While Calgary city councillors managed a couple of crafty financial maneuvers to bring the proposed property tax hike down by 66 per cent, it wasn’t the zero increase some wanted.

After councillors had spent eight days around the horseshoe, asking questions, debating motions and then voting on the final document, Calgarians are going to be asked for $4.50 more per month, instead of the originally forecast $13.11.

For some, like Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson, it process was good, but the outcome wasn’t what he wanted, nor one he campaigned on. He was one of three who voted against the 2026 budget, joining Ward 14’s Landon Johnston and Ward 2’s Jennifer Wyness.

“I still believe that a tax freeze is… the right thing to do at this moment,” he told his fellow councillors in debate.

Jamieson said that Calgarians have been subjected to successive tax increases over the past number of years. He said the lowered property tax is one thing, but reining in spending is another.

“When we talk about affordability, it’s not just the people that live downtown. It’s not just the people that rant or are on the street. It’s also our shrinking middle class,” he said.

“It’s homeowners that can barely afford to keep their home. It’s the seniors that don’t want to give up their home that they’ve lived in for 40 years to have to downsize. This is why it’s so important that we focus on affordability in this regard.”

While Calgary was able to bring the property tax rate down, it was done without making substantive cuts to any department. There was $9 million in reductions to the climate and environment portfolio (Tyers), largely for programs that hadn’t even launched yet.

There was also a return of $5 million to the Fiscal Stability Reserve from the proposed $40 million set aside for the downtown office-to-residential conversions. An attempt by Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness to cut the entire program failed on the council floor.

Attempts were made to scissor more from the budget

Calgary city councillors made multiple, largely unsuccessful attempts to make further cuts to the 2026 Calgary budget. Among them were:

• Cut the free fares for youth under 12 (Chabot) – $3.6 million
• Eliminate the free fare zone downtown (Chabot) – $5.2 million
• Eliminate the $7.5 million in one-time funding for the Barron building (approved by the last city council) (Wyness)
• Remove $5.7 million of one-time operating funding from the Calgary Police Service budget for fleet and helicopter (Atkinson)
• Eliminate $750,000 in one-time operating funding for the Foothills Annexation (Atkinson)
• Eliminate the Community Court expansion (Johnston) – $2.7 million
• Remove $10 million from the software licensing adjustment (Johnston)
• Eliminate operating increase for the Home is Here Strategy to hire 17 FTEs (Ward) – $2 million
• Reduce the operating budgets of the Chief Administrator’s Office, Chief Operating Officer office, Corporate Planning and Financial Services, People Innovation and Collaboration Services, Law and Legislative Services. (Tyers) – $9.5 million
• Reduce the remaining 1.64 per cent property tax with various adjustments from city administration except police, fire and transit. (Tyers) – $41 million

Had Calgary city council approved all of the proposed cuts, it would have amounted to ~$46.95 million. Coun. Kim Tyers’ final amendment attempt to get it to zero wouldn’t have been needed.

Tyers told reporters on Nov. 25 that she wanted to get the property tax increase down to zero, as it was something she talked about during her recent election campaign.

“There’s a few things I think are nice to have, but not necessary for what the city needs to do,” she said.

While Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said that the property tax reduction was a good thing, he expressed a desire on Nov. 23 to push to get the increase down to zero as well.

“The mayor included, he’s made statements where he wants to bring it to zero and then maybe bring it back up with maybe some more funding for law enforcement. And I think I’m along those lines, the closer we can get to zero and hold it, the better,” he said.

Zero-based review

The day after the budget approval, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that he understood there was a desire to get to zero, but that they inherited wage settlements, inflation and overall cost increases to the city.

“The fact that we were able to hold it to 1.6 per cent is effectively a freeze at the end of the day. Calgarians aren’t looking for a specific number. What they’re looking for is to have the confidence that their money is being spent wisely, so that it’s really about value for money,” he said.  

“I have no qualms about going to Calgarians and showing them the results of how their money is being spent, particularly around public safety, around recreation facilities, around transit, all of these specific priorities.”

Farkas said that Calgarians weren’t telling them that they wanted to see city hall cut down. He said that it was about citizens seeing quality value in services for their tax dollars.

“The focus of this council was not to cut anybody down. It wasn’t to cut each other down. It wasn’t to cut any of these services down,” he said.

“It was about being thoughtful and at times, frankly, quite firm with city administration to challenge them to bring forward their best work.”

One of the motions arising after the budget was finally approved was to initiate a so-called zero-based review program that would eventually dig into select business units to find savings.

A zero-based review means that a unit would start from a zero base and every expenditure added would have to be justified, rather than being based off the prior year’s budget.

Mayor Farkas said a zero-based review is not only about finding savings, it’s about delivering better services to Calgarians.

“When you take a look at zero-based review processes through other orders of government, even in the corporate setting, it’s about also making sure that we’re driving greater efficiency with the resources that we have,” he said.

A report on resources needed, criteria for business units, a prioritized list of business units and a review schedule is expected by Q1 2026.