Over the past four years, trust in the City of Calgary had fallen to its lowest recorded levels, dipping as low as 38 per cent in the Spring of 2024.

Likewise, satisfaction with the way councillors ran the city fell to the lowest recorded level, with only 46 per cent of Calgarians satisfied (Fall survey 2024).

Those numbers began to rebound in the 2025 spring survey, with trust once again rising to above 50 per cent.

Gaining and keeping Calgarians’ trust has garnered varied promises from Calgary mayoral candidates, ranging from reining in closed sessions of council, to genuine community consultations, to the return of a performance report and the creation of a citizen civic performance office.

In September, mayoral candidate Sonya Sharp pitched six different elements of a transparency and trust regime that would see a so-called sunshine list for all employees who make $130,000 or more annually, introduce a third-party audit of Calgary’s pension programs, and subject all business expenses to public disclosure and oversight.

Sharp would also like to see the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)and Chief Operating Officer’s (COO) roles combined, with savings she estimates at $2.5 million.

Finally, Sharp wants the city solicitor, the city clerk, city auditor, fire chief, and CEMA chief to report directly to council, and she wants a full performance report that tracks certain civic measures, and more changes to the procedure bylaw to reflect public expectations.

“Senior City administration likes to see itself as running a big corporation, and while the organization is big, it’s not a corporation in the same sense as the private sector,” Sharp said.

“They are a local government, and they need to be accountable and responsive to citizens and council. These measures serve as a reminder of what their job is and who they report to.”

More oversight needed: Gondek

Incumbent mayor Jyoti Gondek pitched a series of city hall reforms she said would help modernize city administration and increase accountability to citizens.

She wants the Chief Administrative Officer to report every quarter on the executive leadership team’s (ELT) progress on city goals. The CAO already reports regularly, behind closed doors to city council, but doesn’t provide updates on the ELT goals.  

“This would formalize what we’re looking for as a council and let us see where things are going well, where we might need to make some changes and ensure that we can set up the project,” Gondek told reporters on Thursday.

She’d also like the creation of a Civic Performance Office, within the City Auditor’s Office that would measure the efficiency, service quality and project delivery within the city. Her plan also calls for streamlined city services in permitting, licensing and inspections to reduce bottlenecks in those areas.

Finally, Gondek wants to see a modern, trained workforce whose performance reviews match the expected outcomes, and she’d implement neighbourhood accountability forums that provide ‘What we promised, what we delivered’ reports to communities based on projects in their areas.

“Strong leadership isn’t about doing it all yourself,” Gondek said.

“It’s about setting direction, empowering people, and making sure every part of the organization is pulling in the same direction.

Candidate Jeff Davison addressed public trust in August, saying then that after a meeting with “ignored” Royal Oak residents, he said there needs to be meaningful and transparent public engagement.

He promised an end to token consultations, with communities involved from the start of conversations, “not just informed after the fact.” Davison also wants to see clearer community engagement with Calgarians so they know what’s being proposed and how it might affect them or their neighbourhood.

In-camera meetings would go by the wayside under Davison, along with hidden agendas and pet projects.

“Calgarians deserve accountability, transparency, and a seat at the table—and that’s exactly what I will deliver,” he said in August.

Campaign and city council reform: Farkas

Jeromy Farkas has long derided the number of in-camera meetings held by city council, often referring to them as “secret” meetings.

Farkas is calling for a slew of reform measures, all captured on this webpage.

He’d like to see a lobbyist registry, recorded votes to see who is in favour of moving to in-camera sessions, a sunset clause that makes all confidential matters eventually public, written record of in-camera meetings, challenges to alleged impropriety in closed-session meetings, an annual report on amount of in-camera meetings and limit the scope of in-camera discussions.

“Reforming City Council’s confidentiality secrecy is essential to rebuilding trust, strengthening accountability, and ensuring that Calgarians can see their leaders making choices in the light of day—not behind closed doors,” reads the Farkas website.

Farkas would also like to see a cleaner line of sight on campaign finances, particularly before Calgarians cast their votes.

Calgary Party mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen said that transparency should be the rule, with in-camera meetings as the exception. However, Thiessen said that he’d tighten up the criteria for going in-camera and have council justify it each time.

“Calgarians deserve to know why decisions are private,” he told LWC.

He said city council could publish a summary record afterward outlining what was discussed and why confidentiality was necessary.

Thiessen also said that when he watched the citywide rezoning conversation, there was a real impression among citizens that councillors and admin had made up their respective minds before they went into the process.

“I keep hearing the mayor in debates talk about, ‘oh, we made 20 amendments to address the public concerns. So, problem solved,’” Thiessen said.

“But it doesn’t take too many doors you knock that you hear people saying they felt completely ignored. They certainly don’t feel satisfied with the public consultation process around that sensitive policy discussion. So, (city council is) clearly not closing the loop, and people aren’t feeling heard. If you don’t think there’s a problem, I don’t know how you fix it.”

Thiessen also pointed out that city council’s job is to act as the board of directors, evaluating the work of city administration. He said citizens rely on city council to do its job well, and as a byproduct of that, city admin will too.

“I just find it really strange all of the four people I’m running against have been on council. So, if this is a concern. Why haven’t they fixed it?”

Calgary’s municipal election day is Oct. 20.