Fraud, all types of it, is on the rise.

Yet, this brand of crime isn’t mentioned on city council’s list of priorities for the police. And you won’t find it on the police crime mapping website. Investigating documents may not be as sexy as solving a murder, or breaking up a drug ring.

Yet, the effects of fraud — identify theft, and personal loss of money — is devastating, time consuming and just plain nasty.

“Fraud is often through organized crime. They can make more money than (they do) selling drugs,” says Gervais. The investigations can be so complex they can take years. For instance, mortgage frauds from three years ago are just being probed now now.

How does fraud look? Let me count the ways.

Mortgage fraud. Someone pays you to sign for their mortgage, then sells the house. You have no house, just a mortgage. Often the signee is in on the scam.

ATM and debit card fraud. Gervais doesn’t use debit; and he and his wife have only one credit card.

Computer hacking. Check your bank and credit card statements religiously. Watch for withdrawals on your account.

Employee theft. Police aren’t in the “recovery business,” which is why cases often go to civil suit first. It can take years for a thief to be charged.

Investment scams. If the organization isn’t registered in Alberta, don’t invest.

eBay. You know that muscle car you bought from the guy in B.C.? You will never get it. That B.C. crook is now being taken to court in three different jurisdictions for $1.5 million. eBay crime is tough to crack — IP addresses can be masked. Crime cuts across country boundaries.

Defrauding less than $5,000 is the leading fraud crime in Calgary, followed by credit card forgery or trafficking, then fraud more than $5,000.

So, while our streets may be safer, our money  is not. Fraud is a scourge. We need city council to list it as a priority. Staff up and map it just like robberies. Fraud investigators, your work is sexy to us.

You won’t see Calgary’s minor hockey players, who crumple to the ice, head injured. They aren’t newsmakers, just casualties to one idea of hockey.

Alberta allows body checking at 11 years old, Grade 6. (Girls hockey and rec leagues don’t.)
Body checking is supposed to “separate the player from the puck.” But it’s often used to intimidate, to hurt, retaliate. Checking (or hitting) is the cause of most injuries in minor hockey.

U of C’s Carolyn Emery found Alberta’s peewee hockey players (11- and 12-year-olds) sustain three times more injuries, including concussions, than a province without checking at that age.

The developing brain is fragile, and a kid concussed is at risk for learning disabilities and psychiatric problems, Dr. Michael Cusimano and Anthony Marchie argue in an essay that can be found on the website of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. They found serious football injuries to be one half those of hockey.

Researcher Michel-Andre Roy notes that the size difference for teens 13 to 15 is greater than at any other time in their lives. Small players are at greater risk. So medical advice is to eliminate body checking or to delay it until later.

Referees also sustain most injuries from body checking. They get caught in a check or scrum near the boards, with no padding. There’s no systematic recording of minor hockey injuries to players — or referees — in Calgary. Unless there’s an insurance claim.

Minor hockey playoffs are underway in Calgary this week. 

Hockey Calgary’s head referee watched my son’s game. The opposing team had concussed numerous kids the game before. It happened again: a talented Grade 6 child moaning and writhing on the ice with a concussion. It was a clean hit, no penalty.

Sure, there’s the tired party line. Kids should learn to check earlier, it’s all about education, better recognition of head injuries, more diligent refereeing.

Secretly, I like watching body checking (adrenalin rush!); my son likes the full-contact game.
But entertainment and pleasure can’t decide this one. Hockey authorities need to make the right call for the kids.

Getting hurt isn’t fun.

After that, you need to provide an “emotional anecdote to keep their attention.” So says John Medina, writing in Brain Rules. It’s a great book about how people learn.

So here’s emotion: How are we going to get to and from the airport?

Pay attention now, or get very emotional sitting on a jammed Deerfoot while your flight departs without you.

First, we mourn the loss of the airport’s road to the south Airport Trail, via Barlow Trail.
It’s closing soon. For a new runway.

