Marathon rezoning meeting and transit troubles among Calgary City Hall's biggest stories of 2024

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 bag fee was officially tossed later in the year, thus starting another busy year at City Hall.

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.

Rezoning takes centre stage

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.

A person holds a sign protesting Calgary's city-wide rezoning. (CTV News)

Regardless, the land use amendment passed by a 9-6 vote after the three-week public hearing.

A decision on a judicial review against the bylaw is expected sometime in early January.

Recall petition and rough approval ratings

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.

A sign promoting the Recall Gondek campaign in Calgary. (CTV News)

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 per cent, while only 33 per cent 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. I think this is very much indicative of the mood in Calgary now," said Marc Henry, ThinkHQ president, in June.

Water woes

A massive water main break in early June prompted city-wide water restrictions, cost more than $20 million for emergency repairs and launched a discussion about managing aging infrastructure.

A person collects water from a water truck following a water main break in northwest Calgary in June 2024. (CTV News)

Approximately 30 breaks and “hot spots” along the Bearspaw South Feeder Main had to be repaired over the span of nearly five months.

"In general, we have a huge infrastructure deficit. Our infrastructure is way behind in its maintenance and updating. It's underfunded. And so. I'm not surprised there are more problems," said Mike Martens with the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association back in August.

An independent engineering firm's report for the city in December indicated microcracking to the outer layer of the pipe that put soil in contact with reinforcement wires underneath, causing the wires to corrode.

This weakened the pipe's ability to withstand pressure, causing it to burst. Another independent review panel is being headed up by Siegfried Kiefer and will also look into the feeder main break, determine why it happened and what needs to be done to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

The latest review is expected to take about a year to complete.

Stop-and-go Green Line

One of the biggest stories to emerge from city hall surrounded Calgary's largest-ever infrastructure project. Whether the Green Line LRT project will actually roll ahead is still yet to be seen.

Artist rendering of the proposed 26 Ave SE/Crossroads station on the Green Line

Officials revealed in July that the first phase of the transit project had climbed to $6.2 billion. In the months following, the provincial government stated it would no longer support the project as planned and ordered its own review.

"We now have spent $2.1 billion literally on a train to nowhere. Zero kilometres," said Ward 6 Coun. Kourtney Penner in September.

Construction continued, then stopped, and then partially started up again. A report ordered by the provincial government was released in December showing a recommended elevated line through the Beltline and downtown.

The report redacted specific costing details and city officials say the new proposed route would cost upwards of $7.5 billion.

"We have been very clear that the city cannot manage this financially on our own, that we can't manage the risk of what's being proposed," Mayor Gondek said in December.

The Alberta government has stated it will not cover any cost overruns or take on any legal risk for the project.

Calgary council will need to vote in January whether to accept the provincial alignment or halt the project for now.

Last year marked the final full calendar year for this current council. The next municipal election is slated to take place in October.