With Calgary Civic Election 2021 coming up on October 18 (don’t forget to vote ;), we are organizing Election Forums to help you learn about candidates and prepare yourself to make an informative decision.
Thank you for coming to Democracy in the Park event!
The Northern Hills Community Association was thrilled to welcome Calgary Mayoral candidates to a unique Democracy In The Park Event, on Saturday, September 25th from 5 pm – 7 pm at the Notre Dame High School football field.
We have provided each candidate with the opportunity to speak commencing at 6pm and live streamed their speeches. We asked that children stay at home, and participants to wear a mask and maintain social distancing during the event. Thank you for coming and learning about your mayoral candidates, and don’t forget to vote!
The following mayoral candidates attended the mayoral Meet & Greet:
- Brad Field
- Grace Yan
- Jan Damery
- Zane Novak
- Ian Chiang
- Dean Hopkins
- Sunny Singh
- Jeromy Farkas
- Emile Gabriel
- Zaheed Ali Khan
- Virginia Stone
- Teddy Ogbonna
- Mizanur Rahman
- Geoff Rainey
- Shaoli Wang
- Jeff Davison
Watch the video of their speeches below!
Thank you for participating in the Democracy from Home event!
We brought to you this opportunity together with Vivo for Healthier Generations and our fellow neighbouring Community Associations!
We welcomed Ward 3 Councillor candidates to a Virtual Forum on Sunday, October 3 from 5pm – 7pm. The forum was live-streamed on our NHCA Facebook page to engage you in Democracy from Home. You can watch the video of the forum to learn about your councillor candidates! We also had a Meet & Greet in the Vivo west parking lot on Sunday, October 3 from 7-7:30 pm for you to meet Councillor and School Trustee candidates in person.
The following Councillor candidates attended the forum:
- Hamayun Akbar
- Ian McAnerin
- Jasmine Mian
- Gurbir S. Nijjar
- Nate Pike
- Kumar Sharma
- Brent Trenholm
Watch the Ward 3 councillor candidate forum below!
School Trustee Candidates
The following short videos were provided by School Trustee candidates for you to learn what they are all about. Watch them below!
One of the major roles of any community association is as an advocate for your community. The NHCA is no different. This happens in many ways, and all our Directors advocate on behalf of our communities, but is in the main covered by the Planning Committee and the Advocacy Committee, or in some cases, both.
Planning
The Planning & Development Director oversees a Planning Committee, made up of volunteers who help with responses to the City’s planning applications, attend the Airport Noise Committee meetings, and help gather information about resident planning or development issues.
If you have any questions about planning issues, please contact planning@nhca.ca
Advocacy
The NHCA’s First Vice-President has Advocacy in their portfolio. This includes advocacy on behalf of residents with elected representatives (City Councillors and Administrative staff, MLAs, MPs, School Board Trustees, etc) for infrastructure such as schools, transit and health centres; community, traffic and crime issues; and anything which helps to improve the lives of our residents.
The advocacy committee also works on some issues together with the Planning Committee, like traffic and bigger planning projects. For example, in the summer of 2015, the NHCA Advocacy Committee spent many hours preparing the response to the Harvest Hills Golf Course rezoning and development application by Cedarglen Homes, with the help of the Planning Committee.
The NHCA Advocacy Committee members are also active participants with LRT on the Green, and were founding members of the multi-organizational Creating Space Committee, which is still advocating for space in our communities, as we currently don’t have access to:
- Health facilities – diagnosis and treatment centre, out of hours drop-in or 24 hr emergency care
- Community space for basic social services
- Space for many community, cultural and non-profit groups to gather regularly at little or no cost
- Public high school
- Enough recreational space to meet the needs of our growing community
- Adequate transit services
If you have questions about advocacy, please email advocacy@nhca.ca
Advocacy & Planning Projects
Recent and current projects that these committees are working on are listed here. Where there is more information available, links to the project pages have been provided.
1. The Creating Space for Strength Project
In 2012, the NHCA’s Advocacy Committee undertook a community engagement project to discover what assets the community already had, and what people needed most and would like to see in the Northern Hills. More information can be found on The Creating Space Project page.
2. Harvest Hills Golf Course Development
The NHCA has been actively involved in the community consultations around the proposed development of the Harvest Hills Golf Course. We, the NHCA, do not support the proposed development plans as presented. Our official, submitted response to the proposed plans for development can be viewed here (PDF file). More information can be found on the Harvest Hills Golf Course Development page.
The NHCA is not the only stakeholder in this project. A resident-led advocacy group, Calgarians for Responsible Development, has arisen from this proposed development plan, and YOU, all the residents of the Northern Hills, are also stakeholders in how this plan develops. Please make sure your voice is heard – check your Northern Hills News and our Facebook page for updates on this development and notice of any City consultations or meetings. Also sign up for updates and information direct from the City team on the City’s project page.
3. Green Line LRT
As a Green Line community, with two proposed stops (96th Ave/Harvest Hills Blvd and the North Pointe park and ride, opposite Vivo), the NHCA is heavily involved in making sure that our residents and businesses are represented in the City planning process for this LRT line, and that it brings improvements to our communities.
This project also has many stakeholders, including all of the community associations along the proposed route, YOU the residents, and several advocacy groups. Two of these groups that the NHCA is engaged with are LRT on the Green, and Green Line North Communities, a coalition of Green Line North community associations.
PLEASE make sure you take part in the upcoming Green Line North consultations, workshops and charrettes and have your say. A list of these events can be found here.
As stated above, the NHCA currently has two members on the board of LRT on the Green, a non-profit, citizen-led, advocacy group dedicated to trying to unite Calgarians in the desire to have LRT operating on the Green Line in both the North Central and South East corridors by the year 2021. Their goals are not just to see the LRT quicker than the original 30+ year timeline, but also to bring Green Line stakeholders (such as community associations, residents and businesses along the proposed route) together in advocating for improved transit with a common voice, raise awareness about the Green Line, promote the need for and benefits of investing in rapid transit, and advocate for the Green Line to create opportunities to pursue new smart growth development and reinvestment in existing communities throughout Calgary. More information about the green line can be found on the City of Calgary’s Green Line site.
4. Social Services
The NHCA has been working on getting social services into our area for many years. We have recently managed to get some BowWest Family Support outreach into our office on Thursdays. Watch this space for more developments!
5. Vivo Expansion
The NHCA is working to advocate for the Vivo expansion, as it adds not only much needed capacity for leisure activity space, but also will bring with it desperately needed community space for non-profit and community groups.
6. Aurora Business Park
7. Airport Expansion and Airport Noise Committee
8. Schools
9. Traffic and Crime
The NHCA is actively involved with our CPS community team and Wards 3 & 4 offices in helping to reduce the problems with crime and traffic issues in our communities. If you would like to volunteer some of your time to help out, please contact advocacy@nhca.ca.