Yet, most visitors from the airport go south — into our downtown, the commercial centre of the oil patch. Or for tourism to our luxury hotels, shopping, and top-notch restaurants. To the closest LRT link: Whitehorn.

It’s the price to pay for a new runway.

Rick Erickson, a consultant who does the airport’s economic impact study, says the new runway is needed. It’s always been part of the plan. No secret.

The airport is over capacity, and two planes can’t land at the same time. The airport generates one in 10 dollars in Calgary.

As well, he says, the airport gets a bad rap because southern access roads are on airport land, and the airport maintains them. “They don’t need anyone’s permission to open and close Barlow Trail,” says Erickson.

Maybe not, but closing Barlow also destroys the east-west traffic link. The traffic battle shifts north.

That’s where Mayor Naheed Nenshi wants an east-west link, or tunnel, ringing up preliminary costs of $300 million. He needs councillors to vote in support.

They should. Or we’re headed for a traffic mess and symbolic disenfranchisement. The airport runway will force citizens in its own northeast quadrant to battle to work.

Some call Nenshi’s quest for the east-west “a political decision.” This was a campaign promise. So he’s building an economic case, and it’s stronger than any economic reasons for the current southwest LRT line.

Emotion? Sadness. Disdain. This current project goes to some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the city (including our former mayor’s own residential area), and still strands Mount Royal University without a link.

We look at demographics: The northeast quadrant is the fastest growing in Calgary, followed by the southeast. A good traffic link between all our quadrants matters.

Councillors should give Nenshi their support for the airport tunnel, or get ready for an emotional toxic mess of northeast disenfranchisement and traffic gnarl.

And one final note, the Calgary airport authority wisely set aside land for an LRT link to the airport.If the airport tunnel dies on the table, the focus should shift to this fact.

Unusual. Not because she’s pail washing (not allowed), but because my neighbourhood has no immigrants. Research from city hall showed that not one person from India, China or Pakistan immigrated to my neighbourhood at last census count. Our housing costs rival Silicon Valley.

I was one of 100,000 people who downloaded these neighbourhood reports from the city of Calgary website, where John te Linde oversees the social research unit.

After 25 years, he notes a disturbing trend.

“When we first produced community reports, there was less concentration of rich and poor. Now, we’re losing our social mix in communities.”

Can you feel it?

Wait, that Filipino woman at the car wash. She’s not alone. There are two well dressed people waiting in the SUV. They watch her polish within an inch of her life.

I try to speak to her. No English. Their servant? Perhaps this serves as a metaphor. Our neighbourhoods are separated into washers and those comfortably watching the washers. And our housing policy is to blame.

Take a look at the much ballyhooed PlanIt, or TOD plans. Sure, they call for a housing mix, but no price mix. Sure they provide more density — for the really well off. The city says the province won’t let it tell developers to include lower-priced units in new developments.

But Noel Keough of Sustainable Calgary thinks there’s wiggle room: “Affordable housing allows people to live close to work without owning a car and to have some choice about where to live.”  

He thinks the city could:
• Require affordable housing units on land it owns
• Set percentages of affordable housing in Calgary neighbourhoods
• Permit secondary suites city wide. Right now, many rich neighbourhoods are exempt.

Sure, we can carry on like this, but we can’t say we know Calgary is growing more unequal.
Sustainable Calgary and the public library have a Feb. 16 book club on The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Cities Stronger.

Inequality, the authors argue, causes stress — for everyone. Even those watching someone else wash and buff their SUV.

And he exercises hard. But still he takes a drug to lower his cholesterol. So, like thousands of Albertans, James Stone —that’s U of C cardiologist Dr. James Stone — fits right into an Albertan trend.

Consider: The No. 1 drug billed to the Alberta government is cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, and thousands more buy it privately. In fact, Lipitor is the bestselling drug of all time.

What does this say about us?

