City council, in a 9-6 split, recently voted to boost their office budgets. That means since 2024, ward office budgets will have grown by almost $100,000.

In 2024, Calgary councillors received a big bump to their councillor’s office budget, jumping the entire office budget from $282,000 to $362,945. It gave elected officials the ability to pay staff what they deserve and provide more community support and outreach.

This recent vote will see ward office budgets grow by almost $100,000 from the 2024 increase, up to roughly $455,000. What’s changed in two years that requires that much more money?

In my view, nothing but the councillors themselves.

The job of a city councillor is highly inefficient, and instead of looking for the efficiencies that would make the job more manageable, this is an example of throwing money at a solvable problem.

Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson, one of the six no votes on the budget increase, said he recognized that Calgary is growing and the ward populations are larger.

 “We are busy, but we manage — and that’s the point. We’re asking administration to find cost savings and cuts . . . and I think it’s a bit hypocritical for us to be asking that of (them) but not be managing our own offices the same way,” Jamieson said.

The sentiment Jamieson expresses is an important one. City administration has been told for years to tighten its belt, find efficiencies, develop new processes, adapt technology, and increase productivity in an effort to make our budgets lean but keep services strong.

In the face of a growing population, inflationary pressures, provincial downloading of responsibilities, and increasing complexities of the issues the City of Calgary is facing, asking administration to find cuts nowadays is like Rose asking Jack to tread water a little faster to keep warm.

All wards aren’t created equal in terms of citizen inputs

It’s fair to assume that these complexities facing city administration are also faced by city council, albeit not equally. Coun. Jamieson said it; he’s busy, but he manages.

On the other hand, Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt suggests that this argument is a bit offensive because some wards just end up having more work than others for many reasons. Inner-city wards are denser, older, and historically, a little needier – and to prove it, he points to public hearings, where Ward 8 is often very active, and Ward 12 is a little sleepy.

But can you prove that some wards are a bit needier than others despite all wards having roughly the same population?

Looking at 311 data on calls for service across the wards, you can see that the communities in Wards 7, 8, 9, and 11 are significantly busier than the rest.

Just a quick look at the data between Coun. Schmidt and Coun. Jamieson, constituents in Schmidt’s ward call 311 almost 33 per cent more than Jamieson’s. However, on a year-over-year basis, there isn’t much change. They’re just as busy this year as they’ve been the last five years.

So, yes – everyone is working hard, but some wards have higher demands than others.

In an effort to increase the efficiencies of councillors’ working relationship with city administration, a system called “administrative inquiries” was set up where councillors put requests into administration, which activates the city hall machine to answer the questions of politicians as fast as possible lest they be accused of gatekeeping, lying, or spending money wastefully.

The culture at city hall can be bad if an elected official doesn’t like the answer they get from administration.

As of March 2026, the top 3 councillors that made the most administrative inquiries since being elected were Coun. Landon Johnston (Ward 14), Coun. John Pantazopolous (Ward  6), and Coun. Kim Tyers (Ward 1). Coun. Jamieson was a close fourth.

Conversely, residents in these wards called 311 approximately 25 per cent less often than the city average. Maybe these councillors do just have a little more time on their hands.

The hypocrisy is that elected representatives demand of administration efficiencies to advance their productivity – but is city council making the same efforts to streamline, innovate, and improve efficiencies?

With Notices of Motions about “bringing back water bottles,” increased red tape for housing, attempts to end the free fare zone (for no clear reason), and constant infighting between council and City Administration, it seems like City Council is getting more complicated, more inefficient, and now more expensive.

This is all before the first major budget discussions this November.

Neighbourhood concerns make up the bulk of incoming ward calls

Speaking from personal experience, much of the work that keeps a council office busy is glorified 311.

Hundreds of emails are about minor inconveniences like where a neighbour places their trash can, conspiracy theorists who want political validation, complaints about the colour and size of windows in a neighbour’s renovated suite, petitions demanding political interference in administrative processes, or complaints about how long grass is or how hard it is to park within six feet of their front door.

If council wants to increase efficiency, save time, improve productivity – councillors need to become more than 311 with a smile.

Some councillors have even suggested that they won’t even spend the money. But a councillor’s budget isn’t like the rest of administration’s. Administration works on a use-it-or-lose-it” model where any unused budget is remitted during budget processes.

For years, some councillors have played a game where they collect your tax dollars (no matter how small) and seek praise for not spending it in service of the community — even though you still must pay it every year. They called it being a fiscal hawk; I called it a waste of money.

Coun. Jamieson had the right idea on this one.

The thing is, I’m not confident that this council will move forward with the efficiencies needed to drive productivity and keep costs low. While I agree with the sentiment, delivering it from one of the quietest wards in the City is in bad taste.

This puts a few councillors like Schmidt, Clark, Atkinson, and Ward in a tough spot. Their wards keep them busier than others, and council could help them by streamlining policy, public hearings, and investing in City departments to solve resident issues.

But this council has yet to embrace efficiency.  As a group, they’ve actively rejected it – so I guess the inner-city councillors will remain caught in the middle, treading water.

So, here we are, throwing more money at the problem instead of fixing it.

What a waste.