Running under the Calgary Party banner, Brian Thiessen hopes to address what he calls the biggest concerns voiced by Calgarians.
As an employment lawyer and previously serving as chair of the Calgary Police Commission, Thiessen says his background has enabled him to work closely with organizations to find appropriate solutions, and he hopes to utilize these skills to help Calgary prosper through his leadership.
More about Brian Thiessen
Web: https://www.thecalgaryparty.ca/
X: @BrianTYYC
Instagram: @briantyyc
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/briantyyc
One of Thiessen’s main priorities if elected is addressing public safety. Thiessen aims to address this issue by increasing response rates from policing services and supplementing these services with additional resources for mental health and addiction.
Housing for vulnerable Calgarians is also a top priority, as well as making housing more affordable and accessible for all Calgarians, including students and newcomers.
Thiessen attributes Calgary’s prosperity to the many small businesses operating in the city, explaining that he plans to create more resources to help business owners grow and be successful.
7 questions with Brian Thiessen
Greg Derer: Why are you running for mayor?
Brian Thiessen: Well, I’m running for mayor because my day job is fixing dysfunctional organizations. I’m a 30-year employment lawyer with experience leading and public institutions like the Calgary Police Commission, where I was chair, and managing partner of a national law firm. And in my practice, I work with Fortune 500 companies, not for profits, national sports organizations and going in when they have their most difficult problems, helping them get on track and sorting them out. So, my skill set matches. I’m personally motivated by a desire for public service. And I have a vision for Calgary that I believe, you know, we deserve to have been voted the best city in Canada to live, and I’d like to make it the best city in the world. And so, those three things combined for me to want to be mayor.
What do you think the most pressing issues are for you as a mayoral candidate?
The most pressing issues we’re focused on is housing and public safety. We have 11 policy toolkits that cover those two topics, as well as transit critical infrastructure, water utilities, and over 100 pages of policy. But Calgarians at the doors have told us they’re really worried about public safety. And so we sat down with 30 mental health and addiction agencies and the Calgary Police executive and asked them what their three priorities are, and they all agreed. And those form the three pillars of our public safety policy. And that’s number one, a housing first strategy. So housing the homeless, it’s been done. Finland did it, and they tracked the costs. And it’s both the compassionate thing to do. You have more success with treating mental health and addiction issues when the homeless have shelter and Finland tracked and we estimate it would probably save about $100,000 per person per year by housing the homeless, from drains on the health care system, justice system, emergency response, not to mention the spillover effects on emergency responders. 24/7 mental health and addiction support integrated with Calgary police. So Alpha House currently runs help teams. And, we’re proposing to fund those to operate 24/7 with city police and transit police and house them together. So, that’s the focus of our public safety policy. It’s been studied by the Calgary Police Service for four years. It’s ready to roll out, so we can actually implement our policy on day one as well. On housing, we want to make housing the top priority. And every decision made at city hall. And we need to draft, review the regulations and reduce red tape. We’ve proposed a three, three, three one streamlined process. Three days for housing rental, three weeks for housing and townhouse approvals, three months for mid-rise and one year for large, complex projects. And we think we should default to approvals if city departments don’t get their act together, because we urgently need to provide housing for the 100,000 people who are coming to Calgary every year.
How are you going to appeal and meet the needs of young Calgarians?
You know, we had a lot of young people and students involved in our policy drafting. So I believe each of our policies speaks to the needs of young people. Our housing policy, for example, is also focused on providing student housing and providing the tools necessary for developers to build more student housing around universities. That’s cheaper rent, bringing down the cost of housing for students. Our transit policy is very focused on getting the Green Line built through downtown, its original underground route, and to the north. But also, we have a lot of focus on improving the MAX rapid bus transit routes. So those routes that run east-west, north-south and cover the city that gets students to Mount Royal University, to SAIT, and Bow Valley College, we want to increase the frequency and reliability so that they run every ten minutes. So they’re a very cost-effective way for students to get around. You know, I moved to Calgary 30 years ago as a law student at the University of Calgary and I, you know, was paying for my law degree myself, bartending to pay my bills. And, I couldn’t afford a car. And so I discovered Calgary by transit and, you know, it was a great way to learn the city, but we, we need, so I identify with students and the cost of housing, transit, the mobility issues with getting around the city, and ensuring that students can get to schools, on time and effectively and cheaply. So those are a few of the areas we focus on that I think will have a direct impact on students’ lives.
What does a prosperous Calgary look like to you?