“We didn’t traditionally have much access to food, and had to work very hard to get it. Now, we have tremendous access, don’t have to work hard,” says Stone, 57.

“Research over 15 years shows that the lower your cholesterol levels, the better you do from a cardiovascular standpoint,” Stone says. Cholesterol is blood fat linked to heart attack and stroke.

In Alberta, we spend $20 million annually covering Lipitor for seniors, widows and others who qualify for aid. Indeed, a Lipitor TV ad shows the most handsome middle-aged man on the planet, walking his dog in a forest. If he can’t get his cholesterol in check, how can mere mortals?

Stone believes diet and exercise often don’t bring enough change.

“Sometimes we need to treat people aggressively,” Stone says. He thinks cholesterol drugs are worth the cost and side-effects. Disclaimer: He once consulted for Lipitor.

At 50, Stone began to eat less and exercise. It took seven years to make changes. That’s why he thinks early prevention is key.

We’re part of a tough trend, though. At birth our cholesterol is low, but in adulthood it rises two to three times that of non-Westernized populations. So the medically OK cholesterol level has been reset upwards, Stone says. He wants his patients to aim lower.

Sure, the Alberta Health and Stroke Foundation has good prevention efforts.

There’s Heart Check-vetted grocery foods and menu items at restaurants like Husky House.
You can email a much-loved fatty recipe and have it remade by AHSF experts.

Alberta’s Healthy U site has excellent recipes and cooking videos.

But try as we might, the message behind Alberta’s drug costs points to a simple, stubborn equation.

Too much food in, not enough work out. Calgarians, we’re not mavericks, just Lipitor-ites in waiting.

My son found her discarded mayoral candidate sign. He’s using it as a sleigh and stores it under the porch.

“Nice and waxy,” he says. But fraying.

So his Santa list includes a new toboggan, but also a laptop computer. His brother wants a cellphone and unlimited texting package.

So Santa expectation management is swinging into action.

I’m not the first to wonder how a religious holiday became a toy fest. And expensive electronics have upped the ante.

I thank the Three Wise Men for bringing Jesus only three gifts in total. “Look at the Bible,” I tell my kids, three gifts is the accurate number to receive.

But there’s no just fighting the pressure to provide a Christmas toy. Sorry, toys, plural.
Across the city, charities are working hard to ensure there’s no kid without a gift on Dec. 25.
The Salvation Army’s “adopt a family” program provides the most gifts. But families can only use this once.

For women who still need gifts for kids, the Women’s Centre of Calgary tries to pick up the slack with its Toy Room, open through to Dec. 22.

Women who use the centre can try to find a toy for their child: Infant to 18 years of age.
Like many agencies, demand is up and donations are down.

The Toy Room has 400 gifts and the agency expects it needs another 1,600, especially for eight to 12 year olds.

There’s a huge amount of pressure on families to meet a “movie image” of Christmas, notes Women’s Centre executive director Susan Gillies, “If you’re the child that has nothing when everyone else is back in school talking about their gifts, it’s pretty hard.”

And non-Christian families? They need gifts, too. “There’s incredible pressure to be involved, if not in the religious part, the gift-giving part, the meals,” Gillies says.

I may not like the way Christmas has become a commercial venture, but, like you, I hate the thought of a kid without a gift.

For the Toy Room, I’ve packed up some new boys sport performance T-shirts, a few new board games, and some earring and necklace sets.

And Christmas in our house?

I suspect my son won’t have any more fun on a new sleigh than on that waxy campaign sign.    

The Women’s Centre is at 646 Ave. NE at Edmonton Trail, and its phone number is 403-264-1155. 

One part of our health system seems to work well. I got my son into a quiet after hours medical clinic -- with an appointment. This was part of a Primary Care Network after hours care.

So ERs may be a mess, but PCNs seem to be nicely picking up the load.

