Million-dollar fitness centre survives budget cuts

[Gorilla]

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081118/CGY_Budget_FitnessCentre_081118/20081118/?hub=CalgaryHome

sorry if repost..but this is BS:banghead: :banghead:

But maybe Alderman Jones failed to notice the Talisman Centre, which is about one and a half kilometre drive from city hall that takes less than five minutes to get to.

[Gorilla]

http://www.660news.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20081119_084601_11348

[krazykhoja]

complete horseshit...what a waste of taxpayer's money...and they wonder why the fuck their budget is so high...

:thumbsdow

[rc2002]

That's still money better spent than fishes on the Glenmore interchange or trees planted on memorial drive.

[Gorilla]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
That's still money better spent than fishes on the Glenmore interchange or trees planted on memorial drive.

how is that better? Environment vs Skinny Alderman :dunno: do work at City Hall?


Contact your Alderman
http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Municipal+Government/Office+of+the+Aldermen/Ward+Offices/Alderman+by+ward.htm

[Xtrema]

$1.6M is the grand scheme of thing is small. If you pay for every city employee's Talisman centre membership, you'll be burning thru more than $1.6M/year.

But optics is bad and they should have removed this off the list on a year they are asking record increases.

[adam c]

the city isn't paying my gym membership, why should i pay theirs?

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally posted by adam c
the city isn't paying my gym membership, why should i pay theirs?

This.

[rc2002]

Planting a couple of trees on Memorial isn't going to save the environment.

This is a drop in the bucket compared the wastefulness in other areas.

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by Xtrema
$1.6M is the grand scheme of thing is small. If you pay for every city employee's Talisman centre membership, you'll be burning thru more than $1.6M/year.

But optics is bad and they should have removed this off the list on a year they are asking record increases.

Agreed. The optics are just terrible.

[adam c]

^^ still why does the average person have to pay for their own gym membership yet the city employee gets it free via tax payer? if my taxes goto the city to build a gym, i want a membership there and not where i am now

why can't the city employees just pay for their own lazy ass memberships like everyone else

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by adam c
why can't the city employees just pay for their own lazy ass memberships like everyone else

Well, a lot of companies do provide wellness benefits to employees which include paying for gym memberships.

That being said though, since the City is public sector, I really don't think that public money should be going to fund this type of stuff. That's the trade off you make when you work a public sector job.

[lint]

This sounds very hypocritical coming from the city. After working on a project in one of the city departments, they must fund their own christmas parties, and provide their own common workplace amenities like microwaves and fridges. To say that a $1.6M fitness facility is a necessary expenditure of tax payer money, but a microwave to heat up a brown bag lunch isn't, is stupid.

[method]

All this demonstrates is that city council is incapable of doing what's best for Calgary now. Let the self-congratulatory asses like urqhart, or the old-guard aldermen get booted, and get in some people that are actually representative of the best this city has to offer... not some schmucks that think all their job consists of is telling Calgarians to shut up and like it.

Sit through even a few hours of council meetings and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

[Tarrantula]

Originally posted by adam c
^^ still why does the average person have to pay for their own gym membership yet the city employee gets it free via tax payer? if my taxes goto the city to build a gym, i want a membership there and not where i am now

why can't the city employees just pay for their own lazy ass memberships like everyone else


You are all going to kill me... but I get free passes to the talisman everyday from my work..

Too bad im fat!

[adam c]

Originally posted by Tarrantula



You are all going to kill me... but I get free passes to the talisman everyday from my work..

Too bad im fat!

do my tax dollars pay for your passes?

[Tarrantula]

Originally posted by adam c


do my tax dollars pay for your passes?

Im going to say no, because my work pays for them...


but in the long run somehow.. probably. (Dph Focus)

[adam c]

don't know what that is so i would assume no i don't hate you

[gqmw]

The city of calgary provides a subsidy for membership to the YMCA each year.

Now if you think about it, if they're going to offer this free membership to a fitness facility, they are going to be saving money in the long run.

[Gorilla]

I wrote to my Alderman and this is what I got back..After asking if he knew how far Talisman centre was from City hall.

Mr. Gold,

Thank you for your letter of November 19th.

We are well aware of where the Talisman Centre is located.

The Fitness Centre which you are writing about is being built from Capital funds from the Province of Alberta. The money is thus designated by the Province and is not able to be rolled into civic budgets to be used for tax purposes.

