Calgary city councillors will consider a request to add another $60 million to an economic fund first established seven years ago to help spur further investment and diversification in the city.
Councillors approved the technical merit of a Notice of Motion calling for a topping up of the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, a pool of cash that was to be used for targeted investments to spur Calgary’s local economy.
It will still need full debate and final approval at an upcoming meeting of Calgary city council.
In 2018, the City of Calgary approved the use of $100 million in seed funding for OCIF at a time when the city had started to see a slower rate of economic growth compared to prior years and yearned for further investment in the local technology sector.
After being approved, the fund went to work, with its first investment in MobSquad, a company that connected software engineers located in Canada with other tech startups. Since that time, it has invested $86 million in 34 ventures. According to the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund page, there has been a roughly $11 economic return per dollar invested by OCIF.
“That fund has gone phenomenally well for the 100 million that we invested,” said Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who, along with Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, sponsored the motion.
“We’ve seen $900 million worth of investment come to our city. This is, I think, an 11 times production out of the $100 million that we have contributed when we look at the number of businesses that have come here, the number of jobs it’s created, and the direct investment that it has garnered us.”
If approved, the money would be taken out of the City of Calgary’s Fiscal Stability Reserve over the next several years.
“The Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund has proven itself out over time, and we are a city that needs to keep growing in terms of our economy, and this would be money very well spent, considering the return that we are getting,” Mayor Gondek said.
Good investment, more reporting needed
OCIF is a wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Calgary, and it has an independent board of directors and is administered by Calgary Economic Development (CED). Brad Parry, who is the President and CEO of CED, is also the president of OCIF. Dan Balaban took over as board chair in June 2024.
The most recent investment ($675,00 over three years) made by OCIF was in QAI Ventures, which was set up to develop talent and startups in Calgary’s quantum technology sector.
Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said that she sat on the Calgary Economic Development board for her first two years on council and was a part of city administration when OCIF was conceptualized. She said it’s doing exactly what it was intended to do.
“It’s there for businesses to try and get, that’s a mechanism that many other cities don’t have, and us as a city can’t really support businesses financially,” said Sharp.
“This is a program that’s there, that we fund, for them to apply to, and Calgary Economic Development does a great job stewarding.”
Sharp said she does want more granular reporting of what’s happening with the companies beyond just the initial investment and promise of jobs and investment attraction. She said CED does do some of that in their reporting to council, but she’d like to see it when they see budget line items.
“Calgary Economic Development will put out reports, but they’re really not granular enough to know what the return on investment is on some of the money that we’re putting forward when we give OCIF money,” she said.
“So, I’m hoping to see that more in the future budget cycles, to have them literally delineate the return on investment in the OCIF funding that we provide.”