PCNs are groups of family physicians funded by the province for extra services: Hiring specialists in their clinics (asthma educators, or a nurse to do Pap smears) running clinics for those without a doctor, consulting about chronic care and, importantly, staffing after hours care clinics for PCN member patients.

There are four PCNs in Calgary and three have after hour clinics. Only the South Calgary is left out. Some 70 per cent of family doctors belong. But too few know care exists. My doctor is a member who never mentioned PCN services; Health Link didn’t suggest the PCN when I called about my son’s eye infection.

It was one of my Mount Royal students who alerted me to the after hours clinic at the old Grace Hospital. Just a few blocks from home.

I called Health Link back. We were called the next day for a same night appointment.

Alas, there was no signage to the clinic, which caused some confusion. So more calls back to Health Link — the after hours clinic has no phone number.

My son left with a good assessment, and a prescription. His file was faxed to his doctor. His infection resolved.

Rick Ward of the Foothills PCN says all research shows primary care is the best health investment.

Some 19 per cent of those at its after hours clinic said they would have gone to an ER instead. The Foothills after hours clinic saw 7,000 patients in one year.

Is that enough? The northeast Mosaic after hours clinic is considered underutilized — so a clear “how to use” these clinics communication is crucial.

Family doctors have long been the lowly wage earners. Alberta Health wisely put extra money toward family physicians through PCNs.

Each can decide on what services best suit its patients’ needs. So more doctor control.

After hours doctors are paid a flat fee and there seems to be little trouble staffing the clinics.

This spring, as Alberta Health renegotiates PCN contracts, after hours care should be a core part of PCN financing.

Our health system can work, and parts are working better. I’m buoyed by one non-hellish after hours experience. The secret needs to be out.

To an organization with terrific lack of city oversight.

Community associations work like this: The city owns the community association buildings—and leases them to volunteer-run groups.

It’s much cheaper than staffing them with city employees, paying for upkeep. There’s a quaint notion that community needs will be met.

Maybe. But reality bites.

The buildings are often old and expensive to run. It’s easy for a small group to gain control, have their own way, break bylaws like crazy.

How do I know? I sat on a CA board and was responsible for a $200,000 employee theft.  I’m liable, so blame me.

But the city failed, too. It failed to enforce the terms of its own lease, which was to approve amounts over spent over a certain amount.

The city sends representatives to CA meetings with no mandate to enforce bylaws, advise on financials—or even enforce the minor lease oversight that exists.

I was tipped off the theft by another board member, and reported this to the Federation of Calgary Community—an organization partly funded by the city. No one helped investigate
And the city looked the other way in the absence of three years of no audited financials.

Pretty secret territory, community associations.

All community association financials are presented in camera to city council. The true situation escapes the light of day—even from many CA’s own members.

The last thing the city wants “is the keys back” or to have to run the building. Bowness and Fairview are failed examples.

As the mayor noted in a CBC interview in 2007, aldermen use community associations to curry favour, and build support.

In the face of this, he needs to insist that CA oversight is in place.

The Calgary police haven’t prosecuted the person named in our civil suit. So, there’s little deterrent to steal from a community association.

Oh, and the Societies Act. A nice tax by the province. CAs register bylaws there, but there’s no enforcement.

The mayor doesn’t want to place blame. He’s looking for system fixes.

Blame me for failing my community.

But look at the entire system, too, Mayor Nenshi.

Join a community association? Maybe. But to the board? Only if you’re a forensic accountant with a ton of time on your hands.

The former Australian wine executive championed traffic calming in the southwest community of Strathcona, garnering $900,000 for eight speed cushions, 15 curb extensions, four centre medians, two intersection corner adjustments, a speed board, and admin costs.

This was the most of the last 10 traffic calming projects. Traffic calming has a $1 million yearly budget, and it’s the one that Ald. Ric McIver pledged to slice if mayor.

