Calgary’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) outlined how city administration consistently informed city council of the risk to the final payments of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), refuting any claims they were misled.

COO Stuart Dalgleish walked the current council through a series of past direct questions and answers that continually reiterated that there could be risk to the final part of the HAF funding. It comes after an email from Dalgleish surfaced saying that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) had paused up to $129 in future HAF payments.

Dalgleish gave councillors a background lesson going back to the creation of the Housing Affordability Task Force (HATF), and the inclusion of citywide rezoning in the 98 recommendations in the Calgary housing strategy. This document was approved roughly five weeks before the City of Calgary signed the HAF funding agreement for $228 million.

Notably, however, is that on the same day (June 6, 2023) council directed the HATF recommendations to be included in the housing strategy, city council also approved the HAF action plan.

Dalgleish said that prior to the HAF agreement being made public, councillors were provided with an information package and a toolkit. One of the direct questions in the toolkit was whether a rezoning decision impacted HAF funding.

“I’m going to read out the statement that was made,” Dalgleish told councillors.

“If Council does not approve the rezoning on 2024 April 22 the final half payment may be impacted if the city cannot achieve the housing supply growth targets. However, the agreement identifies that nothing in the agreement will fetter the discretion of Council as to future decisions.”

He said that what they knew at the time, and what has been shared with city councillors on other occasions, was that while most of the funding wouldn’t be impacted, a portion could.

“So, a risk was identified,” Dalgleish said.

Councillor claiming they were misled, asked one of the direct questions

Later, Dalgleish outlined two other instances where questions were directly asked, and answered in the same way. First it was former Ward 14 Coun. Demong. At that time, they were told by former City of Calgary employee Jeff Chase that “no” rezoning wasn’t required to get HAF cash.

Later in that April 22 meeting, former planning and development GM Tim Keane answered the question and reiterated the information in the councillors’ toolkit.

“He reiterated the information from the toolkit, which I’ve talked about, and specifically being that nothing about the agreement fetters council discretion, and that if council does not approve, then the fourth installment may be impacted,” he said.

On May 28, Coun. Dan McLean asked a question around the funding and asked for a yes or no answer on whether rezoning decision would impact federal funding.

Dalgleish answered the question that day, once again reiterating what was in the councillor toolkit, and explaining the funding wasn’t specifically relevant to council’s decision on citywide rezoning.

Earlier this week, Coun. McLean told reporters that he felt misled “or lied to.” He said that it had been questioned several times, with varied responses, but no direct noes.

Leading up to the current 2026 budget, Dalgleish said there have been five touch points, including answers to Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot’s question of clarification in the Nov. 27 meeting.

As for the recent memo suggesting there was a pause in funding, Dalgleish said that there was a further meeting in the weekend before budget deliberations began. That’s when they advised city council again that the risk profile had changed.

“There is increased risk regarding the city in terms of Housing Accelerator funding, yet we continue to not recommend a contingency provision be established at this week’s deliberations,” Dalgleish said.

“What we understood is that the funds were expected to be held, and that’s what was included in… this Monday’s email. If there was confusion that was created out of that, I certainly apologize for that.”

Direct answer goes back to the word ‘unfettered’

Previously, CMHC had reiterated that funding hadn’t been paused.

“Calgary’s Housing Accelerator funding has not been paused. We will reiterate, we are aware of Calgary’s proposal and are reviewing the details – no official decisions have been made on funding decisions,” read an email from Leonard Caitling with CMHC, from

“We will also reiterate, we expect municipalities to fulfill their agreements. If a partner’s agreed-upon commitments aren’t met or are reversed, this puts their HAF funding at risk.”

After Dalgleish’s explanation, Mayor Jeromy Farkas asked, once again, “for the record,” if federal funding “is not directly tied to the blanket rezoning policy that was soundly rejected by Calgary voters?”

Dalgleish responded with a familiar, though somewhat obfuscated response.

“I think that what I can say councillor [sic] Farkas is that the agreement clearly specifies that council’s discretion is not fettered. And so council made a decision, and that agreement clearly specifies that their discretion was not fettered on any decision-making,” he said.

Outside council chambers, Mayor Farkas said that it was crucial during a potential upcoming debate to have all of the proper facts.

“I’m not going to weigh in on whether council was misled or not, but I’m going to say that it was completely inappropriate for city administration to be speculating,” Farkas said.