Calgary’s mayor said to his knowledge, none of the former or current councillors cooperating with an RCMP investigation into alleged corruption are the target of the probe.

On Monday, three members of the prior city council, including the mayor and one councillor who was re-elected in the 2025 municipal election, confirmed to LWC that warrants were executed at their residences and personal devices were seized as part of the ongoing investigation.

The investigation began after a complaint was filed in October 2025, according to both the Calgary police and the RCMP.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas spoke with media briefly about the investigation and said that he fully supports the due process playing out.

“I understand that they are not the center of the investigation,” he said.

“There’s allegations that are leveled against a third party, a local business.”

Farkas reiterated, again, that he hadn’t been contacted by RCMP.

“I just want to make crystal clear that my understanding at this point is that no member of council past or present is the target of an investigation, however, certain evidence that they may have in terms of text messages or emails they received are being submitted to the RCMP to be able to support the investigation of a third party,” Farkas said.

Mayor Farkas said he didn’t have any additional information, other than what was available in the public realm.  He later clarified that he made the assertion that current and former councillors weren’t the focus of the investigation, based on their word that they only had to offer evidence.

Erosion of trust in public officials

For several years, Calgary city councillors and have battled negative public perception, with the blame largely laid on unpopular decisions like the bag bylaw, citywide rezoning and the conflict around property tax increases and value for services.

In the 2025 fall survey of Calgarians, 47 per cent said they trusted the City of Calgary a great deal or a little. That was down from Spring 2025, up in line with Fall 2023 after dropping to an all-time low of 41 per cent in Fall 2024.

Similarly, 50 per cent of Calgarians were satisfied with the job that city council has done (fall 2025). While up from 2024, it’s still down from pre-2023 and lower than the long-term trend.

Mayor Farkas was asked on Wednesday if he thinks this latest issue risks tarnishing the current city council, regardless of what comes out of the investigation.

“No, I think how forthcoming Councillor Chabot and others have been on this issue, reinforces the public trust that Calgarians have in this office, and I think it’s absolutely justified for the RCMP to be investigating these concerns,” Farkas said.

Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston said he believed that the investigation was a distraction to the work that is being done on council. He said that it would be nice if they could be kept in the loop on the investigation.

“Right now, we’re in the dark,” he said.

“I think it would be important for administration and or whoever is investigating whatever is going on to let us know as governors, to ensure that we’re on the same page.”

That lack of information feeds the public perception about transparency, according to Mount Royal University political science professor Duane Bratt.

“This does not help with trust, and the fact that they’re not releasing any details, that just makes it worse,” he said.

Bratt said that the claim that city councillors aren’t the target of the investigation, but just providing evidence, doesn’t matter that much to the public.

“As soon as you hear RCMP search warrant, there’s already a segment of society that believes that politicians are corrupt, that they’re in it for the money, and so when they hear that, that’s immediately what they jump to, and they’re going to pick and choose which ones they focus on,” he said.

“They’re picking their ideological friends, or more likely, their ideological enemies.”

Bratt said that a situation like this casts a pall over all politicians, not just the ones named in the investigation. Plus, it’s difficult for councillors past and present to deal with a situation like this, particularly because the RCMP is mum on details.

“Obviously, they can’t in the middle of an investigation, and by the time that they are transparent, it’s going to be too late,” he said.

“What this ties into is pre-existing theories, pre-existing assumptions that people have and a lack of trust about politicians and about institutions as a whole.”