A chill has set into the relationship between Nenshi and Redford
Posted Dec 21, 2011 7:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just days ago, Calgary’s mayor and Alberta’s premier were on the same page, both talking about reducing red tape and becoming more transparent in their respective levels of government.
That has now changed, thanks to a comment by Premier Alison Redford during a stop in Calgary on Tuesday.
The war of words erupted between Mayor Naheed Nenshi and the premier after she made comments about council’s decision to go ahead with a six per cent property tax increase.
“You’ll see references to the fact that this is a fiscally conservative approach. Now it may or may not be. I think a six per cent increase isn’t,” said Redford.
The comment clearly bothered Nenshi, who tells The Calgary Sun he feels it was “a total drive by,” pointing out the provincial governments 12.8 per cent tax hike last year.
The mayor went ahead with the six per cent increase, but was reluctant to do so.
He made it very clear throughout the budget talks he wanted to hold the line at just five per cent, but additional money given to the police budget made that impossible.
