MORGAN： Gondek’s climate emergency is already over
Episode Stats
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Summary
Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek and the majority of her council declared a climate emergency on Nov. 15th. On Nov. 16th, she welcomed the entry of ultra-affordable airline Lynx Air into the city.
Transcript
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On the night of November 15th, Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek and the majority of the city's
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council boldly declared a climate emergency. On Tuesday, November 16th, Gondek proved the
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declaration to be little more than empty virtue signaling as she welcomed the entry of the new
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ultra-affordable Lynx Air into Calgary. Now, Lynx Air plans to set up shop in Calgary and is going
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to be putting 46 new Boeing 737s into the air, providing low fare service for travelers. The
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airline headquarters will be in Calgary and they anticipate employing hundreds of Calgarians.
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Sounds like good news. Gondek called the announcement a big one and said it means
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new and diverse jobs. It means inter-regional movements. It means a boost to our tourism
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and more opportunities and greater access for Calgarians who travel for business and pleasure.
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I agree with Gondek. This is good news for Calgary, but how does this gel with Gondek's words when it
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comes to declaring a climate emergency? Casual travelers, pleasure travelers? I mean, these are
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optional things and they're going to be burning up our earth. I mean, according to Gondek, climate
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change is such a huge issue and so pressing it needed to be the first major order of business for
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as Calgary's new mayor. When the second order of business is to embrace the expansion of casual air
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travel and the significant emissions that come along with it, it appears Gondek's trying to suck and blow
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at the same time. Air travel is one of the world's biggest contributors to climate change and emissions.
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Just ask one of the 40,000 people who flew to Glasgow last month to attend a conference to fight climate
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change. About 2.4% of emissions come from aviation. When you couple that with other gases and water vapor
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trails, aviation's been considered to be responsible for 5% of global warming. People are always being
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let your vacation close to home rather than fly. I mean, to bring down the cost of flying is only
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going to bring about more induced demand as progressive activists like to say. They say if
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we have the service, we're going to use it so more people will fly. So if Gondek truly cared about
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climate change, she'd be decrying the expansion of this earth-killing industry. She'd say, thanks,
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but no thanks, and make an example of these environmental miscreants. I mean, what better way to establish
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yourself as a climate crusader who's going to put the world's climate interests ahead of the
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almighty dollar? It's good news to see the temperature signaling when the reality hits the
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road. We're better off if she's two-faced on environmental issues rather than staying true
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to her promised crusade. In this case, we should be grateful that her promises were just talked. I
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mean, the economy's hurting, and this airline will do Calgary some good. It just exposes the hypocrisy
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of these climate emergencies. And this isn't Gondek's first reality check in her first few weeks as the
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mayor. You know, we had a recent move coming to Calgary. Gondek's response to the entry of
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Amazon's cloud computing hub in Alberta has been oddly muted. I mean, isn't this exactly the sort
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of industry Gondek and others have claimed they want for Calgary? Amazon's going to be spending
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billions and employing hundreds within Alberta with this hub. Shouldn't Gondek have been popping
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champagne corks from the rooftops over this? You'd think they'd be just head over heels. Well,
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they've been quiet. I suspect the reason that she isn't celebrating Amazon's announcement is that
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the hub actually isn't going to be within Calgary's city limits and therefore within the reach of the
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city tax man. I noticed most of the press covering the Amazon expansion speaks to the hub being in the
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Calgary area rather than in the city itself. Well, the hub's going to be probably predominantly
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employing Calgarians. It's going to be probably just like the Amazon distribution hub, and they'll put
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it right on the outskirts of the city. There's a reason for that. Investors are keen on Alberta,
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but less so with the city of Calgary itself due to the high taxes and city council known to have an
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anti-business attitude. I mean, Ninchy has set a pretty terrible example on what council thinks of
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business. Developments just outside of the city limits have proven this over the years rather
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clearly. Even if the data hub is within Calgary's city limits, it's not going to be downtown. The
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downtown that's almost empty, almost 50% is brutal. Years of public art installations and bike lanes
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haven't turned the city core into this blissful paradise attracting tech campuses as some had
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hoped. The reality needs to be faced is dollars and cents win in the end. Companies, sure, they always
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say they're going to target green bicycle-friendly cities in their mission statements, but you can bet
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when they're making decisions in the boardroom, tax and regulatory costs are the items highest on the
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agenda. Then it's finding staff and a number of other things. They really don't care if there's bike
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lanes. When she was city councilor, Gondek railed about developments outside of the city limits,
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such as Crossiron Mills Super Mall. She even flirted with the term protectionism when speaking of how
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the city should conduct itself with major projects nearby the city. She wants them stopped. She wants
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to force them into the city. Perhaps she no longer believes that her feelings don't really matter.
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Capital is going to flow to friendlier jurisdictions, and she's going to need to emulate those other
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jurisdictions rather than complain about them if she wants to draw that investment into the city.
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Gondek already insulted Calgary's oil and gas sector in saying we must move beyond them.
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It's one of her first orders of business. Never mind that the bulk of the city's commercial revenues
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are still coming from the few remaining oil and gas companies still hanging around in Calgary's
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moribund downtown. At best, we can hope to retain the energy companies that we already have.
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I can't see other hydrocarbon-based companies being enthusiastic with the prospect of setting up shop
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in a city governed by a mayor and council so openly hostile to them. I will offer a tip for Gondek.
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There's a great market to be tapped for head offices that just opened up, and that market
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is in Quebec. We can bring those people here. Quebec's premier, Francois Legault,
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ominously stated he wants to identify CEOs within the province who don't speak French,
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and he's going to convince them to learn. How intrusive is this witch hunt for non-French
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business leaders going to get? And how aggressive will his efforts to convince them
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to switch languages be? I imagine there's a number of CEOs who are both offended and afraid
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of where Legault is going with things. What better time could there be to reach out to these business
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leaders and try to draw them into Calgary? We could provide a stable home for these CEOs and
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companies that they represent. The city could be a safe haven for business leaders fleeing the
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crippling linguistic and ethnic insecurity demonstrated by Quebec's political leaders.
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I mean, let's face it, they got the most racist legislation in the developed world, and we overlook
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it. These would be the diverse new businesses for Calgary and wouldn't be part of that oil and gas
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sector that Gondek so loathes. Could Gondek be so pragmatic, though? Is she starting to face the
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realities of what attracts businesses and what doesn't? I'm not too optimistic, but there is
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hope. I mean, one good sign that Gondek's already been learning lessons is in how quickly she
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abandoned her consideration for the world's climate emergency when a new business appeared
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on the doorstep. Maybe a sense of pragmatism will overtake Gondek's idealism before she can
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do too much more damage to Calgary's ailing economy.