News
Small Property Tax Rate Increase Anticipated For Red Deer In 2017
By Sheldon Spackman
Red Deer City Council is preparing to deliberate next year’s proposed Operating Budget starting January 10th.
After the approval of the 2017 Capital Budget and Ten Year Capital Plan on November 23rd, Council will now turn it’s attention to the $357 million Operating Budget which aims to focus on sustainability for both people and services by keeping tax increases to a minimum while maintaining core services.
Currently, the proposed Operating Budget calls for a 2.51 percent property tax rate increase in 2017, the number City Council will try to wittle down once deliberations take place next month. The two and a half percent property tax rate increase being proposed represents a $3.2 million increase to the Operating Budget, which includes a 1 percent increase for Capital amenities and growth. City officials say this would translate to a roughly $50 increase per year in the municipal portion of a property tax bill on a Red Deer home assessed at $325,000.
In regards to the 2.51 percent starting point for Council next month, Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer says “This is the lowest recommended operational budget in about 15 years of City history, Council’s recognition of the current state of our economy.” Veer adds however that despite the lower than normal property tax rate increase being proposed, “there may very well be movement anticipated in that recommended percentage as well.” Veer also points out that in Council’s guidelines regarding the Operating Budget, the currently proposed property tax rate increase of two and a half percent is close to inflation and maintains a Capital Savings Program to relieve the City from having to Debt finance.
City Manager Craig Curtis says “This is the most challenging Budget I’ve worked on since returning to the City. There are huge challenges financially because we’re seeing much less growth, which translates into less Revenue and as we see less Revenue, we’ve also seen a decline in the use of our Transit System and our Recreation, Parks and Culture facilities, so the Revenues from those have also affected this Budget.” As a result, Curtis says one of the key initiatives in the 2017 Operating Budget is to look after the social well-being of our community, so they are recommending that user fees for City facilities remains the same next year, the first time the City has recommended that in many years.
However, Mayor Tara Veer and City Manager Curtis also point out that they are both disappointed that the Province’s new three-year pilot program for a low-income transit pass subsidy for residents in Calgary and Edmonton is currently not extended to other municipalities, making it unfair to Albertans in mid-sized cities such as Red Deer. Curtis says “This is a total inequity. The fact that they have a pilot project stemming from their Big City Charters, that invests millions of dollars in their Transit subsidies, is not fair to those who operate Transit Systems in the middle sized cities.” Mayor Veer adds to those sentiments by saying the mid-sized cities represent close to 900,000 Alberta residents, which means they are being treated inequitably from those in the two larger centres by being less able to participate in their communities or access things like employment and educational opportunities, as well as other community and government resources.
Manager Curtis says their latest survey results indicate roughly 15 percent of Red Deer’s population currently lives below the poverty line, with residents having identified Crime, Transportation and General Municipal Government Services as their top priorities for this Budget. He says it’s important to note that this recommended Budget makes investments in Crime Prevention, Safety and Homelessness, a recognition of some of the Social challenges Red Deer is facing.
Operating Budget debates begin on January 10th and are also slated for January 11th – 13th and on January 16th, 17th and 18th if needed. Red Deerians can learn more about the proposed Operating Budget online and submit feedback until December 22nd. Check out this link for more details:
http://reddeer.ca/city-government/budget-and-annual-financial-reports/
(Thumbnail provided by the City of Red Deer)
International
BBC boss quits amid scandal over edited Trump footage
BBC Director-General Tim Davie resigned Sunday after the taxpayer-funded broadcaster was caught airing doctored footage of President Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech — falsely making it appear that Trump urged his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Davie, who led the BBC for five years, announced his resignation in a statement saying he was taking “ultimate responsibility” for recent “mistakes.” “Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable,” Davie wrote. “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.” The statement notably avoided mentioning Trump by name.
The resignation came alongside that of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness after internal documents revealed that the network’s flagship investigative program Panorama had spliced together two separate lines from Trump’s Jan. 6 address to create a misleading narrative. The program, which aired just a week before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, suggested Trump directly told supporters to “fight like hell” and march on the Capitol.
