Mayor Veer outlines the 6 themes of her election platform

Todayville

Published

7 years ago

8 minute read

From Tara Veer…

Platform 2017

Our community has made significant progress in many areas over the past four years, but we still but we still have serious challenges to address and emerging new opportunities to pursue together. If you choose to renew my mandate to serve you on October 16th, I will continue to work with our community, Council and City staff to effectively strengthen our city in the following themes throughout the term:

Theme #1: Citizen & Community Safety

Red Deerians have identified crime and public safety as their priority concern, so it is imperative that additional strategies are undertaken to ensure crime prevention and enforcement efforts are effective to respond to the safety challenges Red Deer is faced with. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Ensure that local community policing priorities are established and enforced through the RCMP’s annual policing plan.

Strengthen the integration between municipal enforcement units and the RCMP to ensure common objectives, efficiency, and quality of service in all delegation of duties.

Prioritize reduction of organized crime, persons crime and property crime in the policing plan.

Identify consistent service standards for non-emergency calls to police.

Reduce the case load per officer and improve officers to population ratio by supporting the addition of new officers.

Reinforce enforcement allocations to foot patrols downtown and in the parks system.

Support the safety continuum from crime prevention through to emergency enforcement.

Increase citizen reporting to help inform crime analysis, intelligence-led policing and patrols.

Establish a strong local and regional regulatory response to the Federal Government’s legalization of marijuana.

Advocate for additional Crown Prosecutors to prevent criminal charges from being “stayed” because of capacity issues at the Red Deer Courthouse.

Hold the Provincial Government accountable for drug needle debris causing general community safety risks.

Theme #2: Fiscal Responsibility & Stronger Economy

Alberta’s recession has affected everyone in our community, and sound financial decision-making of City Council is essential to protect the stability of our local economy. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Protect the affordability of living and/or doing business in Red Deer through responsible capital and operating budgets.

Preserve recently established financial strategies such as: the reduced debt ceiling, the capital savings plan, and competitive industrial and commercial tax ratios.

Ensure budget transparency through citizen input and by adopting operating budgets aligned to service standards.

Resolve the current price elasticity challenge to improve citizen access to City services such as recreation and transit.

Ensure City policy is business friendly and enhances our regional & provincial economic competitiveness.

Pending provincial legislative amendments, use new municipal tools to incentivize business attraction in areas of the City needing revitalization.

Position Red Deer for economic development & diversification by actively pursuing grants from other orders of Government, supporting the revitalization of existing community assets, and leveraging upcoming major events to maximize economic spin-off.

Solidify work underway with community partners to establish a strategic means of securing tourism and economic development opportunities for Red Deer.

Theme #3: Citizen-Focused Government & Service Improvements

The City’s daily purpose is to build quality of life for all Red Deerians. Citizen-focused local government & continuous improvement of City services for Red Deerians are strong priorities for Tara. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Pursue the next phases of core public service improvements in areas such as (but not limited to): snow and ice control, transit route efficiency, and transportation integration and efficiency.

Proactively communicate to increase accessibility and transparency of local government.

Purposefully engage with citizens to ensure public feedback informs Council decision-making.

Modernize government services to make interactions with City government easier for citizens.

Support strong maintenance of existing City assets as an ongoing priority.

Build upon Council and City staff commitment to find operational efficiencies, innovations and savings that improve service to Red Deerians.

Theme #4: Protect Our Natural & Built Environment

Red Deerians are proud of the fact that we are a city in a park and that we accept responsibility for environmental stewardship. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Support environmental modernizations and efficiencies throughout City operations.

Elevate Red Deer’s capacity to respond to extreme weather events by resolving the storm water infrastructure deficit.

Identify key areas for environmental protection before development conflicts occur.

Support the extension of the park system through trail development and winter clearing.

Emphasize food and water security in general and for citizen emergency preparedness for extreme weather events.

Theme #5: Build Community Life

The City’s primary mandate is to provide foundational services to our fellow Red Deerians, but the Mayor is also expected to build partnerships with and for our community in general. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to:

Build on our City’s prime geographic position by actively promoting Red Deer to fulfill our potential for business start ups, retention & expansion as well as trade & meeting, culture & heritage, and nature, sports & adventure tourism.

Work with indigenous community to implement municipal aspects of Truth and Reconciliation.

Work with community partners and the Provincial Government to mitigate the emerging risk to Red Deer’s net affordable housing stock and integrate related support services.

Theme #6: Advocate Our Community Needs

As Alberta’s 3rd largest City and region, Red Deer has critical infrastructure imperatives our community needs the Provincial Government to address. If re-elected as Mayor, Tara will continue to actively work to secure:

Expansion for Red Deer Regional Hospital

Polytechnic University status for Red Deer College

Addictions Treatment and Emergency Shelter capacity

Re-purposing of vacated Michener lands and the former Valley Park Manor

Protection of regional ambulance dispatch service and Advanced Life Support ground ambulance service.

