Mayor Naheed Nenshi is decrying the contents of a video taken of a prominent Calgary developer who is outlining a plan to control council’s decisions on new developments.
The video shows a meeting with Cal Wenzel, founder of Shane Homes, during a presentation.
During the presentation, Wenzel talks about targeting specific councillors who are best in line with their way of thinking prior to the election.
He also mentions current and former municipal and provincial politicians by name.
Mayor Nenshi says the idea of council votes being guaranteed with campaign donations is wrong.
“It seems that, on this video, we had someone saying that they had certain members of council ready to go, to vote the way they do. I don’t believe it for a second. I work with these people ever single day and I don’t think that a single one of them is bought and paid for by anybody.”
Councillor Andre Chabot says that he isn’t seeing any consistency in the votes on council, but is still concerned. “If there’s intent to make that happen, then I’d say, well, that is a bit disconcerting.”
Ward 12 Councillor Shane Keating says he accepted an $1,100 donation from Wenzel last year, but says that he was in no way influenced by the developer.
Nenshi says there is more to the video that hasn’t been released publicly so far, including some things he believes may be violations of the Elections Act.
(With files from Bill Macfarlane)
