00:13:41.180This was a pop-up rodeo because they didn't want AHS and the RCMP to know where they were going to be so that they could block them in advance.
00:36:18.580So there was a Dairy Queen that burned down
00:36:20.580and a family that's trying to rebuild and the city is doing what it can to hinder it.
00:36:25.460Can you kind of lay out that story on what happened there, Terry?
00:36:29.300Sure. Back in October 2019, you're right, the dairy queen burned down as a result of an electrical
00:36:35.700malfunction. Consequently, the owner of the property filed for an insurance claim and they
00:36:43.620were awarded that claim last year. Subsequent to that, of course, then they approached a developer
00:36:48.660to say we want to rebuild the dairy queen and the developer worked with the city to do that.
00:36:54.020Through the discussion process, you know, they said we want to offer build again a single story
00:36:59.860dairy queen. But again, the previous dairy queen was built in the early 80s, so the architecture
00:37:07.220and the dairy queen guidelines said you got to do a more modern approach. And they talked to
00:37:12.260the city about that. The city said, yeah, you can build it, build on the existing footprint
00:37:16.980um and do that you could do it on existing building permit but because you are um how to
00:37:23.960say your dairy queen has two driveway entrances on the center street um we would like to reconsider
00:37:28.960that largely largely because it's it's designated as a future brt and ultimately an lrt zone and
00:37:36.000you know would you reconsider that uh on top of that there's a number of other things that you
00:37:41.280know that they had to look at from a building design perspective so the net result is they
00:37:45.560They accommodated, as I understand, they accommodated the city by saying, okay, we'll close the driveway, and we'll have the driveway off the side street.
00:37:52.460But that changes the orientation of the building, and as a result, it changes the orientation of the drive-through.
00:37:58.920And the city said, well, on top of that, this is also a future Main Street, and this future Main Street would like to have a higher density,
00:38:07.740and would you consider building multiple stories of this building, and with mixed use, and this and that.
00:38:14.060And they said, well, again, the owner of the property is an 88-year-old, you know, retiree, saying, I'm not in the business of doing that.
00:38:21.420You know, my daughter and I are in the business of just, you know, servicing the land as a Dairy Queen and operating.
00:38:27.540So, needless to say, it went forward, and the development authority at the city rejected it, saying, no, it doesn't meet our aspirations, our future needs.
00:38:38.160Consequently, the owner filed an appeal with Subdivision Appeal Board, which is where it's at now.
00:38:42.260And so the owner, the developer, or the appellants, the side family, which is the franchisee who operates the Dairy Queen, is without, you know, without a business to operate, without a franchise to operate, and without, you know, basic income to, you know, support themselves.
00:39:03.080So they're left in the dust, so to speak, waiting for this judgment to be made.
00:39:06.860Yeah, and I know some apologists for this, you know, are saying, oh, well, if they did just applied for an exact like for like, there never would have been a development permit. But that's unreasonable. I mean, that's like somebody saying, okay, if your house that was 50 years old burned down, you have to build an exact replica with the old wiring, with the old pipes, with the old style, or we won't allow it. And now you have to build an apartment building on there.
00:39:31.140I mean, that's kind of in a simplistic way.
00:39:33.700But what they're saying to these people here is that, yeah, you did make some changes, but that's triggered it.
00:39:39.240And we won't discuss accommodating the changes for modernity.
00:39:43.100At this point, we'll just reject the whole plan and give you an entirely different one, which is the only one we'll accept.
00:39:48.380Yeah, you know, part of that's correct.
00:39:50.320And the developer for the property has submitted new drawings that met today's building code standards.
00:39:58.760And, you know, so therefore there's no violation there.
00:40:01.140Again, if they built on the same footprint and used the driveway, technically, there's no violation there.
00:40:08.460Because in the expectation of Centre Street as a Main Street, it's currently, how to say, the words are, you know, should not put a driveway on a Main Street.
00:40:36.800We'll put the driveway in the sideway.
00:40:38.280So to accommodate the city, they created an alternative way of doing it, which obviously triggered the development program because now you've got people coming off the side of the street instead of off the side of the street.
