Calgary city council critical of priorities for next 4-year budget

Calgary city council has revealed its main priorities for its upcoming four-year budget, but concerns over a lack of specifics in the plan have some on council questioning the path forward.

The priorities, unveiled during a strategic council meeting Tuesday, will be used by city administration to craft what’s included in the upcoming 2027-30 city budget.

The six main focus areas council chose include: reliable and sustainable infrastructure, a safe city, a functional transportation network, community livability and well-being, balanced growth and evolving neighbourhoods, as well as a trusted and collaborative government.

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he heard a desire from Calgarians during last year’s municipal election campaign for council to focus on the basics, like potholes, snow removal, and garbage pickup.

“I think the broad consensus of our council is to be known as the infrastructure city council, to really be focusing on those fundamentals,” he told reporters.

Although city council voted in favour of the six priorities, some members of council were critical of the “broad” outcomes listed for administration to interpret while building the budget.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot took issue with the wording used for the outcome on transportation, which said “there is ambitious investment in transit and economic corridors.”

“That, to me, is the epitome of give an inch and take a mile,” Chabot said to council. “Increased investment in transit, I think this council could support that, but ambitious investment in public transit implies we’re going to meet all the objectives identified in RouteAhead, which is a significant investment.”

Chabot was among the four councillors who were opposed to the priorities, as well as Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness and Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly.

According to Kelly, he agrees with “all the content” laid out in council’s budget priorities, but felt they don’t include “real focus or real direction” to city administration.

“We don’t get into the details in terms of where we need to prioritize the infrastructure of the city.  Safety is in there but we don’t get into the real details about downtown, CTrain lines, pedestrian safety,” he told reporters following the vote.

“Those are the kind of things we should’ve been giving to administration as direction for them to bring back specific programmatic ideas.”

1:59
Calgary’s budget applauded, but ‘sustainability’ of spending questioned

Previous Video

Next Video

City council will debate the next four-year budget and its impact on Calgarians in November, but Wyness is concerned the strategic direction for city administration will result in a large proposed property tax increase.

“This document that is before council today says, ‘Do everything,’” she said. “Every one of the departments in this city will say, ‘I need a budget increase because this is a strategic priority of council.’”

According to Les Tocher, the city’s chief financial officer, council will get an update on the costs of the upcoming budget in May.

That update, he said, will include the base costs of delivering services as well as any additions that used one-time funding in the 2026 budget, and the priorities outlined by council on Tuesday.

Budgetary impacts for the Calgary Police Service, Calgary Fire Department, Calgary Transit and other city services will also be included in that update, Tocher added.

“These overlays will be high level and designed to provide directional costs and provide information with the goal of receiving council direction to either include this work and continue with more details, or remove from the overall budget documents as we prepare to move into the fall,” he told city council.

David Duckworth, the city’s chief administrative officer, said that update is council’s opportunity to “dial up or dial down” certain aspects of the budget.

Another update is planned in July for city council to review proposals in the four-year budget, before it is unveiled in October.

“At this point in time, we’re not deciding on a budget,” Farkas said. “We’re just at an extremely high level in terms of what city administration needs to hear from us in order to be able to sharpen their pencils and come up with more detailed proposals.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.