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Mayor Veer outlines the 6 themes of her election platform

Published

7 years ago

8 minute read

From Tara Veer…

Platform 2017

Our community has made significant progress in many areas over the past four years, but we still but we still have serious challenges to address and emerging new opportunities to pursue together. If you choose to renew my mandate to serve you on October 16th, I will continue to work with our community, Council and City staff to effectively strengthen our city in the following themes throughout the term: 

 

Theme #1: Citizen & Community Safety

Red Deerians have identified crime and public safety as their priority concern, so it is imperative that additional strategies are undertaken to ensure crime prevention and enforcement efforts are effective to respond to the safety challenges Red Deer is faced with. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Ensure that local community policing priorities are established and enforced through the RCMP’s annual policing plan.

Strengthen the integration between municipal enforcement units and the RCMP to ensure common objectives, efficiency, and quality of service in all delegation of duties.

Prioritize reduction of organized crime, persons crime and property crime in the policing plan.

Identify consistent service standards for non-emergency calls to police.

Reduce the case load per officer and improve officers to population ratio by supporting the addition of new officers.

Reinforce enforcement allocations to foot patrols downtown and in the parks system.

Support the safety continuum from crime prevention through to emergency enforcement.

Increase citizen reporting to help inform crime analysis, intelligence-led policing and patrols.

Establish a strong local and regional regulatory response to the Federal Government’s legalization of marijuana.

Advocate for additional Crown Prosecutors to prevent criminal charges from being “stayed” because of capacity issues at the Red Deer Courthouse.

Hold the Provincial Government accountable for drug needle debris causing general community safety risks.

 

Theme #2: Fiscal Responsibility & Stronger Economy

Alberta’s recession has affected everyone in our community, and sound financial decision-making of City Council is essential to protect the stability of our local economy. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Protect the affordability of living and/or doing business in Red Deer through responsible capital and operating budgets.

Preserve recently established financial strategies such as: the reduced debt ceiling, the capital savings plan, and competitive industrial and commercial tax ratios.

Ensure budget transparency through citizen input and by adopting operating budgets aligned to service standards.

Resolve the current price elasticity challenge to improve citizen access to City services such as recreation and transit.

Ensure City policy is business friendly and enhances our regional & provincial economic competitiveness.

Pending provincial legislative amendments, use new municipal tools to incentivize business attraction in areas of the City needing revitalization.

Position Red Deer for economic development & diversification by actively pursuing grants from other orders of Government, supporting the revitalization of existing community assets, and leveraging upcoming major events to maximize economic spin-off.

Solidify work underway with community partners to establish a strategic means of securing tourism and economic development opportunities for Red Deer.

 

Theme #3: Citizen-Focused Government & Service Improvements

The City’s daily purpose is to build quality of life for all Red Deerians. Citizen-focused local government & continuous improvement of City services for Red Deerians are strong priorities for Tara. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Pursue the next phases of core public service improvements in areas such as (but not limited to): snow and ice control, transit route efficiency, and transportation integration and efficiency.

Proactively communicate to increase accessibility and transparency of local government.

Purposefully engage with citizens to ensure public feedback informs Council decision-making.

Modernize government services to make interactions with City government easier for citizens.

Support strong maintenance of existing City assets as an ongoing priority.

Build upon Council and City staff commitment to find operational efficiencies, innovations and savings that improve service to Red Deerians. 

 

Theme #4: Protect Our Natural & Built Environment

Red Deerians are proud of the fact that we are a city in a park and that we accept responsibility for environmental stewardship. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Support environmental modernizations and efficiencies throughout City operations.

Elevate Red Deer’s capacity to respond to extreme weather events by resolving the storm water infrastructure deficit.

Identify key areas for environmental protection before development conflicts occur.

Support the extension of the park system through trail development and winter clearing.

Emphasize food and water security in general and for citizen emergency preparedness for extreme weather events.