Yeah, I think a prosperous Calgary needs to be prosperous for everyone. Right. There are definitely very successful businesses operating downtown, but we need to lift up all Calgarians so that impacts all of our policy. So, for example, we think small businesses and entrepreneurs are major drivers of the Calgary economy. So we’ve proposed that our building and infrastructure policies consider the impacts on small businesses in places like Bridgeland and Marda Loop, where, you know, the city has dug up the roads multiple times. And small businesses have been forced to close because of the cost of that. We are proposing a concierge service at city hall to help small businesses navigate those changes. A dig once policy where, you know, small businesses, all the utilities are pulled together and they only dig up the main roads once. That’s supposed to happen at city hall and it’s not we’re going to mandate that. And so a lot of tools for people who want to start businesses and drive our local economy. We see small businesses as essential partners, not obstacles to build roads around. And so, you know, that’s one piece, on our housing first policy, you know, the most vulnerable Calgarians, the homeless, we want to provide housing and we want to increase affordability across the spectrum. So what people don’t realize when we talk about streamlining regulations, as you know, the Builders Association this week released the costs that are imposed by the delays in our regulatory process, and it adds about $50,000 to the cost of a single-family home. These regulatory delays and about $80,000 to the cost of a townhome. So when we’re talking about that, we’re talking about if we bring those costs that get passed on to homebuyers and renters, if we can bring those costs down, speed up the production so people have a place to live. We’ll also bring down increased supply and bring down the cost of housing for all Calgarians so they can participate in the prosperity of the city. And we’re looking at promoting entrepreneurial contests for entrepreneurs, promoting diverse industries to move to Calgary, everything from, you know, the nation just promised a five per cent GDP investment in defense spending for example. And the chair of NATO, when they traveled to Canada, they didn’t go to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal. They came to Calgary because they see Calgary as a gateway to northern defense, which is a priority. And we think there’s opportunity for capturing a piece of that defense spending which would be billions of dollars of investment and associated businesses, as well as tech innovation, attracting venture capitalists funding. So we can really finally diversify the economy and pushing the province to stop inserting uncertainty into the clean energy industry. You know, when they changed the regulations, they really drove out a lot of clean energy businesses. And Calgary is an energy superpower, not just in the oil and gas superpower. And there are great companies like Blue Earth and Green Gate that are producing wind and solar around the world. Blue Earth operates all over North America and South America. But because of the Alberta government’s regulations, you know, they’re no longer investing in major projects in Alberta. We need to change that and get back to leading the country on clean energy and clean tech.
When you’re not running for mayor, what do you do in your downtime in the city?
Oh, well, I have a few hobbies. One of which is fly fishing. People don’t know this, but people travel from around the world to fish in the Bow River, and you can go down from Fish Creek Park in south Calgary and walk and wade in the Bow River and fish and I do. I’m terrible, but I enjoy doing it. And, it’s a very relaxing, meditative way. I like to bike and enjoy the bike pathways around Calgary. And so those are probably my stress reliefs. I very much enjoy getting out in nature, like most Calgarians and enjoying, you know, we live in kind of a world-class playground. And, I like to enjoy those pieces of Calgary. And you know, I’m always impressed, you know, my 18-year-old son would take me down to the Glenmore Reservoir to go fishing. And, you know, you’re right in the middle of the city, and you can catch pike. And it’s pretty fun. And, you know, you see a lot of people, they have this $20 rod from Canadian Tire, and you’re out there fishing in the middle of the city. It’s a pretty cool way to relax in an afternoon.
Where will you be on election night?
We’re just pulling together, but we’ll be at our campaign office. Okay, so we have a campaign office, down right by the river downtown Calgary, when you take the fourth Street flyover into downtown, if you look right beside Fortuna’s Row, you’ll see our giant billboards. So we’ll be at campaign headquarters. I’ve got 13 councillor candidates running, and we’ll gather together to celebrate and then see the results come in.
Is there anything you want to say to Calgarians before Election Day?
Just do your research. We have 50% of Calgarians who are still undecided. And early voting starts next week on the sixth, from the sixth to the 11th. Please get out and vote. You’re supposed to, a lot of people don’t know, you have to register to vote for the first time. You can do that at the election polls. So please bring the appropriate ID and proof of address. Get out and vote early six to the 11th, or get out there on Election Day on, which is just, two weeks from Monday, you know, so, you know, make sure please exercise your democratic rights and get out and vote. This is a really important election, and a lot of people are still looking around for how to make their decision. I would say if you check out the Calgary Party website, I’m pretty proud of the policy we’ve written, we’ve written it together as a team, and I think we have some of the most well-thought-out policy for taking Calgary to the next level. And, you know, I hope you vote on October 20th.
Watch video of Calgary Journal reporter Greg Derer speaking with Brian Thiessen.