It was a nice play to his future council, because aldermen hate traffic calming, and no two citizens agree on the problem, or the solution. My neighbour likes to speed; I’m frustrated by the refusal of the city’s refusal to get Strathcona-like “cushions.” 

Yet, traffic calming is worthwhile. If you get struck by a car travelling at 50km/h, you’re dead.
As the city’s own documents say, traffic ruins community cohesiveness.

Yet measures are not equal. Some get gated streets (Hillhurst Sunnyside), or 200-metre playground zones (Elbow Park) or roundabouts and no-turn zones (Rosedale). Others can’t get no satisfaction.

Such nonsense wouldn’t stop Leslie Ferris.

He didn’t like what he saw around his grandchildren’s school, and he lobbied for measures to slow traffic and create safe drop-offs.

“I’m consistent and I don’t give up. I’m like a mongrel dog with a bone.” Ald. Joe Connelly backed the community.

“Just the worst thing in my mind is to see a child injured,” says Ferris.

What does traffic calming cost? West Hillhurst, ($740,000) Mayland Heights, Triwood and Shawnee-Evergreen ($400,000 each), Oakridge ($44,000) Dalhousie ($450,000), Cambrian Heights and Thorncliffe ($11,000 each.)

In Cambrian Heights, Caroline Bartel is happy despite being bottom of the spending heap. She’s the mom of two young children and the community association president.

After the city wouldn’t call her back, she met a city staffer at an event who listened to speeding concerns near a dog park. Two three-inch speed tables now bookend a pedestrian walkway.

“They (speed tables) have been fantastic,” Bartel says. She’d want to see pros and cons to cutting traffic calming.

And soon, Leslie Ferris, 71, will return to Australia, with a plea.

“There’s a total disregard for children’s safety here. I told the city ‘You represent the people. Fix it’.”

Bed bugs? he asked. Maybe, I reply, munching on a piece of aged gouda cheese. It’s intimacy like this you get at candidate house parties.

This one is in Edgemont for Ward 4 candidate Gael Macleod. There’s wine, cheese and friends from my book club. Macleod speaks, mingles. Her manager asks for money. Welcome to good old-fashioned campaigning.

Ward 4 has 11 candidates. Macleod’s strategy is house party, SuperStore meet and greets, and open houses.

I ask her campaign manager about Twitter.  “Does anyone know if Twitter actually brings out votes?” she asks.

Ric McIver campaign manager Sam Armstrong wonders the same thing. He prefers house parties to Twitter and debates.

“You have an intimate environment with people predisposed to your candidate. They leave and there’s a ripple effect,” says Armstrong.

No candidate can match the Twitter king Naheed Nenshi.

But he’s house partying like crazy, too. Friday, the mayoral candidate was in Scarboro. 
It’s a community that Nenshi has accused of BANANAs — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near (nenshi.ca/new/inclusive-zoning).

The host is a friend, and I bring another friend, an African immigrant, who works to raise money for grandmothers taking care of AIDS orphans. She wants to hear about social issues.
In front of the fireplace, Nenshi makes an articulate speech: Part policy, part jabs at his opponents. 

Current city council?  “Truly awful.” City auditor? She found cost overruns on every project she audited. Suburbs? It costs the city $10,000 per home in costs never recovered by taxes.
He wants an airport tunnel for the city’s third-largest employment area, and identifies a reserve fund that would pay for it.

He mocks the city’s idea of building an LRT adjacent to the airport, not to it.

Nenshi questions city council priorities: Two years spent discussing closing two lanes of Memorial Drive?

He fields an aggressive question about raising taxes. Nenshi won’t promise not to (“if any candidate tells you that, they’re lying”), and argues for an “adult conversation” about priorities.

At the end, my friend tells me she wants to invite Nenshi to her house for a party “not like this one.”

“With people I know,” she laughs. “And not to talk about taxes.”

Most of the electorate isn’t on Twitter. Our precious democracy begins, first, in conversation, at home.