The City of Calgary is proposing nearly $900 million in adjustments to its capital allocations for 2025 to match individual project progress and align with available resources.

The capital budget recast item on the Feb. 11 Executive Committee agenda, an item that comes to city council nearly every year, provides an update on advances or deferrals between budget years based on project timelines and construction schedules.

This year, City of Calgary administration is proposing a deferral of $893 million from the 2025 capital budget and $102 million from the 2026 capital budget to be reallocated in 2027 and beyond.

“Budget recasts do not lead to any reductions in approved budgets,” the City of Calgary presentation reads.

“They are intended to more accurately reflect the timing of anticipated spending.”

The city cites realignments made to coincide with the actual project timelines and construction schedules, plus project delays due to land purchases, procurement delays and construction activities and organizational constraints as the reasons behind the capital deferral.

There are roughly $165 million in water distribution projects that will be deferred due to material delays and resource constraints. Another $60.4 million is being deferred to align with the project schedules for six recreation investments. 

The Scotia Place Event Centre, which is still projected to be on time and on budget, has had $294.5 million moved to upcoming years when the construction is in full swing. It’s still expected to be complete in Q3 2027.

“The goal is to have budget more accurately reflect the expected spending plans,” the city presentation read.

Coun. Carra notes Green Line, Bearspaw pressure on city resources

The capital deferrals drew the interest of Calgary mayor hopeful Jeff Davison, who issued a statement Monday morning after a media report summarized the city presentation but included no additional sources.

Davison’s prepared media statement said this city council is jeopardizing the city’s future by engaging in political maneuvering to stall essential projects.

“Today’s disheartening news about the reconfiguration of Calgary’s capital plan, coming just weeks after the budget’s approval, reveals two critical issues: first, the Council’s inability to effectively manage and execute projects; second, their apparent disregard for the consequences that their inattention has on vital infrastructure and Calgarians. This Council has yet again proven itself useless,” the statement read.

In Davison’s last term in office as Ward 6 city councillor, capital budget revisions were done virtually annually. They were approved in the Priorities and Finance Committee meetings and then typically rubber stamped on the consent agenda (meaning without a separate vote on that item) at the subsequent combined meeting of council, according to minutes of those meetings, reviewed by LWC.

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said that while he’d generally like to see the money injected into the local economy on these investments, moving the money around to optimize timing is standard for Calgary city council.

“It’s a normal course of business,” Carra told LWC.

“In an ideal world, you snap your fingers, and you spend the money, and everything’s done. But these things actually take time and the city was moving huge amounts of money around. So, they have to think about where they want their liquidity, and what can wait and what they invest in.”

With the collapse of the Green Line project and the reallocation of internal resources needed to move the project along, coupled with the requirements needed to deal with the Bearspaw water feeder main and subsequent infrastructure needs, capacity at the City of Calgary is strained, Carra said.

“The idea that this is some sort of a boondoggle, no. This is a very sophisticated financial situation. As we look to do a bunch of giant things, do we keep our powder dry to do things like the Green Line, and keep the lights on and water clean as we do the day-to-day work of the city,” he said.

“There are politicians out there who are not there to be doing the work of government. They’re there to be politicking, and I’m not interested in jumping through their hoops.”