Hello Ward 8,
October has been a
hard month.
On October 15, three
people died after a crash involving two Calgary Transit buses in the northeast.
My thoughts are with their families, with everyone who was hurt, and with the
transit operators and first responders who were there. One police officer ran
onto a burning bus to save a child. We must learn why this happened and what
will prevent it from happening again.
Two days later, four
members of the Canadian Armed Forces were killed and dozens more injured when a
fire swept through a training area at CFB Wainwright. With Remembrance Day less
than a month away, this loss will be with all of us.
If you’re like me,
it’s been hard to know where to put your attention this month, especially with
other events affecting our province and country. Mine is firmly on the
four-year budget coming in November. Before this begins, I want to hear from
you about the outcomes you want to see.
You will find more
information below about our upcoming open house on October 28 from 6:30-8:30
p.m. at the Richmond Knob Hill Community Association. I will be there with the
Ward 8 Team to answer your questions and hear your feedback. We will also be joined
by staff from multiple City departments, who will give more information about the
services they provide for you every day.
We will also be
releasing a survey in the coming days so we can hear directly from you about
what matters. This will inform my decisions as Council works through the budget
in November.
The proposed budget
will be posted on the City’s website on November 3 for anyone to download and
review. Council’s first budget meeting is November 10. That same day, the City
opens registration to speak at the public hearing on November 23 and to send written
comments. You’ll find the link below.
A few other updates:
Our Calgary Plan
Survey closes on October 22, and we’d love to hear from more of you. If you’re
not familiar with the Calgary Plan or want to learn more, follow the link in
the newsletter section below where you can read all about it on the Ward 8
website.
I’m happy to finally
announce that the Vote Tracker section of the Ward 8 website is live. You can
go to this page to see important Council votes and read about what they meant
and why I voted the way I did. There are still a few gaps to be filled, and the
page will be updated as Council votes. You can always reach out to us if
there’s something not on the page that you would like to learn more about.
As we move closer to
budget, our office will be all-hands-on-deck working through updated
information, meeting with community and stakeholders, and preparing amendments.
Before this happens, we are working together to catch up on all unanswered
correspondence. We appreciate your patience as we work through each message and
want to lead into November all caught up.
I look forward to
writing to you all again in November!
All the best,
Nathaniel Schmidt
Ward 8 Calgary City Councillor