00:40:48.900You got, you know, the drive-thru circulating through the property differently than what it was originally intended.
00:40:54.700So, yeah, a development firm had to be put in place, but only because, you know, they weren't allowed to, you know,
00:41:00.540allowed to build the drive-thru onto Center Street.
00:41:04.380Yeah, well, and like for like, I mean, fine, but that's kind of a, with rational people, that's a broad concept.
00:53:20.540The guidebook was intended to help the city and the developers and communities
00:53:25.080go from that 30-year vision of the municipal development plan
00:53:28.580into something that communities can say,
00:53:30.840this is what Crescent Heights is going to be built out in the next 30 years.
00:53:35.120So the guidebook is there to help people formulate what that looks like.
00:53:39.520The old guidebook was presented in January and presented to the public with very short notice to really read, understand 130 pages and understand the magnitude of it.
00:53:50.460But the other part that became apparent about that guidebook was it was representing a different way of doing business and a different way that developers and communities and homeowners weren't accustomed to.
00:54:04.720And what we want the city to do is just take it back to the public and explain it to the public, saying, you know, no longer we talk about looking at your specific house and zoning your house, but we're looking at zoning the entire neighborhood.
00:54:17.600And based on zoning the entire neighborhood, everybody gets the same zoning and everybody gets the same sort of allowable uses on it and everybody gets the same way to build houses on it, right?
00:54:29.120And in a lot of communities such as Crescent Heights, there is uniqueness, there is character,
00:54:34.680there's a lot of heritage and contextual balance that needs to be preserved there.
00:54:40.520And so having a blanket approach, you know, could erode what we have there.
00:54:46.540And that's why we want to take it back to the public and say, is that what you want?
00:54:50.360Do you want, you know, vanilla sort of use and construction in Crescent Heights of a community that's, you know,
00:54:57.26090 to 100 years old you know yeah well it's it's not simple balance is a word it's important you
00:55:04.060know but we don't we don't want to be crippled by it as well at the same time so it's it's finding1.00
00:55:08.140the the middle ground i mean we don't want a shanty town with no development rules whatsoever0.95
00:55:12.220i mean as a pure hardcore libertarian would want to see but we also you know these these0.57
00:55:15.420plant communities can get a little bland a commenter also was just asking you know how
00:55:19.500the city's going to handle voting whether it's going to be traditional in person or mail-in
00:55:22.700i think at this point none of the voting plans have changed uh but that might change if the
00:55:28.860pandemic is still raging by fall perhaps but this really impacts your ability to get out i mean
00:55:33.980that the traditional way to campaign is holding town hall meetings and knocking on doors uh how
00:55:39.900have you have you been managing that in your campaign so far so you're right um getting out
00:55:45.260knocking on doors um and masking and and standing back six feet or or you know more two meters or
00:55:51.900war to have a conversation is is a challenge not impossible not impossible the greater concern is
00:55:57.900the people at the door themselves do they want to open their doors and and as a result you have to
00:56:01.980find another way to reach them if they won't open their doors so the use of social media is going to
00:56:07.020be very you know prevalent throughout a lot of campaigns and being innovative as to how you use
00:56:12.300the social media website is going to be the challenge for a lot of people like the other
00:56:16.700great challenges most people who are wanting to meet and talk to talk to a candidate and donate
00:56:25.100to a candidate one if i use the word they want to see the the white of their eyes and just to
00:56:30.300understand you know how credible honest reputable is this person before you know before i throw my
00:56:36.620vote to them or throw some you know contributions to their campaign yeah no it's just challenging
00:56:44.540you can't beat a face-to-face meeting and unfortunately these days not everybody is
00:56:47.820necessarily comfortable with that so all the candidates will have to find their ways to work
00:56:52.220around that and reach out to people in the coming months um an area of concern with myself so i live
00:56:57.340just outside of the city just a few minutes from the boundary of it but i am technically in the
00:57:01.420county of foothills uh this regional development plan has been i mean people out in my neighborhood
00:57:06.220and i know in rockyview county and others are just raging the battles between the city
00:57:10.620and neighboring municipalities over the municipal development plan are only getting stronger and i
00:57:16.780know that i get frustrated look i moved out of the city to have some of that freedom that can come
00:57:21.020with being an acreage and and being able to you know build or develop as i please and a lot of
00:57:26.380this planning makes it look as if if i want to subdivide in a few years i might have to apply to
00:57:30.300the mayor of calgary at that time uh where would you sit on you know working with your again it's
00:57:36.140a growing city so there's a reason that there has to be some longer term planning and working with
00:57:40.220those those neighbors but to be honest it feels a lot like the city's taken a
00:57:43.820bullying approach the last few years and it's not helping and it's making people
00:57:47.120dig their heels in that where can you work to ease with that perhaps yeah
00:57:51.560that's that's been a constant challenge and you know the 40 years and I think
00:57:56.480you listeners need to know that I've worked for the city for 30 years prior
00:58:00.740to prior to retirement in 2014 but despite all that you know the reason I'm
00:58:07.040running is to listen to the people and understand where the towns are and find a way to find
00:58:12.340the right accommodation, right solution for them.
