Calgary homeowners will see a 7.8 per cent property tax increase in 2024, after a majority of councillors voted against multiple motions intended to bring the increase down.
After three days of budget deliberations, which included public submissions and questions of administration, City councillors put the lid on an adjusted 2024 city budget. The approved budget, which must still be finalized early next year, would mean the typical single-family homeowner, whose property increased by 10 per cent over the past year, will see an increase of $16 per month in 2024.
The increase is up from a previously approved projected 3.4 per cent property tax bump initially approved in last year’s four-year budget. The increase is due to $171 million in budget additions put forth by councillors, along with a one per cent shift in the tax responsibility from Calgary businesses to homeowners. (LIST OF NEW INVESTMENTS AT THE BOTTOM.)
“I don’t want us to squander this opportunity to serve our citizens by pushing, in all honesty, old narratives about austerity that cutting services will somehow improve the quality of life for our citizens,” Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, who moved the budget, said in his opening.
“That’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to talk about the quality of life, not just simply the tax dollars that we pay.”
The additions included in the budget focused on affordable housing, public safety – including transit – and other inflationary increases.
Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said that we’ve already seen the results of some of the targeted investments the city’s made thus far. He said he saw it firsthand when he rode to city hall on transit. Dhaliwal said he wants to continue building on that.
“Like I said, this is investment in the city. This is the city that we want to see in 10 to 15 years,” he said.
“This is the city that we want to hand over to the next generation and we can’t just keep cutting and cutting and cutting and expect our city to be the best city in the world where we all can work, live and play.”
Hot topic: The tax shfit
In the proposed budget, city administration has recommended a one per cent shift of tax responsibility from non-residential (business) properties, on to residential properties. That would bring the tax split to 53 residential /47 non-residential. They have also recommended this continue for the next two years (2025, 2026, to get to 55/45).
Several attempts were made to eliminate the tax shift, spread out the tax shift over a longer period, and even an attempt to offer a rebate to citizens to cover their portion of the tax shift.
None of those were successful.
“I’ve heard at least from my residents, that the risk tolerance in regard to a tax increase is minimal,” said Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who pitched an elimination of the tax shift.
“I can’t actually sell a tax increase to my residents. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would expect that through the democratic process, we will all represent the interests of our constituents and hence get a city-wide decision as a result.”
Coun. Sonya Sharp doubled down on the affordability issue for residents.
“We also need to look at the big picture. We shouldn’t put further tax responsibility on our residents on top of increased taxes higher than what we told Calgarians a year ago and every other single cost rising in their face,” she said.
“These people are actually the same people who sustain business in Calgary, and we have not talked about how they’re the actual consumers. What’s the first thing you do when you realize your bottom line is getting too heavy? You start to cut out your extra spending.”
Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said councillors need to keep their eyes on the future of Calgary business, not just the short-term goal of reducing taxes.
“These are not enjoyable decisions to make. I don’t enjoy being in this position,” said Coun. Spencer.
“It is a decision that if we are going to be honest about what the long-term implications are, we need to take care of a thriving ecosystem here locally, that encourages investment.”
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce, who has been advocating for the city to get to a 2.8 to 1 tax ratio between businesses and homes rather than the current 4.5 to 1, said this is a good first step.
“Today’s decision to shift the property tax ratio by one percent is progress, however, it leaves Calgary vulnerable compared to other jurisdictions across Canada,” said Chamber president and CEO Deborah Yedlin.
“As the most entrepreneurial city in Canada, we need a policy environment that supports Calgary in being the destination of choice for business and investors. Moreover, we need to support those businesses that have thrived in Calgary for decades but are now facing untenable increases in their taxes, impacting their ability to grow, increase wages or remain operational.”
Yedlin said they would continue to work with city council.
Taking the tax jump to citizens
Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said there was a group of councillors that strongly believed in the investment package that was put forward.
“Based on all the things that we’ve heard over two years, this was our chance to truly shape something in response to that, and truly show the costs of it but also understand the long-term benefits and the long-term strategies that we’re working towards as a city.”
When asked if she would be able to justify the tax increase when she took it back to Ward 11 residents, Coun. Penner said absolutely.
“I can because what I can also bring with that is a list of over 20 things that we’re doing with that that either create a more affordable city or invest into the things that citizens have been asking us for,” she said.
“So, I’m quite comfortable going back and showing how those dollars line up and what that investment looks like for Calgarians.”
Coun. Andre Chabot said he tried to put forward various amendments to reduce the burden on taxpayers.
“It’s hard for me to support something when I know that on a go-forward basis, the only way we’ll be able to fund additional things is by additional increases,”
“We’ve already identified that we’re going to have increases in the following years, so we will have increases on increases in subsequent years when we have a positive variance (surplus) of $100 million.”
Coun. Spencer said he’s not thrilled with the timing of this budget increase.
“It’s crap,” he said.
“So why, Spencer, why would you vote for this? Well, the four-year budget, the envelope that we approved and came to us, did not contemplate, did not give us the room to fully enter into addressing the realities that we’re facing as a city.”
Coun. Sharp said that there were tough choices that needed to be made in the budget. She said it might be easier if this was the only thing Calgarians were paying more for. But, it’s not, she said.
“There’s a lot in this budget that doesn’t make any sense doesn’t to me, doesn’t make sense to taxpayers,” she said.
“Some might call me out for calling this a wish list. It was 10 months of wishing. We went from putting a four-year budget cycle of a 3.4 per cent tax increase to now almost eight per cent in a budget adjustment year. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Ward 14’s Peter Demong said he didn’t like the budget. He wasn’t happy with it at all. He said, however, the city doesn’t really have a choice.
“We’re at a wall. These people have been doing amazing jobs with the little increases that we’ve offered them. We have managed to hold this city together by strings and in some cases a little bit of glue,” he said.
“As I said, we have now hit a wall where we have a lot of issues in front of us. The city is going to have to face those issues one at a time and deal with them. And this budget, I believe, will do that.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said this was a budget that delivers much-needed investments to citizens. She said that it showed that the city won’t turn its back on citizens in need. She did, however, point the finger at other orders of government to belly up to the table to cover the items that are their jurisdiction.
“The investments that we have made through this budget, the ones we’re proposing should largely be shared across all orders of government,” she said.
“The investment decision that we will make today is our way of showing those other orders of government that we happen to be all in when it comes to taking care of the citizens that we serve.”
New Investment Recommendations – 2024 Calgary budget by Darren Krause on Scribd
