'Crumbs in the cupboard': Calgary council members square off over funding plan for 4 major projects

Metaphors wreaked havoc in council Monday, when several members took exception to how Coun. Jeromy Farkas chose to characterize the funding of four major projects —  the BMO Centre, a new event centre, Arts Commons and a field house — that council has voted to move forward on.

The fracas started when Farkas expressed frustration that there was not a satisfactory level of transparency regarding where all of the money will come from to pay for the four major projects council wants to pursue. 

"I won't be supporting this at this point, because I still feel there is not the degree of transparency that I would like to see in terms of this financial strategy," Farkas said.

"His Worship described the strategy as looking through the cupboards, trying to find where various crumbs were. We haven't really detailed all the sources of the crumbs. We've identified some of them, but we haven't been, in my opinion, fully transparent with Calgarians in terms of the sources of the funding."

• More details expected on how Calgary plans to pay its share of four major projects

'Irresponsible'

Coun. Druh Farrell described the plan to take $400 million out of reserve funds as "financially reckless".

Coun. Ward Sutherland disagreed, although what got his ire wasn't the fact that Farkas didn't agree with his view of the projects. He just didn't like the way Farkas framed the disagreement.

"I have no issues with disagreements," Sutherland said.

"What I don't think is OK is to mislead people, and to make statements in the press and in public that mislead people, our citizens, so they misunderstand the situation. I think it's reckless that we do so.

"In my lifespan of 30-plus years in business, and running large divisions, etc, first of all, I'm insulted to call this 'reckless', because I don't think it's a reckless business decision — it's about accepting levels of risk."

Sutherland was also upset about comments Farkas made in a Calgary newspaper recently, in which Farkas said the decision to tap in to $400 million in reserves was based on "very rosy assumptions" that, he said, "compromises our ability to respond in the event of a disaster or a continued economic downturn downtown."

"I find the whole thing to be a Hail Mary strategy," Farkas wrote.

Leveraged money

Sutherland disputed the characterization of the strategy of investing in the four major projects as a 'Hail Mary', arguing that there are strict financial conditions governing each project, and safeguards in place should those financial conditions not be met.

All the money the city is spending is to be leveraged as well, Sutherland added.

"Leveraged money means we put in one dollar and we get either one or two dollars for every dollar invested. And there's positive economic impact by doing so. It's a wise use of money. It's a smart use of money.

"So to say it's reckless — it's not."

Coun. Jyoti Gondek said supporting the big four projects was a vote in favour of the city's future.

"I didn't go looking for crumbs in the cupboard. That is some sort of a statement that one of my colleagues made that I don't agree with at all," she said.

"I actually went and looked at where we have money and where it can be used responsibly for projects that we need to make a commitment to.

"I am committed to the future of this city. That's why I voted in favour of this.

"It's in no way a Hail Mary for me."

Another Farkas motion to debate council pensions was rejected as being out of order.