ROB MURRAY: Grant Canning is running for re-election for Banff council. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your related experience for the job.

GRANT CANNING: I moved to the Bow Valley in 2005 to take a job in the ski industry. 2010 was a very interesting year for me because it was when I was first elected to council, and it was also when I purchased The Cake Company, which was the coffee shop on Bear Street that is now known as Banff National Perk. I sold that a few years ago, and now I’m studying to be a real estate appraiser.

RM: What made you decide to run again in this election?

GC: It really is rooted in pride in what we’ve accomplished. When I look back at my time on council, there are so many things that I’m proud of and I want to see those things continue. A lot of the projects we’ve done haven’t been without their controversy, but I firmly believe they are the right thing to do for the community. When I look at like the Bear Street redevelopment,      or implementing paid parking and the resident parking pass program, all the way to the housing developments that we’ve done – I’m really proud of all of those projects, and I absolutely believe they are the right thing for the community. I want to continue that.

RM: Looking back at the last four years, what’s something you feel this past council did a really good job tackling or you’re particularly proud of? Conversely, what’s something you feel that Banff council maybe missed the mark on?

GC: In addition to the things I just mentioned, I’m really proud of how we’ve done our best to navigate through this COVID pandemic. The reality of it is municipal governments are not set up to discuss public health. That is a provincial responsibility and even a federal one for that matter. Unfortunately we live in a province where a lot of that decision making has been downloaded onto the municipalities. We have been meeting for a year and a half dealing with those issues, doing the best we can with the information we had at the time. I think we’ve done a really good job of navigating through that.

As far as things we can do better, when I look back at something like the Bear Street project, which I truly believe was the right thing to do and I’m very proud of how it’s come about…you can always do more as it relates to communication, always do more to engage with people, and hopefully in the future we’ll learn from that.

RM: What would be your top or one of the top issues right now that you’re really passionate about, and maybe some ideas you have around it?

GC: First and foremost, we have to get through this pandemic. When we look to the next step, that’s going to be economic. We are a tourism-based economy, and if visitors don’t come back here our economy is going to suffer. We have to do everything we can to promote this as being a healthy destination, and do it in the right way.

There’s another one that I think is really important that people need to realize, and that is the shift in taxation that’s coming very soon. Municipal taxation is based upon municipal assessments of the commercial sector and the residential sector. About 80% of our taxes come from the commercial sector. Of that 80%, 60% comes from hotels. We know that those hotels are down dramatically in their revenues and the model we use to calculate the taxation is based upon an income, or a revenue generated model. What that means is there will be some pretty dramatic shifts in the scales. It means the other sectors, residential, industrial, etc., they’re going to have to make that up. That is going to mean some pretty large tax increases for the residential sector. What levels, what we do with it…all of those things will have to be discussed in the next term, but make no mistake, it’s coming, and it’s going to be a very large problem for this council and, quite frankly, a lot of other councils as well to deal with.

RM: How do you like to stay engaged with the people of the community and how would you continue to do so if you’re re-elected?

GC: For seven years I was very fortunate to own a coffee shop. That was a great way to talk to people and I really did enjoy that. It’s one of the things I miss the most about not having the coffee shop anymore, that social engagement, but I’m still out in the community as much as I can. I’m obviously always available for people if they want to chat. On a formal level, I think it’s really important for council to continue to engage the community with communication as much as possible.

RM: What’s another part of your platform or another issue that you’d like to chat about that we haven’t really touched on yet?

GC: The one thing that we really need to look at is going to be the congestion issue. It’s an ongoing issue. Again, I’m really proud of the things that we’ve done around paid parking and the resident parking passes. Those can be really challenging things to do, but they’re the right things to do. If I am fortunate enough to be re-elected I want to continue that discussion around congestion, particularly better utilization of the intercept parking lot as well as more transit and making transit available to more people. To me, that is the key to solving congestion issues as we move forward.

RM: Where can people find out more information about you?

GC: I do have a Facebook page. You can always email me. If you want to reach out by text or phone, you can always call me at (403) 431-8221.

RM:  Why should people vote for you in the upcoming municipal election for re-election?

GC: For 11 years I’ve always tried to be a moderate voice, a reasonable voice. I really do believe that it’s important to have an open mind and look at every issue on its merits. I don’t profess to be a liberal or conservative. I don’t profess to be left or right. I’m really a pragmatic, and that’s the way I’ve always viewed my role and that’s the way I’ve always viewed my ideology. I’ve always tried to be a consensus builder. I’ve always tried to find common ground. That’s the way I’ll continue to do it, and I’m proud of that.

Filed under: Banff, Municipal Election