Calgary has a few familiar items on its federal budget submissions, but one city councillor would like to see it pared down to increase the odds of funding success.
The Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) Committee meeting on June 18 includes 2026 federal budget submission recommendations, with seven items worth nearly $1 billion on the proposed list.
There are items on the list that have been on before: The Blue Line LRT Extension, the bus maintenance and storage facility, the Foothills multisport fieldhouse and Prairie Economic Gateway. The new additions this year include cash for the Bearspaw South Feeder Main replacement, and five recreation facilities for system stabilization.
It also includes an advocacy position for bail reform. The federal government did recently announce that bail reforms have become law. The City of Calgary and the Calgary police have said that bail reform would help with challenging public safety issues.
In prior years, Calgary has received federal cash for some projects, particularly around housing and transit, but not for the big-ticket items that have languished on the list.
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean, who chairs the IGA, said that they should take the same tactic as Edmonton by choosing one major project that needs funding.
“This was something that I heard Premier (Danielle) Smith said the other day; Edmonton does this, and they’re successful. They pick up one big area that they need a lot of money and funding, and they attack that, and then they move on to the next one,” he said.
“What we’ve been doing lately seems like we put on a big laundry list of 10 different things, and maybe we should focus on one at a time.”
Mayor Farkas said there’s one clear project that meets city, provincial, federal goals
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, who will be the ultimate signatory on a cover letter with the City of Calgary’s recommendations, said that they need to make decisions on funding requests that are in the best interest of Calgarians – and also politicians.
“We know that there’s certain things that a thriving city of our size is going to need: it’s going to be water pipes, it’s going to be recreation centers, it’s going to be effective transit, it’s going to be potentially downtown public safety measures,” he said.
“Where our advocacy is most effective is when it lines up with the stated priorities of not just the provincial and federal governments, but also the ideological leanings of the parties that are in power.”
He said they’ll be making the case, specifically around infrastructure, that investments can help reduce the city’s overall operating costs.
“Look no further, say for example at about the 25 per cent leakage rate of our water utility,” Farkas said.
“If we can address the aging nature of our pipes and tighten up that as a system, there’s significant dividends to be gained by Calgarians as ratepayers.”
If they took Coun. McLean’s advice and selected one project to focus on, that not only helps Calgarians, but meets the needs of both the Conservative provincial government and the Liberal federal government, Mayor Farkas said he’d lean toward funding for the Blue Line Extension.
The Blue Line Extension project, which is in the design stage at this point, would extend the north end of the route by at least one stop to 88 Avenue NE. That would allow a spur line connection to be built to airport.
Mayor Farkas said that airport connection really fits with provincial goals for passenger rail. It meets the federal government’s desire to help build Calgary into a premier inland port and logistics hub, and for the city to drive increased fare revenue with traffic to the airport.
“I think the one real slam dunk project right now that exists for us as a city is really that Blue Line LRT extension to the airport,” he said.
