With oil prices at a nearly four-year high, Calgary’s mayor is hoping the additional provincial revenue trickles down to help city infrastructure and other capital projects.

The West Texas Intermediate price for a barrel of oil was north of $102 as of Tuesday afternoon, largely due to the supply crunch caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.

For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the Government of Alberta estimated the price of oil to be between $68 and $71, though it largely traded below that amount, creating a $3.1 resource revenue shortfall.

This year, the Government of Alberta set its 2026-2027 budget based on $60.50 oil.

Each $1 USD change in the price of oil (averaged over the course of a year) represents a $700 million CAD or more change in annual revenue.

The recent Alberta budget lacked a significant amount of direct help for municipalities, with the City of Calgary hoping for cash to help with the Bearspaw South feeder main upgrades, funding the Low-Income Transit Pass, and contributions for the Multisport Fieldhouse, though no commitments were made.

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that his hope was that with additional cash flow, the province might help fund some of these projects.

“The provincial government indicated that the lack of support for municipalities and infrastructure this time around was based on the lack of resource royalties,” Mayor Farkas told reporters outside council chambers on Tuesday.

“We’re hoping now, based on what’s happening, that we’ll see a significant increase in infrastructure.”

Farkas noted that a big unfunded project is the “game-changing” Prairie Economic Gateway.

“I think it’s my position is that funding infrastructure, especially essential infrastructure that Calgarians rely on, things like water getting safely and reliable out of people’s taps, that shouldn’t be tied to resource royalties,” he said.  

“But given that the province said that it would be, now that the resource royalties are up, we’re expecting a fair share of that level of income that’s now coming into provincial coffers.”

Still paying off last year’s deficit: Province

While Calgary may have its hand out today, the Treasury Board and Ministry of Finance said the additional revenues seen in the first part of 2026 will go toward backfilling last fiscal year’s deficit.

“Yes, higher oil prices can strengthen Alberta’s fiscal position and hypothetically, could help offset deficits. However, we are still in the 2025-26 fiscal year,” read an email statement from Marisa Warner, press secretary to Minister of Finance, Nate Horner.

“The higher oil prices, up until April 1, go toward offsetting the 2025-2026 deficit, not the current projected $9.4 billion deficit for Budget 2026. Even with the high price of oil over the last few weeks, fiscal year 2025-26 is still projecting a deficit due to sustained low oil prices over an entire fiscal. A few weeks of strong oil prices is not enough to offset an entire year.”

Warner said that nothing in Budget 2026 is impacted because the province isn’t currently in that fiscal year.

“Regardless, surpluses aren’t a discretionary pool that can simply be reallocated on demand. They depend on sustained revenues, fiscal outcomes, and approved budget priorities within a given fiscal year,” she wrote.

“We look forward to seeing Farkas’s Budget 2027 submission during the 2027 Budget consultation period.”

Warner added that the province builds the budget based on conservative assumptions in oil prices over a full fiscal year, not short-term spikes or headlines.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said that while it may not be the ideal position to be in, Calgary can still advocate for more in the coming weeks and months.

“I mean, you don’t ask, you don’t get sometimes. So, we will see how it goes,” he said.

Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos said that while it makes sense to cover off the provincial deficit from last year, investing in a growing city is just as prudent.

“Let’s take that capital and put it back into the ground to create that economic engine,” he said.

“People move to Alberta and move to Calgary, because we are the economic engine, because we have jobs, because we have prosperity, and investing in our infrastructure. There is no better way than to ensure that our economic success continues and we welcome the next 100,000 Calgarians and Albertans as we march towards 2 million Calgarians.”