When a new home is built in Ward 8, the builder covers the entire cost for the required New infrastructure. This same standard must be applied across the City.
In 2011, Council approved a new development levy agreement for new suburban communities in Calgary. This new agreement more than doubled the levy that developers had to pay to build necessary infrastructure to support growth including fire halls, roads, recreation centres, libraries and utilities such as water treatment plants. In the previous agreements, approved in 2000 and 2005, no water and sewer infrastructure was covered by this levy, which resulted in significant amounts of debt that all Calgarians now have to pay for through taxes and utility bills.
The 2011 agreement included water and sewer infrastructure and increased the levy from about $7500 per home to over $15,000 per home and now sits at over $17,000. It is estimated the levy would have to increase about $4800 to fully cover the cost to support new community growth. The 2011 agreement didn’t close the gap completely, but was a substantial increase at one time and a reasonable step toward eliminating the subsidy.
This coming term the City will be establishing a new 5 year levy agreement. As your City Councillor I will support eliminating this subsidy altogether so that residents in the established communities in Ward 8 do not have to subsidise suburban sprawl.