00:58:14.560So that same model or MO is what I hope to bring if I'm on council, dealing with the
00:58:21.920MDs at Foothills, Rocky View, the small towns and villages around there.
00:58:27.900And that is, we need to listen, understand, we need to find the harmony, if we can use
00:58:32.720that singular word, that one thread of harmony that can make the MDs and the small towns
00:58:41.180and villages work with the city of Calgary.
00:58:43.340I know that the city of Calgary has a lot of services that they provide to the outlying
00:58:50.540areas and they want to feel that they are still managing and hate to use the word control
00:58:55.960of it, but there is a responsibility if you want effective, efficient services, the city
00:59:00.600has to you know uh somewhat have a voice at the table but not not necessarily dominating or bullying
00:59:06.520voice it's a voice that says you know let's let's listen understand let's you know reason balance
00:59:11.560and come to that that uh right you know solution and if people say well that sounds like a kumbaya
00:59:17.640session but you know the uh at the end of the day it's it's uh i don't see um any advantage of one
00:59:25.720dominating the other, one pushing the other to, you know, to get to anywhere. We're a stronger
00:59:30.760voice if the regional municipality of Calgary and all the other municipalities around us
00:59:36.440work together and then they're able to speak in one voice and dealing with the province because
00:59:41.080a lot of what the city and the towns and villages, you know, get their authority from and get their
00:59:46.920funding from is from the province and the more unified we are and the more strategic we are,
00:59:52.520I think the stronger a region will be. Great. Well, maybe just to summarize, so you're just
00:59:58.460still under your first week of the campaign. So what are your prime planks? You know, when you're
01:00:02.660going around Ward 7, what are you telling people when you've got them for two minutes? You know,
01:00:06.600why should they select Terry Wong as their councillor in the next election year?
01:00:11.360Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. First and foremost, again, while I have different sorts
01:00:17.500of involvement with the city, I don't pretend to be a BO endo. My life has always been about,
01:00:21.820And as I said before, listening and understanding and working towards the right resolution.
01:00:27.400By doing that doesn't necessarily mean I'll agree with everything you say, but I will respect the conversation.
01:00:33.260In terms of priorities, the greatest priority, number one, is the green line, the green line, $4.9 billion.
01:00:39.320We're not too far into the investment yet, and we do have the opportunity to make the adjustments according to the environment in this scenario.
01:00:47.240So that is certainly one of those things I want to see re-examined once the council sets.
01:00:53.240The other thing is the urban planning process.
01:00:55.640And as we just talked about with the Darren Coon and the guidebook, it will fundamentally change the way we build our communities, how we handle population growth, how we handle transportation transit.
01:01:06.980And again, it's got to be the way Calgarians want to go, not necessarily the way theoretically or ideologically we should go.
01:01:15.400So part of that statement also goes to say we don't always have to be the global best, but we have to be right for Calgary, you know.
