Calgary city councillors say outside organizations may have to step up to save city playgrounds, as a new report says 80 per cent could be gone without additional funding.

Members of Calgary’s Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC) will be provided four options for preserving Calgary’s 1,172 playgrounds, as the report suggests 960 of the existing could close by 2036 without a cash infusion.

Option 1 is to keep the existing funding, in place, and risk those 960 playgrounds, all the way up to Option 4, which calls for $1.5 million more in annual operations investment, and $19 million in annual capital investment over the next 10 years.

“Historically, playground services have been funded to renew 10 to 12 playground sites annually, representing approximately $1.2 million dollars per year,” reads the city administration cover report.

This investment rate supports less that 20 per cent of the renewal required for the current playground network. Moving into 2026, due to inflationary costs, the annual playground renewal is decreasing to 6 to 8 playground sites.”

The city admin report is careful to note Calgarians’ love of playgrounds, according to annual surveys. They point to 98 per cent of Calgarians listing parks and open spaces as very important or somewhat important.

Administration is recommending council implement the Option 4 service level for playground sites, and have this funding considered in the upcoming 2027 to 2030 four-year budget.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who chairs the IPC, said that this situation might require more lobbying of other orders of government, or finding other sources of cash.

“I would say, from my community’s perspective, it’s a high priority, and they don’t like the concept of consolidating multiple playgrounds into one in order to ensure that we have at least one functional, viable one, because the idea of trying to increase walkability in our communities, it goes counter to that,” Chabot said.

Legacy Parks Fund or Parks Foundation help for playground help

Chabot suggested that additional cash could ultimately come from reinvestment through the somewhat wound down Enmax Legacy Parks program. He said that if more data centres or other power-heavy industries set up shop, it could drive up revenues in the short term, which would benefit the City of Calgary.

“We’ve just got to make sure that all of the policies and processes are in place to make sure that that extra funding revenue does get directed to Enmax Legacy Parks,” he said.

“(There’s) a huge deficit in our Enmax Legacy Parks fund, but I do believe there’s a path forward to at least supplement it.”

Chabot said he’s not sure that he’ll be aligned with any of the admin recommendations as a path forward due to the significant burden it could add to Calgary taxpayers.

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said that he would support the Option 4, as there’s a case for broader social impact to ensure there are parks nearby for residents and their families.

“I’m fully supportive. I think this is a no brainer, in my opinion, to put that money and not wait until 2032-34 and realizing, oops, our asset has deteriorated even more,” he said.

Dhaliwal said that city council can’t keep kicking the can down the road with infrastructure – whether that’s water, or playgrounds. He’d even be happy with partial funding for the next two years until there’s a different mechanism in place, either through reinvestment in the Enmax Legacy Parks program or through a broader partnership with Parks Foundation Calgary.

One thing is for certain, however any money is doled out, Dhaliwal wants to see equity for the northeast.

“I believe the city average is 4.8 per 1,000 children under the age of 12 or something,” he said.

“And then you look at the northeast, especially Ward 5, even, yes, we are not even close to it, in my opinion, and I just want to understand why.”

Closing the gap on parks and playgrounds today

While this playground levels of service report comes to IPC on April 15, Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt has an urgent Notice of Motion coming to the April 14 Executive Committee meeting, asking for $1.7 million from the Legacy Parks Fund to boost parks maintenance.

This would include increased garbage collection, pest and weed control, and other maintenance related items.

Schmidt told LWC that this money would bring the proposed 2027-2030 service level agreed to by council previously to the 2026 parks budget.

“I think, in the current context, where we’ve asked a lot of Calgarians in the short term of council when it comes to things like water restrictions and other issues, where we’ve asked for their buy in into what we need to do as Council, this type of very visible and immediate display of value for money and caring for something that Calgarians clearly all love is important for us to signal as a council that we are looking at the everyday things that improve their lives and stepping up to make those things work as best they can,” he said.

In general, Schmidt said the proposed playground investment increase can be seen in the same way as the parks maintenance service bump.

“It’s one of those things where, when it comes down to balancing our priorities that, I think, with just the rapid growth that we’ve seen and the changes to so many of our communities… we’re catching up with a new reality and realizing some of the difficulties and constraints that comes with building the type of city we built,” he said.

He doesn’t see playgrounds disappearing in Calgary anytime soon, however.

“What I think we really need to look at is our overall growth and opportunities that might exist, such as, with the Calgary Parks Foundation, which has a funding stream where communities can have direct involvement with making changes, either, innovative changes, or… practical changes to the parks in their neighbourhoods, and to pair that with city funding,” he said.

If the playground funding recommendation is approved at committee, it would still require approval at a full meeting of Calgary city council.