In the 1970s, Calgary had politicians bold enough to use their political will to build legacy parks such as Nose Hill Park and Fish Creek Park.
Creating these parks required a large investment in land acquisition and the change to long-standing city development plans for those areas. In 2003, the city began the Enmax Legacy Park Program to provide funding for these types of “destination parks.” The program is a capital funding initiative that directs a portion of the annual Enmax dividend to park creation.
The fund also takes the pressure off council to decide where and when to create destination regional parks.
Since I started advocacy for the Nose Creek corridor, this legacy park fund has always baffled me. How does a park project get on this list? Who decides the priority? How can the public influence this list?
During the June 12 city infrastructure and planning committee meeting, administration gave an update on the parks program. Council’s questions echoed my uncertainty about the program and process. The responses to council’s questions were that councillors should schedule private meetings with the parks team. As the city general manager put it in the June 12 meeting notes, they were “not here today asking for approval on the list or asking for approval on budget.”
Proper governance is needed for this fund. Private, closed-door meetings are unacceptable.
There have been efforts to govern this fund in the past. From 2014-16 there was a steering committee. In 2021, a notice of motion attempted to reinstate the committee; in March of 2022 they had the first (and last) meeting of the Legacy Parks Program committee. In that meeting, they transferred the mandate of this fund to the infrastructure and planning committee but, as we are learning, that committee is not given the opportunity to publicly discuss this list’s priorities.
It’s super confusing. Transparency is key to ensuring the public’s confidence in the legacy parks decision-making process.
With a lack of governance or clarity on this funding, it puts the whole program at risk. In the budget adjustments at the end of 2023, administration proposed (and council approved) a reduction of the Enmax contribution. They moved to use more of the dividend funds for other general capital expenditures, due to a larger increase in the dividend this past year.
They took funding from the parks fund instead of using that increased money to complete projects on the list.
There are many communities across the city advocating for naturalized green spaces. Ricardo Ranch in the south and Nose Creek in the north are currently not on the list. They are slipping through the cracks as there is no committee dedicated to identifying their potential to be added.
Ironically, when city council was contemplating reinstating the committee, this lack of governance was identified as a potential risk in the Nov. 1, 2021, community services report to the organizational meeting of council: “The risk of not reinstating the Legacy Parks Program committee and approving the terms of reference is that new and existing park development opportunities are not identified and executed in a timely and equitable manner, and there may be a potential delay in projects that will benefit Calgarians, our economy and our environment.”
The Enmax Legacy Park Program update is heading to council in July. It will be up to councillors to make sure the voices of the community and advocacy are reflected on this list, and governance is brought back to this fund.
Let’s actually leave a legacy for future Calgarians to enjoy.
Andrew Yule is president of the Nose Creek Preservation Society.