Even the title of city manager is now history. Bureaucratic semantics perhaps, but it neatly captures that change
Disastrous as this current council is proving since its term began in 2021, the rot set in several years earlier.
It started with the erosion of that vital balance between those hired to carry out competent and efficient civic administration and those elected by Calgarians to provide overall direction, by expressing views on matters specific to their ward and general to the city. Such division of powers — akin to church and state — is key to the proper functioning not only of local government but democracy itself.
When things first changed it didn’t appear a big deal to most of us. It simply seemed to involve some civic big-shot deciding to switch jobs because of personal reasons.
But, when city manager Jeff Fielding called it quits in early 2019 and returned to Central Canada to rejoin his family after more than four years overseeing Calgary’s civic administration, it upended a delicate political balance: slowly but surely it would be the mayor and councillors alone who knew best, and pity anyone questioning that arrangement.
Fielding wasn’t the only top bureaucrat to leave our city around that time. Other department heads also moved on, making it easier for Mayor Naheed Nenshi to stand centre stage in both setting and implementing the agenda. Since then, things have not gone well, and when Nenshi left office the new mayor — alongside a collection of first-time councillors — showed little interest in turning the clock back to a time when managing our city meant showing restraint.
Even the title of city manager is now history. Bureaucratic semantics perhaps, but it neatly captures that change.
Meanwhile, during this period, all manner of emotional social movements arose — Me Too, Black Lives Matter, Green is Great and transgender advocacy swept North America, inspiring some Calgary councillors to imagine this was now part of their mandate.
Fielding would have reminded them their primary job was ensuring the city worked properly and ratepayers got value for money. After all, he’d managed to find $600 million in budgetary savings after the vicious economic downturn of 2015, when those international energy majors fled Calgary’s downtown.
He explained this philosophy in a CBC interview after calling it quits. “You’ve got to make sure you’re identifying where you don’t need to spend money, where do you have inventory, where can you save in overtime. How can you save in terms of your salary dollars? The main goal of mine was to say: ‘If we didn’t need to spend it, don’t spend it.’ ”
And he understood how politicians get carried away, tilting at causes far removed from running a city. “Every once in a while, it’s necessary to get them off the track that they’re on and get them to do a reset. You can see when they’re starting to spiral and starting to churn, and sometimes it’s necessary just to break that. You can do it in a variety of different ways. Sometimes it’s a stern word that catches their attention. Other times, I’ll try to say something funny.”
These days, Calgarians aren’t laughing. The joke is on us as city administration happily cheerleads a cabal of councillors that provides Mayor Jyoti Gondek with an effective ruling majority.
Remember, it was the administration that tried pushing through an end to Canada Day fireworks because it smacked of racism and environmental flippancy. Even Gondek’s crew couldn’t back that silliness.
So, today, council and civic administration are in the same rowboat, pulling against a riptide of increasing public outrage. It’s why Calgary’s becoming a laughing stock — rationing water, massive rate hikes, rezoning outrage, pointless but costly bike lane construction — while the provincial government gleefully steps in and humiliates council over the Green Line transit boondoggle.
Simply put, there was no adult left in the room to prevent this. The last one fled town almost six years ago.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist.