Calgary's Ward 7 candidates face off on secondary suites

Four of the five candidates vying for the Ward 7 council seat discussed some of the hot-button issues facing constituents on Tuesday night at SAIT, among them, how council should cope with the onslaught of secondary suite applications.

Brent Alexander, Margot Aftergood, Dean Brawn and Marek Hejduk were all present for the forum, the only one missing was incumbent Druh Farrell, who told event organizers she couldn't be there because she was attending a good friend's memorial service. 

Secondary suites are of special interest in Ward 7 due to the high concentration of students who live in the ward, which includes SAIT and the University of Calgary. Suite approvals have bogged down Calgary's city council due to the tediousness of the application process.

• FULL COVERAGE FROM CBC CALGARY | Calgary election 2017
• Calgary secondary suites approved 83% of the time: analysis

'Everybody else has their head in the sand on this'

Alexander took the opportunity to say he supported blanket legalization of secondary suites, with the exception of R1 neighbourhoods — or residential, one dwelling districts — where residents would have the opportunity to vote against having secondary suites in their individual neighbourhoods. 

He took criticism from the other candidates for supporting blanket legalization because of safety concerns, but Alexander rebutted, saying, "Safety standards are very clear as to what they are, but you can't enforce them if you're in an illegal situation. That's why you have to start with legalization."

Meanwhile Brawn said he "loves secondary suites," but that a better definition for what constitutes one is needed and that council doesn't need to be dealing with applications for individuals just trying to do some cooking in their basement for whatever reason. 

"They've got to be in neighbourhoods that are zoned for them, they need to be built legally and they need to get all the proper approvals," Brawn said. 

A whistleblower phoneline

Hejduk recounted a situation where he was living in a secondary suite and because of improper safety standards, there was an accident with the stove. He said suites need to be safer but that shouldn't be on the shoulders of council to deal with. 

"It's a waste of council's time and money to be examining the secondary suite issue," Hejduk said. "There needs to be a separate office with home inspectors. There needs to be a tip line where you can turn your landlord in."

Aftergood had taken issue with "blanket legalization" and said secondary suites aren't among her top priorities since the downturn changed the housing market in the city. 

"There's lots of rentals available, my god, there's so many empty homes," Aftergood said. 

Farrell missed the chance to dig into the issue, but earlier this year she teamed up with Coun. Brian Pincott with each chipping in $2,500 from their office budgets for an analysis of council's dealings with secondary suites. The analysis looked at 265 secondary suite applications from 2014 to 2016, finding that council approved 83 per cent of them. 

"Having council make decisions on one suite at a time, it's not council's role," she said in May when the report was released.

"Our role is to be talking about the big hairy issues that the City of Calgary faces and will face in the future." 

• MORE CALGARY NEWS | Mayoral candidate for 'coulcil' gets flak for error-filled ad
• MORE CALGARY NEWS | Nenshi vs. business: Is corporate opposition helping or hurting incumbent mayor's re-election bid