Should the city not use this money as designated by the Province, in this case for the Fitness Centre, the Province will take back the funds. Also, this Fitness Centre was on the books some 8 years ago or more and was not approved by this Administration due to the cost at which time it WOULD have been had to be built by taxpayer funds.

Alderman Jones is in budget talks at this moment and his focus is on our Seniors, limited income families and as always is based on feedback provided by his constituents. At no time would he vote for a PERK for City Employees or anyone else at the expense of the taxpayers of this City.

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by gqmw
The city of calgary provides a subsidy for membership to the YMCA each year.

Now if you think about it, if they're going to offer this free membership to a fitness facility, they are going to be saving money in the long run.

Your logical, correct argument has no place in this thread.

I guess the broader question is then, should the City be using public money to pay for their employees' fitness costs, whether at their own facility or by paying for gym memberships?

[Tarrantula]

Fucking Burn.

He seemed a little ticked with the Perk comment. ha ha ha

old people..

[A790]

Originally posted by Tarrantula



You are all going to kill me... but I get free passes to the talisman everyday from my work..

Too bad im fat!
Fuck you fatty, give them to me :poosie:

[Tarrantula]

Originally posted by A790

Fuck you fatty, give them to me :poosie:

HAHA I was waiting for you to come online...


I have over 20 free passes... but im saving them for christmas.. cause i wont be able to get them since our office is closed from the 20th to the 5th.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Gorilla
I wrote to my Alderman and this is what I got back..After asking if he knew how far Talisman centre was from City hall.

Mr. Gold,

Thank you for your letter of November 19th.

We are well aware of where the Talisman Centre is located.

The Fitness Centre which you are writing about is being built from Capital funds from the Province of Alberta. The money is thus designated by the Province and is not able to be rolled into civic budgets to be used for tax purposes.

Should the city not use this money as designated by the Province, in this case for the Fitness Centre, the Province will take back the funds. Also, this Fitness Centre was on the books some 8 years ago or more and was not approved by this Administration due to the cost at which time it WOULD have been had to be built by taxpayer funds.

Alderman Jones is in budget talks at this moment and his focus is on our Seniors, limited income families and as always is based on feedback provided by his constituents. At no time would he vote for a PERK for City Employees or anyone else at the expense of the taxpayers of this City.

Exactly. Media has overblown this.

Common people don't understand how budget works.

[Fivewayradio]

The City is an employer and has a responsibility to attract and retain employees. Having a convenient facility to improve your health at your workplace is a great perk. It not only helps employees feel better about themselves and their employer, it can also potentially decrease healthcare costs. In the long run it could conceivably SAVE the city money because happier, healthier workers are potentially more productive, sick less, hurt less etc. (Of course they're union employees who work in a culture of mediocrity with no reward for working harder or doing better.) So it's a nice idea, but probably won't amount to much.

Since the funds for this have come from a Capital allowance from the province you guys should really be bitching about what it costs to OPERATE this facility, since that WILL come out of the operating budget.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by Xtrema
Common people don't understand how budget works.
I don't give a shit where the money's been allocated, it shouldn't have been allocated there in the first place :dunno:

"Oh don't worry, we aren't spending our operating budget on a gym facility, we're spending money allocated to us through a different channel."

Maybe you should look at how much money you've allocated to this other shit, because obviously it's too much. In the end, no matter where the funds were allocated, it came out of my pocket at one point or another.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Originally posted by Eleanor

I don't give a shit where the money's been allocated, it shouldn't have been allocated there in the first place :dunno:

"Oh don't worry, we aren't spending our operating budget on a gym facility, we're spending money allocated to us through a different channel."

Maybe you should look at how much money you've allocated to this other shit, because obviously it's too much. In the end, no matter where the funds were allocated, it came out of my pocket at one point or another.
Exactly.. there shouldnt even be a budget for someting like that.

[7thgenvic]

the funny thing about this whole situation is that everyone in the city will be pissed off and the government will just find another way to waste tax payers money! mehhh

[Redlyne_mr2]

Originally posted by 7thgenvic
the funny thing about this whole situation is that everyone in the city will be pissed off and the government will just find another way to waste tax payers money! mehhh
Ive heard talks of some 25 million dollar pedestrian bridge across the bow... give that money to Race City!!!