 

Theme #5: Build Community Life

The City’s primary mandate is to provide foundational services to our fellow Red Deerians, but the Mayor is also expected to build partnerships with and for our community in general. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Build on our City’s prime geographic position by actively promoting Red Deer to fulfill our potential for business start ups, retention & expansion as well as trade & meeting, culture & heritage,  and nature, sports & adventure tourism.

Work with indigenous community to implement municipal aspects of Truth and Reconciliation.

Work with community partners and the Provincial Government to mitigate the emerging risk to Red Deer’s net affordable housing stock and integrate related support services.

 

Theme #6: Advocate Our Community Needs

As Alberta’s 3rd largest City and region, Red Deer has critical infrastructure imperatives our community needs the Provincial Government to address. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to secure:

Expansion for Red Deer Regional Hospital

Polytechnic University status for Red Deer College

Addictions Treatment and Emergency Shelter capacity

Re-purposing of vacated Michener lands and the former Valley Park Manor

Protection of regional ambulance dispatch service and Advanced Life Support ground ambulance service.

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NYPD storms protest-occupied Columbia building, several arrested

Published on May 1, 2024

By

Image courtesy of the City of New York

From The Centre Square

By 

“Early Tuesday, protesters chose to escalate to an alarming and untenable situation – including by vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, blockading entrances, and forcing our facilities and public safety workers out – and we are responding appropriately”

Following weeks of tense standoffs between pro-Palestinian demonstrators leading to violent escalation at Columbia University, officials at the Ivy League institution finally gave the green light for the New York Police Department to enter a recently seized building, resulting in dozens of arrests.

Flanked with heavy armor, NYPD officers stormed Hamilton Hall late Tuesday night “at the University’s request.”

The university released a statement after NYPD took action, saying the decision was “made to restore safety and order to our community.”

The university said it was “left with no choice” after university public safety personnel “were forced out of the building,” by agitators. The school added that a member of their facilities teams was threatened.

“Early Tuesday, protesters chose to escalate to an alarming and untenable situation – including by vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, blockading entrances, and forcing our facilities and public safety workers out – and we are responding appropriately as we have long made clear we would. The safety of our community, especially our students, remains our top priority,” the statement said.

The statement emphasized the school “will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation.”

The school appears to have examined all its options before calling in NYPD to help resolve the tense situation.

“The leadership team, including the Board of Trustees, met throughout the night and into the early morning, consulting with security experts and law enforcement to determine the best plan to protect our students and the entire Columbia community. We made the decision, early in the morning, that this was a law enforcement matter, and that the NYPD were best positioned to determine and execute an appropriate response,” according to the statement.

City officials, including Mayor Eric Adams and members of the NYPD, held a press briefing Tuesday night, warning Columbia students and protesters to leave the area before the situation “escalated,” pointing the blame for violence on “outside agitators” and “professional actors.”

The university echoed city officials, pointing fingers at outside agitators for the violent uprising.

“We believe that the group that broke into and occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University,” the statement said.

Both city and university officials warned protesters to leave the hall and area before eventual action by NYPD, using the press briefing to issue one final warning.

Videos from the chaotic scene showed several people under restraints, hulled away in a large bus.

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Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson slams CBC for only interviewing pro-LGBT doctors about UK report on child ‘sex changes’

Published on April 21, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

The recently published Cass Review found that ‘gender medicine’ is ‘built on shaky foundations’ and recommended against surgical or pharmaceutical intervention for gender-confused children.

Dr. Jordan Peterson has condemned the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for handpicking doctors to discuss evidence against the gender “transitioning” of children.   

In an April 15 X post, Peterson blasted the CBC for only selecting pro-LBGT doctors to discuss the U.K. National Health Service’s Cass Review, which exposes the dangers of “transitioning” children through mutilating means, such as pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries.

“All the truth the unrepentant butcher-enablers at @CBCNews are capable of is invisibly hidden in this one line: ‘Canadian doctors who spoke to CBC disagree…’” he slammed.   

