earlier this month, Mian stated she nonetheless needed council as an entire to debate the concept.
“There are some people who’re doing this, so I’m not stunned that they’re not in favour of supporting it, as a result of it means they received’t have the ability to proceed doing that,” she stated.
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“It obtained the help of council at the moment and I feel that’s a optimistic step.”
Councillors who voted in opposition to the modification included Dan McLean, Sean Chu, Jennifer Wyness, Terry Wong, Raj Dhaliwal and Andre Chabot. Couns. Peter Demong and Sonya Sharp weren’t current for Tuesday’s vote.
On the committee assembly on March 7, McLean had known as the modification “nitpicking,” and that public greetings include the territory of being an elected official.
Dhaliwal had argued that some constituents who observe spiritual holidays, comparable to Ramadan, respect when their council consultant acknowledges these celebrations publicly within the type of a billboard greeting.
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