01:01:24.620And there's a number of undertones in what that means there, and we'll go into those undertones in a moment.
01:01:30.520But I think the other critical point I want to get into is the balancing of budgets, but really is what I call the affordability.
01:01:39.720City of Calgary as a government can only operate within what they can afford and what they can
01:01:45.400afford is the tax dollar, the fees and the grants they get from the federal provincial government
01:01:50.020and we've got to prioritize and make sure we use the best use of that money. So that gets back to
01:01:56.720having a good look at the expenses, taking a look at the capital projects and priorities and making
01:02:01.060sure that whatever we do reflects where the people want to be and doing things right as
01:02:08.400as opposed to doing things best because we can't afford the best and you and to say we want to be
01:02:14.080the leader in a world you know so let's take care of our own backyard first before we pretend to be
01:02:19.840the leaders of the world on the revenue side um you know the the question gets back to um
01:02:27.440affordability of the public you know in other words if we if we're in an economic downturn
01:02:33.280right now where people are struggling to hang on to jobs or pay pay the mortgage month by month
01:02:38.400there all these things last last thing we need to do is start looking at additional revenue sources
01:02:42.960we're picking the pockets of people we need to ensure that you know that the revenues are are
01:02:48.720affordable to the to the citizens and balanced to the appropriate expenditures that the city
01:02:55.120has if that means we have to hold the line for a year or two years then you know that that's
01:03:00.320what affordability is all about match with affordability is value that whatever we spend
01:03:05.120your tax dollars on we get the greatest value for you there's no waste there's no there's no um how
01:03:12.080to say um pet projects or anything else except it is what you want your priorities and we'll spend
01:03:19.040the money there well that's great and you know something that people just underestimate too much
01:03:24.160i mean our municipal government is our closest level of government and it's the one sometimes
01:03:28.240we pay the least attention to and we really should stop doing that it impacts us very directly uh you
01:03:34.080know our electoral turnouts can be unfortunately very embarrassing sometimes when it comes to
01:03:38.160municipal elections so as i said this is going to be a turning point election i think on a number
01:03:42.480of levels uh due to just you know current challenges going on uh a large turnover of
01:03:48.080people in city hall it's a good chance for people to get out and get the the representatives that
01:03:52.320are going to represent their views out there so i really appreciate you coming on and sharing that
01:03:57.280i'm sure we're going to be talking again over the coming months there's still a good few months
01:04:00.320before voting day and the campaign will keep heating up so where can people find more information
01:04:04.800about you and your campaign terry sure the website is terrywong.ca very straightforward
01:04:10.080and similar if you want to reach me just send an email to terry at terrywong.ca and both ways
01:04:16.560will be to answer your questions great well thanks terry i'll let you go and i'm sure we will talk
01:04:23.760again sometime soon. Corey, thank you, and nice to see you again. Yeah, you bet.
