Calgary will begin prioritizing capital investments in a new plan that brings together service lines that will be divided into four distinct classifications.

Councillors at the Sept. 3 Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC) meeting got an update on the rollout of the City of Calgary’s 10-year rolling capital plan and how it might be executed to deliver infrastructure and services for citizens.

Ryan Vanderputten, director of capital planning and business services with the City of Calgary, said that past capital plans were based on single plans for each older departmental structure and not integrated into one corporate plan.

“The approach we are taking now aligns the organization to our collective city-building outcomes,” said Vanderputten.

“It enables us to focus our efforts and funding capacity on the things that matter to Calgarians and facilitates transparency for both the public and our partners. This approach will help us to clearly articulate the city’s priorities to enable effective advocacy with other orders of government.”

Vanderputten presented a preliminary transit service line to the committee, outlining four areas: Maintenance / Replacement, Service Enhancement, Growth, and Transformative.

“The individual service plans will also evolve as funding sequencing dependencies and capacity to deliver are layered into the process,” he said.

“Ultimately, significant trade-offs will be required to focus the organization on our highest priority outcomes as we go from individual plans and priorities to one comprehensive plan.”

He said the work on this isn’t easy, and while it’s being called a plan, he said it’s a living document that will be updated annually based on changing economic and social conditions.

Prioritizing the asks in the capital plan

Calgary’s initial 2025 capital budget was pegged at $2.7 billion, but was dropped to $2.4 billion in February as council reallocated cash to align with project delivery.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said that he looked at the new method of capital planning and wondered who would decide on the highest priorities when all of the areas are put together under one big tent.

“How do you balance the difference between road infrastructure versus public transit versus emergency response versus light standard replacement; how do we bring the public in on this so that they can… provide their input on what they identify as their greatest needs and help us to inform our decisions,” he asked.

Vanderputten reiterated that tradeoffs would have to be made, and city admin will bring current information forward to council to allow them to make those decisions in council at budget time.  

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal asked if there were going to be benchmarks that would trigger a higher prioritization of investments in infrastructure.  Vanderputten said it would change annually based on asset performance, service disruptions, citizen satisfaction surveys, and other factors, like the economy.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, who is the IPC chair, said that this blueprint is a good start in nailing down a capital plan that works for a growing city. She said Calgary is behind on infrastructure, and this will help them determine where mounting pressures are around Calgary.

Finding the right mix for how to spend valuable capital dollars includes a bit of everything, Sharp said.

“The citizen satisfaction (survey) is only a piece of that, but it’s also engagement – council knowing what they’re hearing from conversations with their own constituents,” she said.

“But it’s also just knowing where you want to go with your city as a vision.”

The capital plan will be built out over the coming months with a broader picture across business units available in Q2 2026 to help inform the next four-year budget cycle.