The following is Nenshi's full response to the CTF's 2013 candidate survey.

Name: Naheed K. Nenshi

Email: [email protected]

Phone:

1. Do you support using municipal tax revenues or city infrastructure grants from the province to fund the construction of a replacement for the Saddledome? Yes or No.

I do not favour using tax revenues.  There may be dedicated infrastructure grants that the province creates for purposes like this, but the use of such grants, if any, must be predicated on a true public benefit from the construction (like public recreation facilities).  I don't philosophically believe in using public funds to underwrite private profit.

2. Do you support limiting increases on the City portion of the property tax to the rate of inflation? Yes or No.

No. The increases need to take into account population growth as well as inflation. I support a goal of limiting rate increases to the Municipal Price Index (MPI) plus Calgary’s population growth for the operating budget. Capital budgets could be additional, if funded from provincial tax room.

But the real issue is to move away from the property tax -- a horrible, regressive unfair mechanism -- to fundamental tax reform. I hope the province is up for this.

3. Do you support limiting city employee compensation agreements to no more than the change in inflation each year? Yes or No.

Our current employee contracts are at wage increases lower than our forecasted wage inflation rates. I favour holding the line on these collective agreements to below average wage inflation in Alberta.

4. Do you support returning the “provincial tax room” taken by the city to taxpayers in the next fiscal year? Yes or No.

The money has been returned to the taxpayers, returned in services they need and use every day. Public consultation pre-flood showed about 2/3 of Calgarians favour investing the tax room. But they could not agree on how. Post-flood, we need to fund the city's portion of flood recovery and mitigation costs.  In November 2013, we will have a public debate on the 2014 portion: flood relief or something else.  For the 2015-2018 budget, we will have a debate on what to do at that point.

5. Will you disclose if you have accepted donations from unions or professional associations that do business with the City of Calgary, and in what amount, prior to the October 21 vote? Yes or No.

I'm interested in why you're not asking about corporations and individuals that do business with the city. I strongly believe we should disclose everyone.

I disclosed all donors to my campaign, up to September 15th, on nomination day and this list will be updated prior to the election.  You can find the list of donors at http://www.nenshi.ca/campaign_finance.