The discovery of 11th-hour investment income and internal savings has allowed the City of Calgary to keep the 2025 property tax increase at the council-imposed combined 3.6 percent.

Up until last week, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said she was concerned that city administration was coming back with a 4.5 per cent combined property tax increase, 0.9 per cent higher than what council had approved both in the four-year budget and reaffirmed earlier this year.  (Combined property tax includes both residential and non-residential increases.)

“To that end, Mayor Gondek, thank you for challenging my team and I over the last two months to find a way to refine administration’s recommendations,” said Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth, in the opening council budget presentation.

Now, owners of a single-detached residential property valued at a preliminary $700,000 will pay $2,665 for municipal taxes, a 3.9 per cent increase over 2024. Condo owners will take a bigger hit, with those at a preliminary assessed value of $360,000 paying $1,370, or a 10.5 per cent increase.

 For the median single-family homeowner ($700,000 value) it means a monthly projected increase of $8.37 for a total of $214 for the year.  Water and wastewater and recycling costs will also be rising, with the average user paying an additional proposed $5.09 per month.

This property tax value also includes the previously approved one per cent property tax shift from non-residential to residential property owners.

“Calgarians priorities reflect The City’s priorities, and I am pleased to bring forward recommendations to the Service Plans and Budgets that address improvements in infrastructure, housing, public safety, and transit,” said Duckworth.

“The recommended adjustments aim to strike the right balance between delivering reliable City services, maintaining quality infrastructure, and building a world-class city.”

Duckworth said that Calgary is still experiencing three key pressures: Aging infrastructure, rapid population growth and continued supply chain pressures.

City officials said they were able to find the additional cash to cover recommended investments.

They said they looked internally first, diverting money from lower-priority work to higher-priority work. Then, they reallocated funds that were leveraging other funding sources like grants and reserves.  They also reviewed positive operating variances, making the regular surpluses permanent in the budget.

The City also said they would be better managing normal employee vacancies better internally, freeing up some cash.

“Since September, we’ve closely examined our investments and funding priorities, employing various strategies to identify internal funding and efficiencies," said Les Tochor, Acting Chief Financial Officer.

“By identifying additional investment income, we eliminated the additional 0.9 per cent property tax increase proposed in September, reducing the 2025 property tax increase to Council’s pre-approved 3.6 per cent.”

Proposed council investments

Calgary’s operating budget for 2025 will increase by 11.4 per cent in 2025, from $4.829 billion in 2024, to $5.382 billion in 2025. Included in that is one-time spending of $200+ million, which artificially inflates that number.

City officials said with carryover of one-time funds last year, plus one time investments this year excluded, the increase settles to between four and five percent.

In order to cover the proposed new investments, $121 million in operating budget capacity was found, along with $135 in capital relinquishments, the city said. Further, water infrastructure investments will be covered largely by the proposed increase to water, wastewater and recycling rates.

“Utilities are essential for Calgarians, and further infrastructure investments, including maintenance and enhanced inspections, are key to ensuring utility reliability now, and in the future,” said CAO Duckworth.

“While we had minimal increases in water utility user fees over the past few years, Calgarians are asking
for more investments in this critical area.”

The City included investments like the Clean Energy Improvement Program, housing strategy resources, increased 911 capacity and a civic census by leveraging external or alternative sources.

They have reprioritized budgets to continue the City of Calgary’s equity program, downtown safety table recommendations, Bill 20 changes for municipal elections, a plus 15 inspection program, Calgary Transit Access, playground inspections, pavement quality improvement and additional 5A network improvement.

Sixty per cent of new operating investments will be put into infrastructure, maintenance and inspections, the City of Calgary said. Four per cent will be put into safety in the downtown core. A further 11 per cent of the operating investments will go into permanent base funding to offset and ongoing transit revenue shortfall. Thirteen per cent of the capital investment will be made in housing, land use and local area planning, the City of Calgary said.

The budget amount does not include other proposed, unfunded investments that councillors or city administration may have. Calgary city council will deliberate the budget from Nov. 18 to 22.