As your Mayor, I will work with our local agencies and businesses to promote our economic and tourism opportunities. When people around the world speak of Calgary, they will say three things:

• We are the energy capital of North America
• We are the home of the greatest outdoor show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede
• And we are the home of the National Training Centre for Canada’s Olympic athletes

Calgary will be known as the city that drives the Canadian economy. We are an exciting place to live and we seek excellence in everything we do. We will be known as a city that has a high quality of living that will attract tourism, investment opportunities, and economic prosperity. It`s a city of action.

Speaking of action, I believe transportation concerns will be a key priority for Calgarians in this municipal election. Calgarians have told me loud and clear that they want City Hall to continue to improve infrastructure and to do it right the first time. We will prioritize and manage construction projects in order to minimize the impact on today’s roads. With this in mind, we need to focus on three key transportation projects for this new Council.

I believe that construction of the Airport Tunnel is an absolute necessity. Let me explain.Currently, the airport runways are positioned between Deerfoot and Barlow. This allows north-south access to the airport via Deerfoot and Barlow. The Calgary Airport Authority is a quasi governmental body which is able to implement decisions independently from the City of Calgary. They have decided that the Calgary International Airport requires a new runway and they plan to build the new runway east of Barlow Trail. The result is that Barlow Trail will be permanently closed effective April 2011 without any plan to maintain the present amount of access to the airport or to increase it. This is wrong to me. In fact, we need more east-west corridors in the northeast quadrant to move goods and people, not less.

If there is a business case for expanding our runways, surely an increase in transportation should follow. Here is the problem: the City of Calgary has not worked with the Airport Authority. Meaningful communication and consensus building has not occurred. Indeed, the Airport Authority are so fed up, they are actually saying that it is too late to build a tunnel. They say that the existing council had its chance and has done nothing, so they will plow ahead with the new runway.

The fact is it’s not too late. No ground has been turned for the new runway. There is a good solution to this problem. It is a solution that North Eastern Calgarians have been discussing for the last two years and it is a solution that is good for all Calgarians. The tunnel will allow Airport Trail to continue east under the new runway and ultimately connect Deerfoot with the Eastern ring road.

If the tunnel is not done at the same time, future costs will grow by four times and we cannot tolerate wasting hundreds of millions of your dollars because we won’t do things right the first time.

But we will not stop at building a tunnel for the movement of vehicles and goods. To be a world class city, we need an LRT to the airport and we will extend the line to the airport by 2015.

Why would we choose the LRT to the airport? Consider the Airport is the third largest employment sector in the city and third largest international airport in Canada - welcoming more than 14 million visitors per year. It is crucial that YYC remains a readily accessible gateway to further travel, tourism and economic development for Calgarians and Alberta as a whole. Ottawa has supported major public transportation in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. It’s time for Ottawa to invest in the city that actually drives Canada’s economy. It is our time to ask for our fair share and the time is now.

Finally, we need a solution for the Southwest ring road. The people who live in the deep southwest have had enough. As the former member of Council who warned the Province and City Council about approving a casino before the ring road deal was reached, I am as frustrated as the people who live in the area. We need a better north – south access in this corridor for Calgarians. I will begin to have open houses this summer to meet Calgarians and ask them about their thoughts. We will work with the province to find a solution and deliver a vital transportation corridor for the people who live in this area. Continue reading