City of Calgary makes massive cuts to social services one day after endorsing a new arena.

This is a rather ugly look for both the City of Calgary and the Calgary Flames, and you certainly do not have to take my word for it. 

According to a stunning report from the Calgary Herald, just one day after city council endorsed a new arena they have made massive slashes to vital social services in the City of Calgary. The cuts will hit key parts of the cities infrastructure including the bus and CTrain service as well as fire services and affordable housing. This will not only impact the taxpayer however in terms of services however, according to the Herald the cuts across 48 different service lines will also cost 115 municipal employees their jobs.

“I take no joy in this,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi this week as per the Herald. “Council had many, many options to deal with this small business tax shift. Many of those options would have helped the small businesses to a very similar extent that we’re helping them without requiring mid-year tax cuts. We can’t do this again.”

Although a broad plan for the cuts had previously been discussed, the full details of the planned cuts were not revealed to citizens until the very meeting at which the members of city council voted on it. The vote was not unanimous, passing by a margin of 13 - 1, but it was not very far off either and has clearly left a bad taste behind the mouths of the citizens of Calgary. The deal appears to have been negotiated behind closed doors and although there is no direct link to the proposed arena, the timing of the announcement seems like too much to be merely a coincidence. 

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has been taking some serious flak from his constituents over this new deal, with some angry citizens even calling for him to resign from his current position. 

"So we pay $550 Million to get $400million in 35 years, what kind of stupid idea is this," said one respondent. "You are robbing our future and kids future so some rich men can have a fancy stadium."

"[The events centre] can act as a catalyst to speed up development." Why are you acting like a used car salesman instead of the no-nonsense technocrat I voted for in 2010? Not once do you mention that by the city's own analysis, this is a big net loss (-47 million) for the city," said another.

And as previously mentioned there were rampant calls for Nenshi's resignation.

Needless to say this is not how you want to usher in a new arena deal. Only time will tell how Calgarians will respond to these seemingly unpopular announcements.