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‘Don’t Write About The Laptop’: Two Reporters Allege Outlets Killed Stories About Bidens

Published on January 24, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Harold Hutchison

“I was covering Biden at the time, and I remember coming to my editor and saying, ‘Hey, we need to write about the Hunter Biden laptop.’ And I was told this came from on high at Politico: Don’t write about the laptop, don’t talk about the laptop, don’t tweet about the laptop.

Two former reporters with Politico accused the outlet of suppressing negative stories about former President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential election in a video clip posted to YouTube Thursday.

Dozens of former intelligence officials signed an October 2020 letter published by Politico that claimed a bombshell New York Post report about emails from a laptop supposedly abandoned by Hunter Biden “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Puck News reporter Tara Palmeri and Axios reporter Marc Caputo discussed the Politico newsroom’s alleged approach to unflattering reports about the Bidens on Palmeri’s podcast, “Somebody’s Gotta Win,” though the outlet has denied their allegations.

“Politico did that terrible, ill-fated headline: 51 intelligence agents, or former intelligence agents, say that the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation, or bore the hallmarks of disinformation. Turns out that story was closer to disinformation because the Hunter Biden laptop appeared to be true,” Caputo told Palmeri, who responded. “But then Facebook also pulled all stories down about the Hunter Biden laptop, and I think Twitter did at the same time, too.”

WATCH:

Twitter locked multiple accounts, including the New York Post’s and the personal account of then-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing the Oct, 14, 2020 report, citing a “hacked materials” policy. Documents released to journalist Michael Shellenberger by Elon Musk show that the FBI contacted Twitter about the potential for leaks involving Hunter Biden prior to the New York Post’s report.

“Correct, they punished The New York Post, that didn’t help. I mean, Politico, my former employer and I knew at the time, didn’t do itself any favors,” said Caputo. “I was covering Biden at the time, and I remember coming to my editor and saying, ‘Hey, we need to write about the Hunter Biden laptop.’ And I was told this came from on high at Politico: Don’t write about the laptop, don’t talk about the laptop, don’t tweet about the laptop. And the only thing Politico wound up writing was that piece that called it disinformation, which charitably could be called misinformation, at the least.”

Palmeri claimed to have experienced difficulty getting a story regarding Hunter Biden’s purchase of a .38-caliber revolver in 2018 published. Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony counts related to buying the gun in June 2024, but received a pardon from his father on Dec. 1.

Biden pardoned five other family members shortly before his term ended.

“Yeah, I mean, I had a hard time — you know I wrote some pretty serious reporting on Hunter Biden, which actually ended up getting him prosecuted — the story on the gun,” Palmeri said, with Caputo responding, “Yeah! And I remember you consulted with me cause you had, you did the original report on the gun and you came to me like, ‘How do I write about this?’ I’m like, ‘Honestly, I don’t know.’”

“Cause it was hard to get it done. I spent three months on it, I went to the laptop shop, and I did all of the reporting in Delaware, and I did all of that. But yeah it had, it had to be like much, it had to be 100% nailed down. I had everything, you know, the police reports, every, like, you know, I’m a solid reporter. But I do wonder if it could have, if it would have been published a little quicker if it was a different type of story,” Palmeri said. “It was the beginning of his administration, it was a honeymoon period — you know what I mean?”

Caputo recounted that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not the only story regarding the Bidens that was allegedly killed by Politico’s editors.

“Since we’re spilling tea about our former employer, I still have a copy of the story on my external hard drive. In 2019, a rival presidential Democratic campaign of Joe Biden’s gave to me the tax lien — the oppo research — the tax lien on Hunter Biden for the period of time that he worked at Burisma,” Caputo said. “And I wrote what would have been a classic story saying, you know, ‘The former vice president’s son was slapped with a big tax lien for the period of time that he worked for this controversial Ukrainian oil concern, or natural gas concern, which is haunting his father on the campaign trail.’ That story was killed by the editors, and they gave no explanation for that either.”

“We just get called, like, ‘the terrible mainstream media.’ It’s like you don’t understand the process there,” Palmeri said, with Caputo responding, “Well, you also don’t understand the dumb decisions of cowardly editors that are made above us.”

Politico disputed Caputo’s recollections in response to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation and sent a list of references to their past reporting on the Biden family.

“It’s bullshit. During the years referenced, POLITICO journalists lead the way on wide-ranging reporting on the business dealings of Joe Biden’s closest relatives. Ben Schreckinger was probably the top reporter in the country reporting on these matters—he literally wrote the book on it,” a Politico spokesperson told the DCNF. “Through deeply reported coverage—both pre- and post-election—POLITICO provided readers with a nuanced understanding of the dealings of James Biden, Hunter Biden, and other relatives of the president, along with the ethical questions they raised. Notably, POLITICO was the first to confirm that Hunter Biden’s laptop contained genuine material and to report on the gun incident that led to his conviction.”

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