All federal parties respond to city's YYC Matters survey after slow start

Some replies trickled in late, but Mayor Naheed Nenshi confirmed that all five major political parties have responded to the YYC Matters election survey by Thursday evening.

The Liberals and the Green Party turned surveys in to the city on Wednesday, which was the deadline.

The Conservative Party, the People's Party and the NDP were each a day late, and submitted their answers on Thursday.

Rempel, Nenshi face off

Michelle Rempel, the federal Conservative candidate for Calgary-Nosehill, addressed the party's response to YYC Matters at a Thursday morning news conference.

She said that the survey's completion was delayed because the party was not aware of it until Wednesday.

"Given that we are the only party that stands up for the city time and time again, we were more than happy as a team, we spent a lot of time yesterday, all of us, to respond in a fulsome way to this survey," Rempel said.

"We're the only party that cares about this city. We're the only party that has got its back."

After Rempel's news conference, she mistakenly declared on Twitter that the Conservatives were the only party that completed the survey by the city's deadline.

A feisty exchange unfolded after Nenshi replied that the Greens and the Liberals had beaten them to the punch.

"Michelle, can we assume this is the official Conservative response? We had asked all the party HQs to respond directly to an email address by yesterday (as the Liberals and Greens did)," Nenshi tweeted.

"Yeesh. Get it together. The people we represent hate this sort of stuff," Rempel wrote in response.

Parties differentiated by arts funding, energy policies

YYC Matters is a campaign created by the city that asks competing political parties to specify how their platforms would affect Calgarians.

It focuses on issues including the energy sector, transportation, housing and infrastructure.

According to their response, the Conservatives will prioritize job creation in Calgary by standing up for the energy sector and cutting taxes.

The party reiterated its pledge to repeal the carbon tax and the controversial Bill C-69, which came into law in August.

However, the Conservatives have come out against new funding for the Green Line, saying the proposed length of the train route has decreased while the expense has ballooned.

"Bluntly put, decisions have been made by [city] council which prevent the communities that need the train the most from getting it," the party said in the response.

The party also refrained from committing any funding to Arts Commons.

The Liberals, meanwhile, emphasized the approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and efforts to help Calgary with flood mitigation. 

The Liberals also pledged to help fund "one-third of the Arts Commons building project" to the tune of $80 million.

The party stated that it plans on continuing to invest in public transit, saying that "this will mean an additional $3 billion more per year in stable, predictable funding for our cities' transit needs, on top of transfers through the federal Gas Tax Fund."

Full results to be posted Friday

Nenshi told the Calgary Eyeopener in September that the survey is an effort to keep federal parties from overlooking Calgary because it has often voted conservatively.

"Even though the votes in Calgary might be considered a bit foregone, there is a real view from the federal ... parties, or at least I hope there will be, on making sure Calgary is successful — otherwise, the rest of their plans won't work," Nenshi said.

On Twitter, he said that all of the party's responses will be analyzed and posted for voters to read on Friday, so that voters can consider the answers over the long weekend.