01:04:31.120Okay, so that was Terry Wong, and yeah, you know, there's a lot of big challenges going on in
01:04:37.280municipalities. You know, a lot of these, you see the news out of Edmonton and such,
01:04:40.640if I got Edmonton listeners, or even Regina, it's the same everywhere, these same things,
01:04:45.280and we got these urban development views, these bike lane infatuated urban density infatuated
01:04:52.160designers and and counselors and mayors and they ignore what the actual people on the ground the
01:04:56.960people have to live in it the people have to pay for it they ignore them they find every way they
01:05:01.040have to force their vision through their view through as young carol carra is a beautiful
01:05:06.400example i i believe he considers himself a developer but nobody's actually managed to
01:05:10.400accept one of his developments again i believe you know these guys have an ideology but they
01:05:15.680they reject reality and it's but that's up to us i mean once we put in these incumbents we don't
01:05:21.120don't put them out of there. Drew Farrell, she's been in 20 years. I mean, the last 10,
01:05:31.060she never won with over 50%, but 20 years for a counselor to sit in there. Guys, we've got to
01:05:37.000wake up and pay attention to these things. If you put them in and then never follow up and hold
01:05:42.980them accountable, well, it's a guarantee that you're going to get bad governance. You're going
01:05:49.060to get bad candidates. I mean, this happens on every level of government, but we're particularly
01:05:52.120guilty when it comes to the municipal ones. We really are. And it's like I was saying at the
01:05:56.340end with Terry, you know, this is the government that's close to us right now. And you really want
01:06:02.260to watch for it. I mean, they tax you. They tax you hard. They impact your neighborhood. They
01:06:05.720impact your real estate. Watch the election. So yeah, we're going to cover as many candidates
01:06:10.960and issues as we can in the months to come. Term limits. Some people are mentioning that,
01:06:16.120You know, I'm mixed on term limits. I really am. I mean, on a personal level, I wish politicians
01:06:22.020wouldn't make a career of it and they would just put in a couple of terms. You know, we see that
01:06:24.920so often, like how many even good politicians go out with a foot on their ass because they didn't0.99
01:06:29.440know when to leave. You know, Ralph Klein at the end, I mean, his first eight years was fantastic0.99
01:06:34.460and he was winning, you know, again, despite all the doomsayers, when he was doing cuts,
01:06:38.700when he was getting out there, he was winning larger and larger majorities. And then towards
01:06:43.120the end, the support was dropping, it was fading, and it was kind of his own party at the end
01:06:48.040that pushed him out. I mean, such a historic premier that he was, and he would have been
01:06:54.560much better remembered if he'd left four years earlier. But at the same time, term limits are up
01:07:01.100to us. If you're going to be purely democratic, if we'll get off our butts, we fire these guys0.98
01:07:06.780every eight years, you know, but if a guy can't get, or a gal, you know, or whatever these days,
01:07:13.360their agenda in, or what they want to do in eight years, uh, you know, again, to go back to Klein,
01:07:18.760the term was fire in the belly. It's time to step aside and let someone else do it because the fire
01:14:50.460And I understand, you know, we could have 90% of Albertans vote to trash equalization, unless the federal government and enough people want to adjust the constitution, it's not going to change. It might change the formula if they really felt compelled to, I doubt they would. But it sure sends a warning shot, doesn't it?
01:15:09.500you know what i see that equalization referendum as a practice run because there could be a much
01:15:15.340more important referendum held within a year or two after that or three and that's the bigger
01:15:20.780one what better way to get out and discuss regional issues you know talk to people what
01:15:26.780are you upset about can you change this system is it worth trying to change this system the
01:15:32.540equalization referendum is going to bring all those regional questions up for discussion people
01:15:37.260are going to talk about a lot more than just equalization over that period because of the
01:15:41.740nature of it and when we get told to roll up our equalization vote and stuff it okay but under the
01:15:49.180clarity act it does say if we vote for independence with a clear question by your own act government
01:15:57.100of canada then you have to negotiate our independence in good faith so let's look at
01:16:03.500that equalization referendum is a stepping stone in my view uh you know either a warning shot to
01:16:08.780fix things or a practice run to totally change the system vote to get out vote for independence
01:16:16.380and fix things for real in a whole new system so that's going to be coupled though with the
01:16:20.780municipal election so i mean we've got a really important election coming this fall get out to
01:16:24.780vote in the independence but since you're going anyway have a look at who your local candidate
01:16:29.340whether you're in a small town you know who's your vote running for reeve or whether you're in
