Airdrie Minute: Issue 121

Airdrie Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Airdrie politics

📅 This Week In Airdrie: 📅

• There are no Council or Committee meetings this week. The next scheduled meeting is a Subdivision and Development Appeal Board hearing on Thursday, July 30th at 9:00 am.
  
  
• Airdrie's Policing Committee has accepted an RCMP request for additional officers that would push local policing costs up by roughly $811,000 in 2027, a figure the City says represents a 0.87% tax increase. The Committee accepted the RCMP's 2027 to 2030 resource request as information at its July 8th meeting. The 2027 increase would cover two new positions, a sergeant for the Community Unit and a plainclothes corporal for the Crime Reduction Unit, at an approximate cost of $520,000. The plan also calls for three more constables in 2028 and 2029, two of them assigned to the Municipal Traffic Unit, and a further corporal in 2029 and 2030. The RCMP told the Committee it is still unknown when the next RCMP contract will be finalized, and has advised the City to budget an additional 3.5% for retroactive pay once it is signed. 
  
  
• The City of Airdrie has purchased 160 acres of industrial land in the northeast of the city for $12,784,000, buying the quarter section in the East Points area from Westside Land Corporation. The purchase supports the East Points Community Area Structure Plan, which Council approved in December 2020 to guide long-term industrial development in the city's northeast. The City says the land addresses a shortage of shovel-ready employment land identified in its 2018 to 2028 economic strategy. Administration expects to begin a neighbourhood structure plan for the site, to be completed by early 2027, before the land is ready for development. The City says the investment will eventually generate business tax revenue and create local employment.
  
  
• A Calgary City Council Committee has voted 9-0 to explore integrating transit fares between Calgary and Airdrie, a step Airdrie Mayor Heather Spearman requested in June when she approached Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas about the idea. Airdrie already runs its own transit service, including the Inter-City Express to downtown Calgary and a route to the Rundle LRT station, but riders who transfer onto Calgary Transit currently have to pay a second fare. The proposal would study whether a single integrated fare is workable, with a progress update due in early 2027. Not every Calgary Councillor was comfortable: Ward 1 Councillor Kim Tyers said Administration had brought forward no cost estimate or full report to support the request, and Ward 10 Councillor Andre Chabot warned against Calgary's already heavily subsidized transit system taking on the cost of Airdrie passengers. Airdrie's own 10-year transit master plan, approved in April, already contemplates fare integration with Calgary. Calgary Transit will fold the question into a broader fare review now underway.
  
  
• Airdrie's shared e-scooter service is changing operators, with Lime set to replace Neuron Mobility after Lime acquired Neuron's Canadian operations. The City says Neuron's orange e-scooters have been removed from service and Lime scooters are expected to appear around the city within days. The City said Lime will take over Neuron's role and that the fleet size will stay the same, with the number of scooters adjusted based on demand. The City's existing operating rules, safety expectations, and permitted riding areas will remain in effect under Lime. The City says the transition is largely administrative, and the Neuron app now prompts users to download the Lime app. 
   

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