Letters, Sept. 6, 2026: 'Thanks, councillor'

Support for whistleblower Nobody seems to like a whistleblower, but we support Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston for disclosing city budget documents to the media. If council plans on approving steep property tax increases for the next four years we want to know now and we're sure most Calgarians would agree. Forewarned is forearmed! JOANNE and WAYNE MORCOM (Johnston seems to be standing by his decision) This stinks Transparency. The city budget process used to be an open process to the public. A few business issues needed to be closed-door or in-camera. Now the whole process is closed-door. Council would see line item budgets every year and were able to weed out padded budget items. There is no transparency or accountability now. Barb Lawson, Sue Higgins, and others kept administration honest. They knew the smell of BS. City Hall does not seem to have any sense of smell anymore. DENNIS DURKSEN (We understand needing to go behind closed doors from time to time for legal and personnel issues, but there is a limit) No fresh ideas I have noticed most of the people protesting against allowing private/public health procedures are unionized health-care workers. They all demand change as long as it doesn't affect them. Their solution!? Give us a raise and throw more money at a system that's obviously broken. I got a private MRI a few years back and it shaved nearly three years of the time it took to see a specialist, and my procedure was tax deductible! Rather than congregating on street corners, yelling the same old tired union cliche slogan, 'Hey Hey, Ho Ho, whatever they don't like has got to go,' maybe they should put forward some fresh ideas that actually improve things for everyone, not just their bottom lines. JOHN HANCOCK (There's got to be a better way of doing things)