01:16:33.820one of the cities you know look who's running for mayor and look who's running for councillor
01:16:37.740and uh take your time and mark that ballot too because we can make a lot of positive changes
01:16:40.940while we're out at the same time there but yeah so i'm you know it was a one guest day i think
01:16:45.820i've rambled enough for today i've covered quite a bit here uh a lot on that that rodeo you know
01:16:51.340people are upset too bad the world's not gonna end they're saying the usual wait two weeks wait two
01:16:55.500weeks. I'm not too worried about it. They said that after the Super Bowl. They said that after
01:16:59.58040,000 people got together down in Texas for a baseball game. They said it in Sylvan Lake. They
01:17:04.260said it in Ontario. Two weeks later, nothing happens. I mean, if something does happen,
01:17:08.000it's not going to be related to the rodeo. Though some people will probably blame it on the rodeo
01:17:11.440anyways, but whatever. We've got a really divided society going on because we are in the midst of
01:17:16.080just a weird, insane period, and we have to stand up for our rights. And that's what people did last
01:17:21.100weekend. I'm not ashamed of it. Uh, it'll be interesting to see what comes. There's more
01:17:25.420rodeos coming and a tie doesn't back down for anybody. So, uh, that's going to be interesting
01:17:33.300to watch developing is going along. So remember to support us though, you know, things like that
01:17:39.020C10. I mean, if that comes through and it probably will, uh, they will start using it to crack down1.00
01:17:44.440on things like the Western standard. That's where we got the justice center for constitutional
01:17:48.240freedoms jccf.ca those are the guys standing up for ty northcott assuming if he gets charged
01:17:54.620standing up for uh pastor coates standing up for i believe chris uh up in uh mirror with his cafe
01:18:01.960uh we might need some legal help too we sponsored that rodeo
01:18:06.400we'll see uh but the other thing was was um as i said the free speech bill c10 i mean if they
01:18:13.800start trying to gag us they start trying to shut us down we are going to push back i mean we're
01:18:17.540not giving up. Derek's a stubborn, you know, fellow of German heritage. He's not going to let
01:18:23.300this go easily, but we do need your support and it's been great. You know, so be sure to subscribe
01:18:27.500to the Western Standard, get on there, get a membership. We don't get tax funding. That's
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01:18:36.340us what we can cover and what we can't cover. That's why they're moving on to laws, but we need
01:18:40.260those subscribers to pay those bills. That's why we've got a large team. That's why we've got
01:18:43.720guys who are writing such great news copy some of the great columns we get in pays for these
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01:18:53.800nag other people to subscribe make that western standard chain letter you know they'll appreciate
01:18:58.320it in the end when they're getting some good news because the more people we get on board the more0.80
01:19:01.920content we can produce and we're only going to get better at it so thank you all very much for
01:19:07.040that tomorrow by the way between 10 and noon we've got Nathan Gita he's a fantastic young man
01:19:11.760he's got his show on it's every tuesday wednesday and thursday it's called mountain standard time
01:19:17.640and it is 10 till noon mountain standard time he's from prince george he covers the bc issues
01:19:23.360and the national issues fantastically be sure to come on there take part get some comments in there
01:19:28.400and again keep sharing it as for kareen you've subscribed but you haven't been able to read the
01:19:33.400articles um i'm not sure i'm afraid that's a little out of my turf but what i would suggest
01:19:38.620is, yeah, send an email to, I believe, info at westernstandardonline.com and somebody will
01:19:44.320address that. They'll fix it up because, yeah, we certainly want everybody to get through.
01:19:47.220We did have the occasional tech issues, you know, and some of that's been because we've had such
01:19:51.520a massive readership. We're one of the most read publications in Western Canada already,
01:19:56.160even with the paywall. But of course, you know, it's really pressured the servers. And I know
01:20:00.580some of you've been frustrated when you get some of those 404s, but we're upgrading as fast as the
01:20:04.500new readers come on and uh we're keeping up with it uh i'll pass it along that you've contacted
01:20:10.680them corinne and hopefully that gets rectified really soon because yeah we don't want anybody to
01:20:14.260to miss out on on seeing these things and i'm sorry that that's happened uh so thanks again
01:20:19.460i will see you on friday hopefully i'll have a uh quick dick mcdick on by then we'll see it's
01:20:25.620hard to schedule you know with a guy who's farming i mean they're they're working fast
01:20:28.900seeding time now and things are moving and he's at breakdowns we'll have other guests as well
01:20:33.560and I'm certain lots to talk to talk about by the end of the week on Wednesday I'll be on at
01:20:38.340the pipeline too which we do every week at noon with Derek and quite often Dave and others thank
01:20:44.080you all again for tuning in thanks to those who came out to the rodeo thanks to those who watched