| City council is urging the Klein government to resurrect an urban parks funding program that was killed during the budget rollbacks of the 1990s.
After joining the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association earlier this month in a general plea for more provincial funding, council is supporting a proposal to bring back the Urban Parks Program, a lauded funding initiative that was eliminated in 1995 during the so-called Klein Revolution. At that time, Calgary had received only $2.8 million of the $15 million it would have been eligible for.
Ald. Barry Erskine says without some financial help from the province, Calgary won’t be able to put aside land to create more large urban parks like Nose Hill and Fish Creek, which he thinks are already overused. He argues that the city’s borders are swelling faster than it can afford to buy new parks.
"Fish Creek park has… literally been trampled. It’s been overused," he says. "In the 10 short years I’ve been on council, we’ve seen Fish Creek go from being (in the) far south and Nose Hill in the far north… Now both are almost in the middle of the city."
Erskine says the city should be looking ahead and buying larger tracts of land for the future. He even suggests preserving land along the Elbow River corridor to the west because the city may eventually engulf the area.
Ald. Ric McIvor says the issue is bigger than simply urban parks, and he wants the provincial government to make good on its previous commitments.
"It’s a huge issue – a city issue – and one we have to address," McIvor says. "This is a good program and… some pressure should be put on (the provincial government) for cancelling the program. Cancelling it wasn’t a good idea."
The original Urban Parks Program was introduced by the province in 1978, and over the years it helped fund the development of Fish Creek Provincial Park and upgrades to Prince’s Island Park.
A proposal to reintroduce the program was initiated by the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association and has been presented to a number of government officials, although it has no formal support at the provincial level. Under the proposal, the province would fund the capital development of parks while local municipalities would pay for their maintenance. The proposal asks for $130 million over five years, of which Calgary would be eligible for more than $26 million.
Although council unanimously threw its support behind the proposal at a meeting on September 23, Ald. Joe Ceci cautions that council should be wary of asking for too much from the province.
"Buying land for parks isn’t the only significant expense the city has," Ceci says, adding that homelessness and poverty are both important issues.
"I think it’s important for the city to (support) an urban parks proposal, but I wouldn’t want that to rise to the… top of the agenda for Calgary." |
