Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal believes that Calgary taxpayers shouldn’t be funding potential short-term rentals when there’s still a massive need for more housing.
That’s why he’s bringing a Notice of Motion forward for technical review to the Feb. 11 Executive Committee meeting. The motion calls on the City of Calgary to restrict short-term rentals in any secondary suite that has accessed funding under Calgary’s secondary suite incentive program.
Under that program, prospective homeowners can qualify for up to $10,000 to build and register a secondary suite. Calgary city councillors approved $4 million each in 2025 and 2026 in the recent budget deliberations to continue funding the program.
In December last year, the Calgary city councillors also approved new rules around short-term rentals (STRs), including a moratorium on new STRs in non-primary residences if Calgary’s purpose-built rental vacancy rate was less than 2.5 per cent.
Coun. Dhaliwal said this was a further step to protect Calgary’s rental housing market from STRs. The original reason they worked with partners to help secure housing funding for various programs is to increase citywide housing stock.
“We should encourage people to use this money to create more housing,” Dhaliwal said.
“I didn’t want this to go towards unintended outcomes, which is using this money to not create those housing units.”
Dhaliwal said he’s seen the impact of the city’s secondary suite amnesty program, with a roughly 20 per cent increase in legalized suites in his ward. He said it’s creating places for immediate family and other relatives, and for housing like international student accommodations and grandparent suites.
Taxpayer cash to prop up third-party business: Dhaliwal on secondary suites
Under Dhaliwal’s motion, applicants would be required to acknowledge and agree to the STR restriction as a condition of receiving funding. Further, he’s hoping for a monitoring and enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance.
During the discussion over Calgary’s STR rules, Airbnb’s policy lead in Canada said that if the City of Calgary approved those rules, it would have a significant impact on the local economy.
“Airbnb drove about $1.1 billion in economic impact and 11,000 jobs across Alberta last year. More than half of that’s in Calgary. It’s more than just posting to the platform. That’s impact to restaurants, retail and other tourist-related industries,” Powell said back in December, during submissions on the new bylaw amendments.
Powell also said that research showed short-term rentals don’t have a large impact on the local housing market. She said that having those rules in place could force more operators underground, avoiding regulations.
Still Dhaliwal said that he didn’t think it was right to ultimately use taxpayer dollars to help boost the revenue of third parties.
“I think taxpayers shouldn’t be compensating a private entity that is making money off taxpayers’ money because taxpayers are subsidizing some of this,” he said.
Dhaliwal isn’t too worried about it dissuading homeowners from applying for the secondary suites. He believes that it could have a net positive consequence on the STR market. With the STR vacancy rate triggered at 2.5 per cent, having more housing units available could boost the vacancy rate, allowing more STRs to come onto the market.
“Let’s focus on creating that housing and keep the vacancy (rate higher),” Dhaliwal said.
The Notice of Motion calls for a report to come back by May 2025.