According to a 19-page whistleblower memo obtained by The Telegraph, editors at the BBC combined Trump’s remarks from the beginning and end of his speech to make him appear as though he was inciting violence. In reality, Trump’s full statement was that his supporters should walk “peacefully and patriotically” to make their voices heard. The memo accused senior BBC executives, including its chairman, of ignoring repeated internal complaints about the doctored footage.
BREAKING: BBC’s director general Tim Davie, and the chief executive of the news division, Deborah Turness, have RESIGNED after it was revealed that BBC EDITED Trump‘s quotes on January 6th to make it look like Trump was calling for an insurrectionpic.twitter.com/uQKfMyP0pf
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 9, 2025
The revelations sparked outrage across the U.K. and abroad, with critics calling the manipulation a “catastrophic breach of trust” by Britain’s state broadcaster. The incident added to growing criticism that the BBC has become increasingly partisan. In recent weeks, the network faced backlash for coverage of the war in Gaza and its treatment of transgender policy debates, both seen as tilting left.
Davie’s departure marks another blow to the BBC’s credibility as it struggles to maintain public trust amid accusations of bias and political interference. The broadcaster has not announced who will replace him.
International
BBC uses ‘neutrality’ excuse to rebuke newscaster who objected to gender ideology
From LifeSiteNews
Rebuking a female presenter for correcting an ideological script that says men can get pregnant isn’t ‘neutrality,’ by any stretch.
Imagine a society in which the state broadcaster demanded that the female hosts eliminate the word “women” in favor of “people” and rebuked them if their facial expressions betrayed any hit of protest on air.
Welcome to the United Kingdom in 2025. According to the BBC: “Martine Croxall broke rules over ‘pregnant people’ facial expression, BBC says.”
Martine Croxall, a BBC presenter, was introducing an interview about “research on groups most at risk during UK heatwaves,” and the teleprompter script she was reading live on BBC News Channel contained the phrase “pregnant people.”
Croxall visibly raised her eyebrows, and corrected in real-time: “Malcolm Mistry, who was involved in the research, says that the aged, pregnant people … women … and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions.”
I have a new favourite BBC presenter. https://t.co/l2gkThccty
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 22, 2025
When Dr. Mistry, a professor, came on for the interview, she too referred to “pregnant women” rather than “pregnant people.”
Because a female presenter clearly objected to “women” being erased in favor of “people” for the ideological purpose of buttressing gender ideology, the BBC has now upheld “20 impartiality complaints” against Croxall. According to the BBC: “BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) said it considered her facial expression as she said this gave the ‘strong impression of expressing a personal view on a controversial matter.’”
READ: BBC rebukes newscaster for correcting ‘pregnant people’ with ‘women’ on air
In other words, as a woman, Croxall obviously objected to the implication that men can get pregnant. Croxall has a son and has thus been pregnant herself. But in our current clown world, the Executive Complaints Unit “said it considered Croxall’s facial expression laid it open to the interpretation that it ‘indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity.’”
Indeed. That “particular viewpoint” would be that only women can get pregnant.
The totalitarian trans activists desperately trying to force society to play along with their delusions with force or coercion were behind the complaints, with the ECU reporting that Croxall’s facial expressions were “variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt, or exasperation.” In other words: Say your lines the way we gave them to you and look like you believe them, bigot.
The ECU was also concerned that those who, you know, disagree with the idea that men can get pregnant were also pleased by Croxall’s act of defiance, and that she received “congratulatory messages” on social media (including one from J.K. Rowling), which “together with the critical views expressed in the complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue.”
Clearly the BBC—which is desperately been trying to regain its reputation—is attempting to wave the fig leaf of “neutrality” in order to reestablish its previous bona fides. But rebuking a female presenter for correcting an ideological script and making a facial expression that appeared to indicate opposition to the idea that men can get pregnant isn’t “neutrality,” by any stretch.
Just a decade ago, no media outlet would have considered implementing gender ideology into their coverage as fact. Now presenters are expected to use fundamentally propagandistic language that frontloads the premises of activists while keeping a straight face as if both transgender ideology and observable biological reality are two perspectives deserving of equal respect and consideration.
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