Featured Guest
You’ll find this guest among our growing roll of Urban Champions.
William Ghali
Vice-President (Research), University of Calgary
Nneka Otogbulu
Director Of Communications and Equity Strategy, Edmonton Community Foundation
Jason Ribiero
Vice-Chairman & President, Calgary Surge
Erin Chrusch
Senior Strategist, Office of the Mayor, City of Calgary
5 Key
Takeaways
A roundup of the most compelling ideas, themes and quotes from this candid conversation
1. Intentional overreaction
Calgary was the first municipality in Canada to declare a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, days after the WHO declared the virus a pandemic. Its quick response and action were described by one panelist as an “intentional overreaction… we would rather have had people say ‘you did too much,’ than ‘you didn’t do enough.’” With hindsight, that response was correct and allowed for the city to swiftly start to implement changes.
2. Build Back Better
Alberta was already facing significant economic challenges when the pandemic was declared on March 11th. But there are also important local solutions to look to as we develop local recovery plans. For example, Calgary has been investing in becoming an innovation hub that serves as “a destination for the world’s best entrepreneurs who want to solve really heady global challenges, including cleaner energy, safe and secure food, the efficient movement of goods and people and better health solutions.” Local context, and local solutions, are paramount.
3. Connective Tissue
Across Canada, COVID has highlighted visible gaps within the social safety net. The panelists discussed the need to address these issues with a coordinated effort between government, businesses, and NGOs. For example, the Edmonton Community Foundation been working across sectors to connect vulnerable populations with funding and services. Different forms of connective tissue are critical, and will continue to be critical as we move through and beyond COVID.
4. The Issue of Compounding Problems
Calgary was recently hit by an unexpected hailstorm and flooding whilst continuing to combat COVID. The reality is that municipalities will need to continue to respond to other urban emergencies even as they continue to address the first wave of the pandemic and prepare for the likelihood for a second.
5. Importance of People Focused Leadership
One panelist stated, “This has really been a time that reveals the importance of committed leadership—human-centric leadership” and went on to recognize British Columbia’s Dr. Bonnie Henry as an example. The panel discussed how COVID can act as a “Great Reset” and opportunity to rewrite the social contract between government and residents.
Additional Reading & Resources
https://migrantworkersalliance.org/
The City and University of Calgary launching downtown safety and vibrancy initiative, University of Calgary
Adaptive Action Planning for a Digital Economy: Calgary’s New Economic Strategy
https://www.connectingyyc.com/
https://smallbusiness.shoptoit.com/
https://www.globalshapers.org/hubs/calgary-hub
The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test, Catherine Porter, New York Times
Full Panel
Transcript
Note to readers: This video session was transcribed using auto-transcribing software. Manual editing was undertaken in an effort to improve readability and clarity. Questions or concerns with the transcription can be directed to events@canurb.org with “transcription” in the subject line.
Full Audience
Chatroom Transcript
Note to reader: Chat comments have been edited for ease of readability. The text has not been edited for spelling or grammar. For questions or concerns, please contact events@canurb.org with “Chat Comments” in the subject lin
From Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://canurb.org/citytalk
00:16:27 Canadian Urban Institute: Folks, please change your chat settings to “all panelists and attendees” so everyone can see your comments.
00:16:40 Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk
00:16:56 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please visit https://covid100.ca to read the full report COVID Signpost 100 and to see details on the rest of today’s panels.
00:17:01 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: #covid100
00:17:01 Canadian Urban Institute: Keep the conversation going #covid100 @canurb
00:18:41 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Today’s panel:
Robert Plitt – https://ca.linkedin.com/in/robert-plitt-55749212
Erin Chrusch – https://twitter.com/erinchrusch
Nneka Otogbolu – https://ca.linkedin.com/in/nnekaotogbolu
Jason Ribeiro – https://twitter.com/Jason_Ribeiro
William Ghali – https://twitter.com/WilliamGhali
00:41:47 J. Scott: No one so far has mentioned the collapse of the climate which will impact us even more than COVID unless we take draconian measures to reduce carbon emissions. How many initiatives are going on in Alberta to produce clean, alternative energy replacements for oil and gas?
00:47:51 Jason Ribeiro: Thanks for the question J. It definitely is top of mind. Important to note that Calgary’s cleantech sector is a Top 15 Global Ecosystem and Calgary is home to four of the country’s Top 10 most promising cleantech companies. We are also home to the Clean Resource Innovation Network, which is $100M targeted at delivering tech solutions that reduce emissions.
00:48:45 Jason Ribeiro: COVID will only accelerate that work for the resiliency of our economy and stewardship of our environment.
00:50:19 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: We’ve compiled 100 Actions pulled from our CityTalk series – check them out on https://covid100.ca
00:56:55 J. Scott: Thanks, Jason. This information is very reassuring and I’m pleased you mention these initiatives.
00:58:19 Canadian Urban Institute: You can find transcripts and recordings of today’s and all our webinars at https://www.canurb.org/citytalk
01:00:13 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: Please help CUI improve its CityTalk programming with a short survey – https://bit.ly/2UXXsFS
01:00:47 J. Scott: The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is calling for three simple demands from Ontario to contain and mitigate the crisis but it could be expanded to cover the country:- Suspend work at COVID-19 farms. – Ensure income for all. – Ensure proper health & safety. https://migrantworkersalliance.org/
01:03:30 Canadian Urban Institute: Keep the conversation going #covid100 @canurb
01:04:34 J. Scott: These programs must remain public and not be privatized. Huge losses of life in private long term care homes in Ontario!
01:08:45 William Ghali: https://newsroom.calgary.ca/the-city-and-university-of-calgary-launching-downtown-safety-and-vibrancy-initiative/
01:09:08 William Ghali: 9 block — a very exciting initiative, and one that our Urban Alliance collaboration is catalyzing
01:09:17 J. Scott: One unmentioned but easy way for the Federal Government to release funds to Build Back Better in the recovery (water clean up on reserves, health and housing, unusual weather incident remediation just for a start!) and to reduce the huge hidden emissions of the military, would be the immediate scrapping of contributions to NATO that total $32.7 billion — and counting — as described in the 2017 defence policy p. 43: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/mdn-dnd/D2-386-2017-eng.pdf (this will go up with supplementary estimates every year. It states that a gob smacking $553B will be spent on the military over the next 20 years but this will actually be much higher with supplementary estimates.) This expenditure seems particularly egregious given the long-standing and enormous level of long unfunded needs still to be met within Canada itself.
01:09:33 David Crenna: Great focus on the major issues, panel members! We need to start to rank the multiplr responses according to effectiveness in order to provide a shared basis for shared learning!
01:09:33 William Ghali: as a VPR, my job is to shamelessly plug these things!!
01:11:05 Canadian Urban Institute: CUI extends a big thank you to our host Robert Plitt and our entire panel for an excellent discussion today. Thank you to our attendees too for your attention and participation.
01:12:37 J. Scott: Such a great conversation and blueprint for positive initiatives that are made in Alberta to address COVID and a recovery from it. Kudos to all of you!
01:13:36 J. Scott: THANKS ERIN!!!
01:13:47 Iris Chu: Thanks all!
01:14:32 David Crenna: Great panel!
01:15:08 J. Scott: Be nimble and be quick!
01:15:28 Emily Wall, CUI Staff: https://covid100.ca
