Calgarians will get a break from the original proposed 2026 property tax increase after eight days of deliberation from Calgary city councillors.
In one of the longest budget deliberations in recent memory, on Dec. 3, Calgary city councillors approved a 1.64 per cent property tax increase for both residential and non-residential property owners.
It came after nearly 40 amendments from councillors over the course of eight days.
For residential ratepayers, it means a drop in the property tax increase from the originally proposed 5.8 per cent. For the typical single-family homeowner, it will mean an increase of about $4.50 a month, a drop of nearly $9 per month from the originally proposed $13.11.
Leading the way in the residential property tax reduction is the cancellation of a proposed one per cent tax shift from non-residential to residential. That accounts for 2.2 per cent of the reduction.
Further reducing the overall property tax was a move to divert $50 million in investment income to operating funds, also reducing the property tax by roughly two per cent.
Among the bigger moves made through this budget include:
- Funding for the completion of the northeast athletic facility
- $6 million in funding for more base transit service
- $7.5 million for pedestrian corridor improvements
- $9 million for a pilot project to improve transit safety
- $8 million for heritage investments and reserves
- $11.25 million to start the purchase of 45 buses
- $8.6 million for additional fire protection services
- $25 million to advance the Glacier Ridge Area Structure Plan
There were some cuts to the city’s climate and environment budget, however, councillors were assured that it wouldn’t impact the more popular programs among citizens.
“This council’s really come together as a team. We’ve shown that we can continue to invest in the needed areas, like transit, housing, public safety, infrastructure, while reducing the burden on Calgarians,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas.
“So, it’s been a little bit of a longer process, but this has been an amazing opportunity to get to work alongside our brand-new team of city councillors, reset the relationship with administration, and include the ideas from members of the public.”
Concern over draw on the Fiscal Stability Reserve
Tens of millions in reserve funding will be used to propel these new initiatives, something that concerns Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot. He said that it’s not just the Fiscal Stability Reserve that’s being drawn down either. Some of those reserves don’t replenish as fast.
“There’s other reserves that have been drawn from, some of which have limited sources of revenue, and some, through legislative changes, will not be getting as much revenue as they have in the past,” he said.
“So, that’s why I’m always cautious about reducing our reserves. There is the reserve, the fiscal stability reserve is our last go-to reserve that could be utilized for capital or operating, which is why I’m always concerned about drawing that one too far down, because we just don’t know what emergencies might come up over the course of the next year.”
Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward said that he thinks city council is in a good spot right now, with a much lower tax rate than initially projected. He, too, noticed the draw on city reserve cash.
“I think that this is the symptom of a council with so many new councillors on it, is people want to make their mark. They want to push for the things that they believe in,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, FSR is not going to affect the tax rate, per se, but it’s still taxpayer money.”
Still, Chabot said the entire discussion helped set the stage for the upcoming four-year budget.
“All in all, I think we’ve delivered on what Calgarians expected from us. Not only did we reduce the projected tax increase, we actually resulted in delivering more services, which seems kind of strange, and we didn’t completely empty the piggy bank,” he said.
“We did maintain, I think, a prudent amount in our Fiscal Stability Reserve, (and) we utilize grants from other orders of government. There was a lot of good outcomes that came from this discussion.”
Not all were in favour of the budget, with Couns. Landon Johnston, Mike Jamieson and Jennifer Wyness voting against it. Johnston said that he thought the process was thrown on councillors too quickly.
“I feel for us as a new council, having a lot of questions. I feel admin did OK getting answers to us, but I just feel transparency was lacking on a lot of deeper questions on this budget. I felt there was a lot of blame on the province on all of these increases, and I just think we could have been more thoughtful in potentially looking inward on spending,” he said.
“I just feel like there’s a lot of trust from taxpayers to admin and council to be as efficient as possible. But I’m always under the impression, if somebody doesn’t show you the books, then it’s your duty to assume the worst.”
Coun. Jamieson said that on the campaign trail, he campaigned that he would fight for a tax freeze. To that end, he said he would vote no.
“To my colleagues, I just think that there was a way to get to zero, and we could have took it, and we didn’t,” he said.
“And for that, I’m disappointed, but with respect to my colleagues and administration, I know you need eight votes, and this is where councillors come in, and they got to represent what their beliefs are, what their convictions are, and what their residents are telling them, but for these reasons, I will be voting no.”
The final property tax rate will come in once the finalized property tax roll is made available.