“Right. All the ‘doctors’ who spoke to @CBCNews were chosen because they disagreed,” Peterson asserted.   

“I find them detestable,” he added. “Everything they publish is a lie in one damned way or another.”   

“And these lies lead to the crimes against humanity denounced by the Cass report.” 

The Cass Review, published earlier this month, is the world’s largest review into “transgender” interventions for minors. Dr. Hilary Cass, the pediatrician commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service to review the transgender “services” being made available to gender-confused minors, is scathing in her analysis.  

Cass found that “gender medicine” is “built on shaky foundations,” and that while these drastic interventions should be approached with extreme caution, “quite the reverse happened in the field of gender care [sic] for children.”  

However, the report was not well received by the CBC, which ran an article criticizing the report and the U.K.’s recent decision to ban puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for youth under 16.  

“While experts in the field say more studies should be done, Canadian doctors who spoke to CBC News disagree with the finding that there isn’t enough evidence puberty blockers can help,” the CBC wrote.  

However, as Peterson pointed out, the CBC only interviewed pro-LGBT doctors who supported their agenda, including one who suggested that “transgender” surgeries are as natural as giving birth.  

“That would be kind of like saying for a pregnant woman, since we lacked randomized clinical trials for the care of people in pregnancy, we’re not going to provide care for you… It’s completely unethical,” Dr. Jake Donaldson, a Calgary physician who treats “transgender” patients, told CBC.  

“There actually is a lot of evidence, just not in the form of randomized clinical trials,” he added.  

On the same day as the CBC report, Calgary pediatrician Dr. J. Edward Les wrote an article published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, agreeing with the Cass Review conclusions.

“If nothing else, the scathing final report of the Cass Review released this week (but commissioned four years ago to investigate the disturbing practices of the UK’s Gender Identity Service), is a reminder that doctors historically are guilty of many sins,” he wrote in his opening line.  

Les also blasted the Canadian law, particularly Bill C-4, which banned a number of practices considered to be “conversion therapy,” including “any practice, service or treatment designed to change a person’s gender identity.”  

“As far as I know, no one has been charged, let alone imprisoned, since the bill was passed into law,” wrote the doctor. “But it certainly has cast a chill on the willingness of providers to deliver appropriate counselling to gender-confused children: few dare to risk it.”  

Indeed, while the CBC was unable or perhaps unwilling to find doctors who agreed with the Cass report, Les is hardly alone in challenging the LGBT narrative surrounding the mutilation of the gender-confused, especially minors.

LifeSiteNews has compiled a list of medical professions and experts who warn against “transgender” surgeries, warning of irreversible changes and lifelong side effects.     

Moreover, internal documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) have shown that doctors who offer so-called “gender-affirming care” know that transgender hormones cause serious diseases, including cancer, but prescribed them anyway.  

The internal documents, dubbed the “WPATH FILES,” include emails and messages from a private discussion forum by doctors, as well as statements from a video call of WPATH members. The files reveal that the doctors working for WPATH know that so-called “gender-affirming care” can cause severe mental and physical disease and that it is impossible for minors to give “informed consent” to it.   

As LifeSiteNews has previously noted, research does not support the assertions from transgender activists that surgical or pharmaceutical intervention to “affirm” confusion is “necessary medical care” or that it is helpful in preventing the suicides of gender-confused individuals.    

In fact, in addition to asserting a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, infertility, and suicidality.     

There is also  overwhelming evidence that those who undergo “gender transitioning” are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given irreversible surgery. A Swedish study found that those who underwent “gender reassignment” surgery ended up with a 19.2 times greater risk of suicide.    

Indeed, there is proof that the most loving and helpful approach to people who think they are a different sex is not to validate them in their confusion but to show them the truth.     

A new study on the side effects of transgender “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who had undergone “sex change” surgeries in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movement in the weeks and months that followed — and that many other side effects manifest as well.

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