Delivering what matters most to Calgarians in our annual budget adjustment
Today, The City shared the recommended adjustments to the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets with Council. These changes reflect where Administration is recommending Council focus additional investments for 2025 to align with Calgarians’ priorities. Calgarians have been clear that what matters most to them are infrastructure, housing, public safety and transit.
“Calgarians priorities reflect The City’s priorities, and I am pleased to bring forward recommendations to the Service Plans and Budgets that address improvements in infrastructure, housing, public safety and transit,” said David Duckworth, Chief Administrative Officer. “The recommended adjustments aim to strike the right balance between delivering reliable City services, maintaining quality infrastructure and building a world-class city.”
Calgarians are at the forefront of the recommended adjustments. We regularly review City investment strategy and returns and have determined a higher amount of investment income can be allocated to the operating budget. As a result, The City can maintain the Council-approved 3.6 per cent tax increase for 2025.
“Since September, we’ve closely examined our investments and funding priorities, employing various strategies to identify internal funding and efficiencies," said Les Tochor, Acting Chief Financial Officer. “By identifying additional investment income, we eliminated the additional 0.9 per cent property tax increase proposed in September, reducing the 2025 property tax increase to Council’s pre-approved 3.6 per cent.”
As Calgarians have highlighted infrastructure as one of their top priorities, Administration is proposing an increase in user fees for Waste & Recycling and Water to fund key infrastructure for these services. This change will help The City keep pace with inflation and population growth, ensuring that existing infrastructure is reliable and resilient. The rate increase will also support the maintenance of aging infrastructure and meet the demand for more landfill capacity.
“Utilities are essential for Calgarians, and further infrastructure investments, including maintenance and enhanced inspections, are key to ensuring utility reliability now, and in the future,” said CAO Duckworth. “While we had minimal increases in water utility user fees over the past few years, Calgarians are asking for more investments in this critical area.”
In total, the proposed budget adjustments mean that a typical single residential property, assessed at the median value of $700,000 in 2025 with average water usage will pay an estimated additional $8.37 in property tax and $5.09 in waste & recycling and water utilities per month.
Highlights of proposed ongoing annual investments for Calgarians:
- Infrastructure, maintenance and inspections: A full 60 per cent of new operating investments will be directed into infrastructure, maintenance and inspections. This includes funding for Calgary’s water treatment and distribution system, improving pavement quality on high-speed roads and other capital investment to maintain or improve infrastructure, including inspections.
- Public safety and downtown revitalization: Four per cent of the new operating investment will go to support safety in the downtown core and transit across the city.
- Transit and transportation: 11 per cent of new operating investment will go into permanent base funding to offset the continuing transit revenue shortfall. This helps stabilize transit operations and improve service levels. As well as continued investment in expanding our transit network.
- Housing, land use and local area planning: A capital investment of $124 million will be made in 2025 and 2026, with future operating investment in new community growth starting in 2026. This includes supporting redevelopment in older communities, enabling and supporting for an increase in housing supply.
Administration uses data-driven results to make its proposed adjustments. This approach includes feedback from Calgarians and local businesses, as seen in the Survey of Calgarians, The City’s performance reports, Calgary & Region Economic Outlooks and research presented to Council.
Council will deliberate our recommended adjustments starting Nov. 18. Calgarians can have their say by providing written feedback or registering to speak at Council by visiting calgary.ca/publicsubmission. Learn more about adjustments at calgary.ca/adjustments.
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